Top 10 - Party Games

By Sam Waldron

Get your friends together. It’s time to play…

It seems that the silly season is upon us. Emily’s last Top 10 looked at the best Christmas gifts for kids. This one, however, is probably more for New Year’s than for Christmas.

We’re talking multiplayer games, but nothing hooked up to the internet – this is about being in a room with your buddies and having a lot of fun. And, of course, competing ruthlessly for one another and building grudges to perfectly complement your (hopefully continuing) friendship.

10. Powerstone (Dreamcast)
Powerstone 1 & 2 are hard to describe adequately. They’re fighting games with a top-down point-of-view, supporting up to four players at once (at least in the sequel), in levels which are 3D, interactive, and even moving. You can pick up all sorts of bizarre weapons (magic wands, guns, hammers, and much more), and are constantly attempting to nab three powerstones in order to become temporarily super-powerful.
Bottom-line: it’s furious, frantic, and a hell of a lot of fun.

9. Guitar Hero (PlayStation 2)
While Guitar Hero only supports two players at once, the quality of the cover versions is good enough that it’s entertaining for those not currently wielding an axe, too. And, of course, its simple gameplay is just hugely addictive.
Guitar Hero II scores extra points for its co-operative mode that allows the second player to play the bass or rhythm guitar part.

8. Micro Machines (Mega Drive)
It’s very rare to find a competitive game where you can so easily not care if you win or lose. But Micro Machines was just that enjoyable – and that laugh-inducing. The gameplay is so basic it ought to be illegal. Particularly memorable was the formula one race around the toilet, where if even one player could make it around a full lap without falling off, it was cause for celebration all round.

7. Bishi Bashi Special (PlayStation)
Featuring button-mashing mini-games of the puzzle variety, and the kind of bizarre animation you’d expect from its title, Bishi Bashi Special is one of the stupidest games I’ve ever played. But, not only is it a hell of a lot of fun, it is also set up for creating massive tournaments: only two players compete at once, but the game manages these head-to-head encounters within a knockout structure, so everyone can compete.

6. Soul Calibur (Dreamcast)
Simple: Soul Calibur is just the best fighting game there is. I may be opinionated – but in this case, I’m also very right.

5. Bomberman (Various)
I wouldn’t be surprised to find that there’s a Bomberman game on almost every game platform ever invented. They vary in quality, but at its best, Bomberman is fast-paced, and somehow tactical and completely chaotic at the same time. With four players at once, all trying desperately to blow the others up, Bomberman is almost as addictive as crack.

4. Worms (PC)
Spiritual Successor to games like Scorched Earth (which itself might have made the cut, had this been a Top 20), the Worms series is another one of those games where winning and losing is not nearly as important as watching hilarity ensue.
Though Worms has not made the move to 3D gracefully, there is something to be said for all of the main 2D versions. The original worms has a lot of pixellated character (and wins points on the aesthetic front for managing to look a lot like Lemmings); my favourite aspect of it is the tendency for the replays to randomise events differently – sometimes resulting in a worm’s miraculous survival, or its sudden and shocking demise. Worms 2 and Worms World Party upgraded to new weapons and cute cartoon graphics, and while World Party is my personal pick, I do miss number 2’s ability to customise weapons down to the finest details.

3. Wii Sports (Wii)
This newcomer shoots straight into third place on the basis of the NZGamer Christmas Party the other night. Featuring multiplayer Tennis, Bowling, Baseball, Golf, and Boxing, Wii Sports is gaming at its most active. All the sports seem to reward your getting far more involved than is safe for the people and objects around you. The ‘Wii-mote’ wrist-straps are 100% necessary.
Most impressive, though: in spite of the fact that our muscles ached the next day from the crazy motions involved in playing on the Wii – we still wanted more!

2. Goldeneye 007 (Nintendo 64)
At the start of my high school years, this game was it as far as gaming went. Shooters simply didn’t get any better than this. Of course, technology has come a long way since then. But I still can’t remember ever having more fun with a console shooter. The levels were great. The weapon selection was good. I never even tried the single player mode. All I cared about was the fact that four players could happily duke it out in deathmatch from early evening until the middle of the following day – inadvisably foregoing sleep, because sleep is for people who aren’t tough enough for double-o status…

1. Singstar (PlayStation 2)
The Singstar franchise is, quite simply, a blessing. Not only do the Singstar titles make for great party gaming, they are enjoyable even for non-gamers – because, let’s face it, almost everyone you know is just a couple of drinks away from becoming a karaoke monster (and you definitely want to be around for that, even if only to be the one taking the incriminating photos…)
Perhaps the weirdest thing about Singstar for me, is how much I find myself wanting to sing along to songs I don’t even like normally. While Legends and Rocks contain more of my favourite songs than the other games, it is Singstar Pop that I have the most fun with – and Shannon Noll’s rendition of ‘What About Me’ is almost compulsory as a closing song when we have Singstar nights at our flat. What other game could get you cheering for someone who didn’t even win Australian Idol?

And with these games in mind, you’re well set up not just for a gaming New Year’s, but to pretty much disappear indoors for the whole summer. You wouldn’t want to get sunburnt, would you?

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