I love split screen and party games. Ever since I first played Worms on the PS1, WWE on the PS2, Halo on the Xbox, controller shared GTA San Andreas and many more. In fact even today I make it a priority to regularly invite a bunch of friends over, order wings or burgers and jam our favourites and try new games. So this is going to be a regular post - with each game I'll conclude whether they're On the stack or Off the stack. Essentially will they become favourites on the stack of coop games to return to or remain on the shelf and get uninstalled from the hard drive.
is an absolute cooperative masterpiece. It was one of those games that I saw and knew I would enjoy it, I adore this game, it was love at first sight. I first played it with an ex-friend years ago, that was an okay experience. But it was my second attempt with three good friends where the game truly shined. The premise is simple. You're a squad of elite Starship Troopers and you need to drop on the planet, complete your objective, and get out. It's the gameplay that's so addictive though. You can equip dozens of different abilities and weapons. The weapons are standard fair with your snipers, AR, SMG, pistols, shotguns, etc. Shooting is your standard twin stick romp, but it throws a friendly fire curveball into the mix. Any projectile can kill and you'll need to call out, and work with your team to down some bugs. Luckily you can go to ground and its so satisfying when you call out that you need to reload, go to ground, and a teammate whips around and starts blasting the bugs coming your way. This only gets emphasized further when items come into the mix. There are really three types. Support - ammo, healing, barb wire, mines, turrets etc all of which are essential. Utility - typically drones that follow you around and shoot or heal, but you can also drop jump packs for example or other more powerful weapons such as mortars or rocket launchers. Finally offensive - you can get airstrikes, a delayed powerful bombardment to splatter bugs. Or you can drop vehicles, tanks, mechs, APCs, bikes. They're so much fun and add an awesome dynamic to the game. Especially in the later stage with titanic bugs that have impenetrable armour, a mech with armour piercing rounds will save your day every time. You can't take many abilities so you'll want to work with your team to bring a healthy mix of offense and defence. Adding a degree of tactics to teamwork. Air drops, stomping and explosives all kill teammates. So callouts get even more intense when you bring these items into the mix. But inevitably someone will be crushed and you and all your friends will laugh - it's great fun.
On the stack.Laser League is an underrated hidden gem. Well this was unexpected, I didn't think much when I saw this game but this will remain in the rotation as long as we have game nights. I first tried this by myself and thought it was fun, definitely worth a try. But oh boy when you play it with friends. The premise is simple - don't touch enemy lasers and knock the other team into lasers. Capture nodes to make lasers yours. Each arena has different laser movement patterns. Powerups dot the field such as universal stun and each class has its own abilities. My favourite was thief so I could steal nodes, but popular classes included Blade to dash and laser cut enemies, Shield to bullrush enemies into lasers and Stun to drop enemies on their ass for an incoming laser and reset their abilities. When someone unwittingly runs into a laser losing the game, or you knock two enemies at once into a laser, or you capture a node that tags an enemy by an inch with the end of the laser - it all culminates in an experience that'll keep you laughing the whole night.
On the stack.Worms Battleground is a classic experience. Its just as I remember it and that's exactly what I want. Airdropped into a map you use various tools such as shotguns, mines, grenades, grandmas, exploding sheep, blowtorches, airstrikes and more to have your enemy worms pulling that TNT self-detonation. There were two items that were a cut above the rest that always led to absolute hilarity. The first was the baseball bat as a well (or poor) positioned worms can be knocked right into the water. Funny at first this does get boring and is circumvented by choosing enclosed maps. However that removes the option for the second and consistently hilarious water gun, air waterbomb and jetpack. Donning a bubble shooting jetpack, flying over enemy worms to create puddles and watching them slide into the deep depths below is pure gold. The art style is cell shaded which is pleasing to look at and has always suited worms. That classic worms experience is and forever will be timeless.
On the stack. Disc Jam was a nice distraction from Laser League - another unexpected surprise. Pick a character and play tennis two-on-two with discs. The discs curve, bounce off walls and fly up in the air for you to catch. It's like a cross between table tennis and air hockey and is great fun. If your timing is right you can do a super throw that will have the enemy reeling and your team laughing. Characters have certain abilities, stats, body types (easier to catch) and speeds. Sliding or dashing to catch a falling disc just in a nick of time is great fun and if you miss the disc explodes, sending your player flying with fantastic ragdoll animations. While it was great fun, eventually we returned to Laser League with it's greater degree of variety in different maps.
Off the stack.Neon Chrome was a game that looked cool on paper but missed my expectations. I thought this game was a deep coop cyberpunk RPG. Instead it felt like a run-of-the-mill twin stick shooter in a cool cyberpunk setting. Even the potential of a cyberpunk coop
Hotline Miami still had us intrigued as mega fans of that game - but the shooting just felt flat. The neon fidelity and gameplay mechanics ultimately didn't appeal enough to keep as playing this one.
Off the stack.
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