A guide to Switch Online 4 Player
Recently procured the opportunity to mess with Nintendo Switch Online Expansion, which at the moment has a small lineup of 4 player multiplayer games through the N64 package. I have played all of them, maybe some more extensively than I should have played them, and I've reached a sort of quality verdict here.
This journey would not be possible without my 3 backloggd besties @Nauty @MrBreada @UnluckyLucky tagging along, AMEN. Might possibly expand this to the realm of 2 player NSO games as well but that is a whole other can of worms, so I'll get to it. This list is specifically built around the NSO package because it was accessible to me right now, but I'm sure longterm application will range out into stuff like local play and netplay. Just assume anything that's missing and obviously good is still on the mind, ie Mario Party and Smash 64
This journey would not be possible without my 3 backloggd besties @Nauty @MrBreada @UnluckyLucky tagging along, AMEN. Might possibly expand this to the realm of 2 player NSO games as well but that is a whole other can of worms, so I'll get to it. This list is specifically built around the NSO package because it was accessible to me right now, but I'm sure longterm application will range out into stuff like local play and netplay. Just assume anything that's missing and obviously good is still on the mind, ie Mario Party and Smash 64
13 Games
Mario Party 2 evolves the format of the series by introducing the illusion of skill. You could say it's "refining the gameplay" to introduce item strategies and intensify money management, but it all only serves to make victory in the face of skill sweeter, and being on the receiving end feel worse. In that sense, Mario Party 2 was the first entry in the series to get good at hurting people through the TV screen, which is of course, the highest honor a party game can offer
You don't know "Mario Party ruins friendships" until you see your friend genuinely upset over their star getting stolen. Better luck next time bestie
You don't know "Mario Party ruins friendships" until you see your friend genuinely upset over their star getting stolen. Better luck next time bestie
This is the most unique Mario Party game in that it's the most unfair one, it's the one you pick out if you want to make a friend lose their sense of self. It's here to shock some people of their humanity; the cloud level where it flips a coin if you lose 40 or get a star is some true nihilistic shit. Not my favourite entry for sure, but I don't think its appeal will ever lose its niche on me; sometimes I want to become something neither man nor beast. unfortunately, birdo is not playable in this game, so you're keeping that sorta thing metaphorical for now
3
This game has some of the most absurd balancing of being really sick and hilarious at the same time. Everyone's pumping their breaks, making slick turns around claustrophobic corridors until they make one mistake and ping-pong against the walls to their untimely demise. Races can be ended in a split second when everyone simultaneously rockets a bit too fast into the sun. This game runs at 60FPS, has like 30 characters, a ton of stages, one of the stages is RANDOM, one of the stages is Rainbow Road, one of the stages is called "BIG HAND" subtitled "DEADLY CURVES"
At the very least, you'll be thinking about that rockin' music in time with hearing "WUUOOOOOOOH" from every direction, and "YOU GOT BOOST POWER" will be burnt into your soul by the end.
At the very least, you'll be thinking about that rockin' music in time with hearing "WUUOOOOOOOH" from every direction, and "YOU GOT BOOST POWER" will be burnt into your soul by the end.
This feels like it should be anecdotal at best, a singleplayer game with 3 small minigames you can access in the options menu. The first one is a simple hopping minigame where you choose between jumping on a space 1 or 2 tiles ahead of you, and the second one is a basic "Catch falling objects" game. The third one, Checker board Chase, or to call it by its real name - Shinichi Shimomura's STREET FIGHTER II, is nothing less than an accidental e-sports classic. What is basically a Bomberman riff has such rigid movement and simplistic board design that it accidentally opens itself up to an absurd amount of neutral depth. It's got everything, there's clear advantage and disadvantage, it's got everything. Try it out with some fighting game people and you'll just... get it.
Here's a "full review" of sorts.
Here's a "full review" of sorts.
