The PlayStation 2, despite its wild success, garnered a fairly weak local multiplayer lineup. There are two main reasons for that. First? Controller ports. Its two competitors didn’t need a multitap for party play, so developers could find a full audience on Xbox or GameCube, and only a fraction of the PS2 audience. Second? While the three consoles were comparable, the PS2 lagged behind just a bit. The horsepower discrepancy meant that PS2 games were optimized for two-player split-screen only, and the same engine could run with four on the Xbox. Still, it managed to be home to some games worth checking out. READ MORE
This year’s PAX East was a great showcase for many upcoming titles, big and small. A theme definitely stuck out this year, though, and it’s one that readers of this column will probably appreciate: local multiplayer is making an appearance in full force. In every corner of the show floor, you could find a great project that harkens back to the days when the feature was more common. Here are three specific ones to keep an eye on. READ MORE
As you may have seen or heard me discuss recently, I’ve finally picked up my first arcade cabinet. It’s a 2-slot Neo•Geo MVS, so it’s outside the scope of this column’s three-or-more-player focus, but it has me thinking about the arcade experience. Some of the best arcade games support lots of players: Gauntlet. Rampage. Daytona USA. Even the recent Pac-Man Battle Royale. Still, there’s one genre that eats quarters like no other: the side-scrolling beat-’em-up. READ MORE
Import games and party play don’t usually mix, generally because the language barrier, while surmountable, is less easily done by you and all your friends simultaneously. Even still, there are some great local multiplayer games that just never made U.S. shores, and here are some we think are most worth checking out. You just may need to go… a bit further from the mainstream to get there. READ MORE
Sports games are a topic I’ve danced around for a while. They comprise a majority of released local multiplayer games, in all likelihood, but still manage to be the black sheep of the field. It’s a tough topic to take on alone, so I called on Brad Woodling, friend of the site and sports columnist for Retroware TV, to help me talk about the genre’s challenges and bright spots.
So first: Sports games hold a strange place in the local multiplayer scene. Often they’re the quickest and most likely to embrace such things, with almost every large release supporting four or more players. That said, I’m not sure they’ve found a successful formula for doing so, with the possible exception of soccer titles. Why do you think that is?
Brad Woodling: And just to clarify, we’re talking local multiplayer, not Connected Careers or Online Dynasty stuff. Strictly the features given to sports games with two or more guys or girls in front of the same TV. READ MORE
