There's nothing like a local co-op mode where where players in the same room accomplish or compete for the same goal. Back in the NES days, the only options for multiplayer were games with local co-ops, aka the split screen games. Games now these days are played online with others miles away, lacking that social presence and bonding that playing with others locally brings. Fortunately for us, with all the online multiplayer options most games have, some still have the option of that good ol co-op action. Here are three in my library that I feel are worth a look!
If you think that this is just some Mario Kart clone... you wouldn't be completely wrong, but trust me, this game is great in it's own right! For those who won't plunge money for a Wii-U will be just fine with All-Stars Racing. Like it's Nintendo counterpart, All-Stars Racing feature prominent members of the Sega Franchise such as Alex Kidd, the sonic crew, B.D. Joe from Crazy Taxi among others. Each racer have their own strengths and weakness, and you are able to change thier stat setup the longer you play a certain character. For instance with Sonic you start with a "Standard" build where your acceleration is your highest stat. The more you play with Sonic the sooner you will earn your second build which is "Balanced", where the stats are altered a bit. This keeps things interesting where you can get a somewhat fresh feel with your favorite character by unlocking multiple builds. The graphics are bright and colorful and with plenty of detail for each track. Every track in the game is very distinctive and filled with a lot of little events going on within the race. They are obviously there for distraction, but what a hell of a distraction they make! Music in this game is pretty "good" but nothing really memorable. It does the job and I have no big issues with it.
The controls are very tight and responsive and the transformations are almost seamless. For those that don't know, there are sections on the tracks where the racer's vehicle will transform from a race-car to a boat, or to a plane. It did take a while to get used to the flying sections, but once I did enough races in the air, it become no more difficult than racing on road. I love how they implemented drifting. It's very simple to drift in this game and the controls for it are excellent. If you are able to drift for a certain amount of time you get a speed boost. The longer you hold it, the bigger the speed boost. All characters are able to drift, but the level of skill and control depends on their stat layout. I learned the hard way that Wreck-Em Ralph's drifting was horrible, but he did adequate enough to not completely kick him to the curb. Similar to Mario Kart are the power-ups you run across. You have things like snowballs to slow racers, bee swarms to hinder parts of the track, boost powerup to...boost, and so forth. The one you want to get is called All Star which makes you invincible and cruise through the track with no hinderance. It can give you a huge boost ahead, or help you quickly catch up to the front. As far as racing modes you have your typical like single race, time point, cup races, online and a story mode.
This wouldn't be a co-up article if I didn't mention the co-up options! The cool part is that you're able to select the amount up to four players locally to play in ANY mode. This includes story mode. This does split the screen up, but for us old school gamers it brings us back to familiar territory. Single player, multiplayer, or local-co up you can't go wrong with this game. A great investment if you enjoy transforming cart racers!
The manliest game you will ever play. Expendabros is a mash up of the game Broforce and the 2013 move The Expendables 3. You play as one of the parodied Expendabros where blow you everything up. Literally. This game should be called Stress Reliever because the amount of destruction you are able to cause in this game is damn near therapeutic. There is a story to this game somewhere, but I honestly didn't care. The main premise is to rescue your bros, flex your way out of tight situations, kill every enemy in sight, including soldiers, tanks, and mech robots, and escape the area in good ol American fashion... with explosions of course! The graphics are very retro and pixilated and none of that matters because the gameplay is awesome! Shooting, climbing walls and causing destruction is easy to do thanks to precise controls. For a pixelated game, the explosions are well detailed, as well as the blood and gore. Soldiers are dumbfounded before it's too late, panicked soldiers with bombs attached to them run frantically before they explode all over the place. It's some good gory fun. The music is very masculine and the gunshots/explosions are huge and loud. It's funny listening to your enemy scream for mercy before his impending doom.
The multiplayer makes this game even more fun...and somewhat more frustrating. Up to four players on one screen can play together. I've only played with one other person, but I can just imagine the amount of chaos four players will cause. The only smalls issue I have is how death is handled. When a player dies, he need to wait for someone to either hit a checkpoint (only if he has spare lives) or rescue a bro, which the dead player will now control. You can say that everyone shares the same lives somewhat, so you can't be as careless, although many times I didn't care and just blew up everything I could. Usually I would get caught up in some explosion I start and I die not caring. I know, I'm a masochist.
Overall a great, if short, game to play alone and with others. The best part? The game is free! Get it now!
The most overlooked game on my list so far. I received this game as part of a Humble Bundle that Square was hosting. I got this along with a ton of other games for an extremely cheap price. Because I already had enough games, this one got completely overlooked. Yea, I did play a little of it when I first got it, but nothing about interested me to continue playing it. Until my friend came over and I was looking for something for us to play together. I had no idea this game had a local co-up option, but I'm glad I found out. One player controls Lara; the other controls Totec, a local tribesman. Each characters has something that can help the other. For instance. Totec can throw a spear at a wall for Lara to climb on since she's light enought to not break it. Lara can throw her rope to Totec for him to cross over or climb; Totec can use same rope to help Lara as well. Controls aren't perfect but get the job done.Graphics are a top down isometric perspective, something like Diablo or Path of Exile. They have a somewhat shade-cel look but looks good.
I've played the single player campaign for a little bit, but it's the multiplayer is where the game shines. The multiplayer campaign has a huge emphasis on teamwork and it will take two competent people to get through the game. The first boss you encounter is up to you how difficult it's going to be. You have to do a lot of baiting and setting up in order to down it. Never in a game outside of bullet-hell shooters did I have to concentrate so damn hard on what's going on! The slower the other player grasps what's going on, the harder the game will be overall. The rather limited view can make things like jumping across a chasm a somewhat challenge. To conclude, it's a great game to encourage teamwork and I'm glad I got this on a sale. The single player options may not be enough to get this title, but the multiplayer aspect more than makes up for it.
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