It'd be really easy to put this game into boxes; but sentiments like "this is outdated", or even just enjoying the game purely ironically sorta fall on deaf ears for me. The truth is that, yes, because this is so stiff to control, the awkward flailing adds to the game's inherent humour - but it's really good at being funny on purpose, too!! What truly cements this as a classic party game is its variety; the way that the big collection of game modes meshes with the different weapons you can set to be the match's centerpiece allows for some real creativity to your bullshit. @UnluckyLucky figured out how to camp me out the moment the rules dice rolled onto the combination of deathmatch and remote detonation mines, this shit is unethical!
Mario Tennis is in fact a little sports game for babies, and the birthplace of Waluigi (this can be a positive or negative thing depending on your life outlook), but it is also like, really fun! It's simultaneously hard to explain and obvious what makes a basic tennis game good, there's such an energetic back and forth between both sides. There's just this whole frenetic energy to passing the ball back and forth as it gains momentum, whenever a single turn goes on long enough you can't help but get in the zone. Eyes darting around frantically with every hit, I was pushing my reaction time to the limit here.
This dinky little precision game could've easily stayed a relatively modest part of Nintendo's publishing line-up, but the genius who decided to turn into a 4 player sprawl needs to win a Pulitzer. The way that a simple time trials game elevates into a wonderful push and pull of trying to play patient vs playing haphazardly to one-up your friends is glorious. Customizing your ship's size and HP on the fly between every single round results in a hilariously vibes-based feel to its rules; sometimes someone would change their vehicle, and everyone would match to that exact shape, other times everyone would be using different models that we balanced against each other on the fly.
As someone who grew up on Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine with a hint of Tetris, this game feels like nothing less than alien abduction to me. It's way more rigid than something like Puyo, and if you make a few bad plays at the start you'll just straight up lose from the get-go. On the other hand, it's probably the most undeniably well aged thing here - it's Dr. Mario. It's even got this hilariously big roster of random Wario Land enemies. By the way, listen to that remix of Chill, they made it all funky.
It's got some netplay funk as well, though. There's probably a better place to play 4 player Dr. Mario with less lag, and I'm not exactly sure where that is.
It's got some netplay funk as well, though. There's probably a better place to play 4 player Dr. Mario with less lag, and I'm not exactly sure where that is.
As someone with no attachment to any Mario Kart game, I'm probably missing something here. It's like a pretty fun experience, I think this game has better pacing than 8 in some aspects (like getting hit by items), course list is real big, lots of time trial strats. I think it's okay! If there's anything that pushes it to be invariably worse than modern Mario Kart, it's probably that those games have like 12 player multiplayer.
This one counts as 4 player, apparently, cuz there's a version of Mario Bros. in it. Imagining four japanese boys gathered in an incantional chain of link cables to summon a game of Mario Bros. Divorces probably happened on the regular over the arguments started by those tangled wires
This one's like the arcade one, except you can throw people, and Bowser shows up sometimes, and whatever. Who gives a shit though, after like 10 minutes, one of us glitched out and got infinite lives and the game broke. This one owns, actually
This one's like the arcade one, except you can throw people, and Bowser shows up sometimes, and whatever. Who gives a shit though, after like 10 minutes, one of us glitched out and got infinite lives and the game broke. This one owns, actually
11
Going to consider this one majorly stubbed due to my inability to have tried the tank or grounded modes, but the classic gunship mode is exactly what you'd expect. It's cool sometimes! You get moments in which you're getting into high speed intense aerial fights with eachother, maneuvering through obstacles, and also sometimes you just have to catch up with each other for like 5 minutes after making a successful evasion.
12
Hey, it's video game golf. Anyone who has played a video game version of golf knows that it's sorta like actual golf, but aiming has been turned into a timed attack, and the barely-missed shock factor is still all there. Big netplay factor here being that the timing is actually completed smashed to dust, so I didn't get much out of it.
HIDEO KOJIMA'S FORTNITE is definitely an interesting game for sure, has a decent amount of clout with some of its credited influences. The multiplayer on the other hand kinda just stinks. With an incredibly sterile lock-on aiming system, it was hard to get anything from it at all in 4 player, everyone just bumbling around. Watch that intro though, it's really cool and it's got an amen break in there