Top 10 Most Enjoyable Multi-Player Games

[Jason Tandro]

I don't know why I've been in such a top ten list making mood lately, but here is YET another one. That's like 3 in a row... I think I need a hobby.

10. Tony Hawk's Underground 2

I don't normally like sports games, but historically there have been three major exceptions. 1. I really enjoy some racing games, when they are well done. 2. I love NCAA '08, and it's pretty much the only football game that I play. 3. The Tony Hawk's Skateboarding games.

I grew up on these as a kid and have played them straight through from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater through Tony Hawks Project 8. Project 8 was the "jump the shark" moment for me and I lost interest shortly thereafter. I feel the game was at its best with Tony Hawk's Underground and Tony Hawk's Underground 2. While I appreciated the more realistic tone of Tony Hawk's Underground, I think the goofy tone of Underground 2 had more replay value. Each of the cities you went to had a ton of stuff to see and a bunch of secrets.

And this fun doubles when you and a friend play together. Many are the hours spent with me and my older sister playing this game, exploring the ridiculous levels, getting into competitions... we even had a game to see who could get into the most horrific bail. Quick list for fellow players. My favorite levels. #3: Boston. Yeah it's the first level and not too exciting, but I love the fact that they have a subway, library and bank as secret areas to screw around with. #2: Barcelona. The largest level in terms of space, even if most of it is just that dock. My favorite thing about this level is the gondola. Seriously, I spent an hour riding it and finding tricks to do by jumping off of it. #1: Say it with me now, New Orleans. It's Mardi Gras, it's New Orleans, and you can raise the freaking undead. What's not to love?! After this, Skatopia was a huge let down.



9) Dokapon Kingdom

My God how my LITTLE sister and I loved this game. The very concept was ingenious. Turn an RPG into a Mario Party-esque game. The gameplay was simple, the matches intense, and there was even a little bit of bloodthirstiness between us players.

The only reason I put it relatively low on this list is because, frankly, the charm does wear off pretty quick and I can rarely sit through an entire match.


Grand Theft Auto - Any of them.

Okay, okay, with the exception of IV there really is no multiplayer to speak of, which is why this one isn't higher on the list. But my friends and I found a few things we love to do. Who can last the longest without dying? Who can pull off the best stunt? Who can get into the most devastating accident? Who can murder the most innocents with just a vehicle?

Ah well, boys will be boys. Next entry.


7) WiiSports

Or, more accurately, WiiSports Bowling. I'm telling you, for a game that's older than some first graders it still gets whipped out whenever we have a family gathering. It's one of the few games that even my parents will play! You know you still play it, so stop groaning.


6) Castle Crashers

Oh my god, what can I say about Castle Crashers that hasn't already been said by many many others. It's retro beat-em-up at its absolute best. It is the Portal of beat-em ups. The variety of characters and the fact that your characters level up independently really adds a lot to the replay value of this gem.

My sister and I spent a week playing nothing but this game and played straight through to the final boss and won. We honed our strategy very well but found that with four players things got even better. One of us was "the Tank" who stocked all their points into health and strength. Yours truly was the "Mage", sinking all my points into magic, and then health after I'd mastered magic (and let me tell you once you've mastered the Red Knight's lightning attack, you are untouchable.) My sister was "the Medic", stocking all of her points into Health and Agility, allowing her to zip around the battlefield and revive us if we fell. She also became ridiculously powerful with bow attacks. And the last person was just the Everyman, who had balanced stats, allowing them to help us all. That seems to be the best strategy to assure that everybody has a good niche... though the Tank has an advantage in fighting for the girl.



5) Dungeon Defenders

Here's some brilliance right here. Take the fun of an action RPG, and add in tower defense elements. My brother and our mutual friends stopped playing Halo 4 wholesale when we found out about this game and beasted through it for weeks before returning. It's a relatively new game, but if you haven't played it, seriously, go download it and play it right now. But you absolutely need a team; single player is pretty boring.


4) Halo 4

For me, this probably the one that I play the most, but it's not my number 1 because shooter games are pretty polarizing; it's not gonna be a game that everybody feels like playing. But my afforementioned team loves to go beasting through Halo and tearing stuff up (much like we did tonight). Are we dorks? Yes. Will we find something better to do with a Sunday night? Hell no, it's Halo Time!


