Multibowl's readme file reads: "All games sampled - Their respective owners
We do not assert any ownership or copyright over any of the sampled works."
Foddy and Thomson refer to their technique in Multibowl as "sampling", which is the key to really appreciating their work here. People have thrown fits (and continue to throw fits) about the supposed creative laziness of sampling in music, but even the shallowest analysis of the practice reveals that the derivative work is distinct from the one that was sampled. Even though the tracks an audio snippet, Check the Rhime is not interchangeable with Baby, This Love I Have and I enjoy each for different reasons. So, by that token, even though Multibowl may have me clear a line in Tetris: The Grand Master, during that time, I never stop playing Multibowl.
With this view, the authorial hands of the authors begin to show. For example, the win conditions often differ from those present in the original games: be the one to beat up the little blue guy in Golden Axe the most, score a strike or a spare, gain more experience points than the other player. Using save states, Foddy and Thomson set up ready-to-go situations to keep up the breakneck pace. The adrenaline rush Multibowl provides is present in some of its source material, especially the more arcadey titles, but due to the framing of the curated situations, Lemmings can feel as exhilarating as Road Rash.
The amount of these curated situations is also stunning. After a handful of rounds with my friends, we were running into a bit of repeats, but I'm sure you'll be hard pressed to find any other game that utilizes scenarios from 300 other games. These 300 games are woven together with such skill that I can't help but think about the records of The Avalanches, which sample hundreds of records to create something that's at once truly unique and tons of fun. "Truly unique and tons of fun" is the way I'd describe Multibowl, too.
We do not assert any ownership or copyright over any of the sampled works."
Foddy and Thomson refer to their technique in Multibowl as "sampling", which is the key to really appreciating their work here. People have thrown fits (and continue to throw fits) about the supposed creative laziness of sampling in music, but even the shallowest analysis of the practice reveals that the derivative work is distinct from the one that was sampled. Even though the tracks an audio snippet, Check the Rhime is not interchangeable with Baby, This Love I Have and I enjoy each for different reasons. So, by that token, even though Multibowl may have me clear a line in Tetris: The Grand Master, during that time, I never stop playing Multibowl.
With this view, the authorial hands of the authors begin to show. For example, the win conditions often differ from those present in the original games: be the one to beat up the little blue guy in Golden Axe the most, score a strike or a spare, gain more experience points than the other player. Using save states, Foddy and Thomson set up ready-to-go situations to keep up the breakneck pace. The adrenaline rush Multibowl provides is present in some of its source material, especially the more arcadey titles, but due to the framing of the curated situations, Lemmings can feel as exhilarating as Road Rash.
The amount of these curated situations is also stunning. After a handful of rounds with my friends, we were running into a bit of repeats, but I'm sure you'll be hard pressed to find any other game that utilizes scenarios from 300 other games. These 300 games are woven together with such skill that I can't help but think about the records of The Avalanches, which sample hundreds of records to create something that's at once truly unique and tons of fun. "Truly unique and tons of fun" is the way I'd describe Multibowl, too.