The Rebirth of 4-Player

The late 90s and early 2000s were a new era in gaming. The N64 and the Playstation had hit the market and this new golden age of gaming would introduce us to Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario 64, and Ocarina of Time.

But as huge as these games were, the real influence of this era was Nintendo's standardization of 4-player games. Most consoles previously had only had two controller ports (occasionally four by use of a peripheral attachment). But the N64 had four, right out of the box. What came next was a push to make the N64 an event. Something to gather around.

Mario Kart 64 was the codifier for the "kart" genre. Light races with power-ups, fun characters and flashy tracks. Plus unforgettable music.

I bet you still know your favorite character too.

Super Smash Bros. gave us an approachable fighting game with familiar characters in a (relatively) non-violent package. Plus it was the ultimate decider in "Who would win" debates.

I said FAMILIAR characters. Who the heck is this kid in the stripes?

And then there was Mario Party. Yeah, I guess that's really the big one huh? A fickle board game where your skill and the fates would decide who got the most stars, and ultimately, won the bragging rights.

At this point the standard was set. By the time the Gamecube, the PS2, and Microsoft's Xbox rolled onto the scene a few years later the idea of a four player game was universal. Xbox's flagship Halo and the blockbuster Star Wars Battlefront along with sequels to the Nintendo games kept the trend going. Super Monkey Ball, Wario Ware Inc. and Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters are some of my personal favorites from this era.

But everything changed when the new consoles attacked.

In 2005 the Xbox 360 release to the public, the next year would introduce the Wii with it's unique advertising and controllers, and the PS3, armed with a Blu-ray player and a beefy price point.

The sixth generation of consoles began to build the foundation of online gaming, with games like Battlefront and Halo paving the way. But the seventh generation would be made online. Xbox Live and Playstation Network offered their own flavor of online gaming and each with a supported library of exclusives and quirks.

Notably the advent of DLC, previously sold in the form of "Expansion Packs" could be downloaded quite easily.

It was a great time to play games. But it had a side-effect. A sneaky, but devastating side-effect. Online gaming nearly wiped out 4-player gaming. The convenience of being able to connect with thousands of players on any game you wanted trumped the wholesome fun of playing with your three buddies. For a long while I thought it was the end for good. Sure Halo 3 still had 4-player split-screen, but the majority of games didn't.

Good Times.

But all was not lost, a shining beacon in the distance. What was it? Indie games. XBLA had a good record of pushing and supporting indie developers through the platform and as the AAA developers abandoned ship, indie devs began to sneak aboard. Castle Crashers, hands down the king of beat-em-ups had a huge roster of characters, great bosses, a cool art style, AND was 4-player, online or local.

Look at this madness.

Fast forward about ten years and I've found that these diamonds in the rough are becoming a lot less challenging to find. Overcooked, a co-op cooking game is intense and tons of fun. Hidden in Plain Sight is a bizzarely entertaining hide-and-go-seek type game that really is hard to describe but it's addicting! Quiplash is a gameshow style game that can be played with up to 8-local players via smart phone. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a 2-4 player adventure game with a focus of cooperation and focus PC games like Gang Beasts, Lethal League, Ultimate Chicken Horse, and Speedrunner are fueling the fires, with UCH specifically being ported onto XB1 and PS4.
 

Life's more fun with friends.

I am truly happy to end this post on a positive note. The fact that so many of these games have come out recently is a ray of hope for people, like myself, who thought 4-player party games were a thing of the past. Online gaming combined with a hyper-focus on overblown cinematic games threatened to wipe it out, heck, even the Star Wars Battlefront reboot doesn't have 4-player.

But if you love these games are much as I do, buy these games. Share them with your friends! And NO SCREEN CHEATING.