3) Mario Party 2

Really, I like most Mario Party games that I've played, but Mario Party 2 is what started the obsession and while the matches can drag on a little bit, it's still really fun to play in groups. A few months ago we played Mario Party 8, with 8 people. We formed into 4 teams. It was actually really funny. The teams were:

Myself and My Wife
My Sister and Her Fiance
My Friend and His Girlfriend
My Other Male Friend and Our Other Female Friend

I made a joke that it was the four stages of male - female relationships: Married, Engaged, Dating and Platonic. But as fun as that was, the edge does go to Mario Party 2 for both starting the obsession and (in my opinion) having the most solid level design and balance.


2) Super Smash Bros Melee

I love the stage editor in Brawl, but that game that handled the best, and the ones that we constantly break out at parties is Super Smash Bros Melee. I'll admit I get sick of it after three or four matches, but those three or four matches are intense. We all know what SSBM is all about so I'll just leave it there. So, what is my number 1 game?

You're gonna probably hate me.


1) Rock Band

I like to drum, okay? I'm actually pretty damn good at it. I'm honestly pretty damn good at every part, except for singing, I'm awful. I've even done a trilogy of "One Man Rock Band" where I play all four parts in a split screen view (Here's the one that shows off my instrument skills the best (One Man Rock Band Foreplay/Long Time) It also shows off how bad I suck at singing, so that's pretty cool too.

[Edit: But I will say that I do rock RE: Your Brains. That was way more in my range...]

But whenever I get friends together, I alway drag this game out, and I can usually get people to play for quite a long time (the fact that I have downloaded such a wide assortment of songs really helps).

So that's what does it for me. There's a lot of games that didn't make this lit that I do enjoy, such as Soul Calibur, GoldenEye, Call of Duty, and so forth, but I don't play them as often as these games.

[psychokind]

10. Sven co-op
awesome h-l 1 pve mod

9. diablo 2
ok we're 85 now, barb next?

8. little fighter 2
pfshhhhh pewwwwww brbrbr

7. battlefield 1942
i got kicked out of a tournament on a big lan event back in the day because my team refused to play allied forces lol

6. quake 3
humiliation

5. super smash brothers (all of them)
most fun fighting game

4. insane
worst racing game but most hilarious damage models

3. secret of mana 2/3
still best for 2 players

2. WoW
raiding is fun

1. league of legends
just the best currently. cant think of anything more competitive. i'm watching the current season with friends on the balcony drinking beer and cheering for the german team

[Blade]

*peaks into thread*
*no mario kart*
*leaves thread*

jk, cool collection, so far, but Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 need a spot in here...

[Jason Tandro]

Blade wrote:

*peaks into thread* *no mario kart* *leaves thread* jk, cool collection, so far, but Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 need a spot in here...

Mario Kart 64 was considered but sadly i didn't play it very much.

[EverPhoenix]

In terms of party games? Or just sit down at a comp and network with friends?

Well, I'll make my list for now taking both into account.

Also, yay Dungeon Defenders. I got into that for a couple of weeks, friends powerlevelled me to almost lvl74 so I could join their games and not be useless. It was a great distraction for those 2 weeks.

I'm going to be making this list based on games I have enjoyed in the past, including things I would probably not go back to now.

10. Dungeon Defenders
Yay, stealing ideas. This one gets a mention because for a couple of weeks after I found it, it was all I played. That, and that I played it with more than just one group of friends. It is, as Jason Tandro explained, a TowerDefense RPG with mission levels, some with a boss at the end. The graphics are pretty nice, and 6 unique playable classes, each with their own equipment and towers.

9. Guitar Hero 3
This one only makes the list for two reasons: first, I was running out of ideas. Two, it was very popular in my friends group. I never had it, but almost everyone else did. And with my skills with /real/ guitar, I picked it up pretty fast and was soon playing boring songs on expert like it wasn't anything. A fun game to mix with drinks, people start caring less and less about how poorly they sing.

8. Donkey Kong Country 2
I'm sure everyone knows this game. Monkey gets kidnapped by a crocodile in a pirate suit, and some smaller monkeys go jump on everything that moves to go get him back. But back to the point - this game is great for multiplayer as well. I rate it higher than the previous two because it is a game you can play without getting bored in singleplayer as well, despite it being less amusing in company than, say, GH3. A friend and I once did a full run of this game just because we could, and it was great.

7. Age of Empires II
Ahh yes, a classic. Medieval Real-time Strategy at it's finest. This one always makes an appearance at every LAN I went to with my friends, usually in the form of 2v2v2v2 Regicide.

6. Heroes of Might and Magic III
And now turn-based strategy. This game is played on three fronts: Town management, army management and troop management. Each town you control can build one building per turn, and buildings can either train units, build economy, or defend the town. Some even provide bonuses to visiting heroes. Army management involves the troops you recruit at the town, and how you move them around the map. There are many kinds of strategic points to control, from resource points (they give you income) to creature camps (recruit more) to other towns. And troop management occurs when you engage in a battle, and have to control your troops (turn order is determined by the speed of the unit) to ... kill the other troops, preferably with minimal casualties. What else? Oh and in combat your hero can cast spells to interact with the troops. It's up to 8 players, and is a great game if you and your friends have a day to kill. It can be played on one computer, too.

5. League of Legends
Sorry psychokind, it doesn't rank as high on my list. Although it is still my MOBA of choice at the moment, so it's something. I think everyone should know how this game works, so I won't explain it. This game does get more fun the more friends you have in the game, if for no other reason than you not having to put up with the bullshit of random people. But seriously, multiplayer in this game is great.

4. Mario Kart 64
This one's for you, Blade. This is one of the best party games. Ever. Hearing someone's rage when you launch off a blue shell is great... or better yet, zapping them off an edge with a lightning. Also goes very well with drinking for a variant of the game. Don't drink and drive! You can't be driving your kart while you're drinking, and the winner is whoever finishes the race AND all their beers first. Also, battle mode. Enough said.

3. Diablo II
The amount of hours I sunk into this game is ridiculous. I think across 5 or 6 seasons I managed to get at least one of every class above lvl70, and a sorceress to lvl85 every one of those seasons. Also great with friends to pass around gear, etc. Or just go and kill shit for the sake of killing shit.

2. Warcraft III + World Editor
2 players counts as multiplayer, right? A friend and I spent hundreds of hours on this, making maps, testing them, and in general messing around in them. Maps we managed to spit out include... our own (poorly balanced) DotA map, Super Smash Bros "SmashCraft", a 2D scrolling Metroid game, a Link to the Past (full multiplayer with at least half of the dungeons sort of made), Ocarina of Time (almost complete with more easter eggs than content, 6 playable heroes), Terranigma (every dungeon, playable heroes from many different vg worlds, item sets, and a most likely double-digits percentage of my time during my first couple of years at uni). Yeah, we had fun. So much fun.


But what could possibly top that? A game I still get excited to play multiplayer.
1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Yeah, I like Brawl the most. It's not as fast and broken as Melee, and not as clunky as the original. Plus, more characters make it more fun. Similar to Jason Tandro's mention for Melee, it doesn't usually last more than a few rounds per session, but damn are those rounds fun.

[Jason Tandro]

Oh yeah... Forgot about Age of Empires 2... Thats my Number 11. Awesome game. Me and my friend played a lot even now using GameRanger.

[inferiare]

I'm going old school and only one game yeaaaaaaaah

Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers (NES)

nothing was more fun than grabbing the other person and throwing them.

[Blade]

EverPhoenix wrote:

8. Donkey Kong Country 2 I'm sure everyone knows this game. Monkey gets kidnapped by a crocodile in a pirate suit, and some smaller monkeys go jump on everything that moves to go get him back. But back to the point - this game is great for multiplayer as well. I rate it higher than the previous two because it is a game you can play without getting bored in singleplayer as well, despite it being less amusing in company than, say, GH3. A friend and I once did a full run of this game just because we could, and it was great. 4. Mario Kart 64 This one's for you, Blade. This is one of the best party games. Ever. Hearing someone's rage when you launch off a blue shell is great... or better yet, zapping them off an edge with a lightning. Also goes very well with drinking for a variant of the game. Don't drink and drive! You can't be driving your kart while you're drinking, and the winner is whoever finishes the race AND all their beers first. Also, battle mode. Enough said.

this. both of them

Donkey Kong Country 3 on my side, sat down with a friend and played the bajit out of it ^^
And Beerio-Kart, as we call it, really lays waste to lots of evenings