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Double Dragon 2 on the NES featured a multiplayer option where both the players would fight together against the villains swarming at them. Co-op play was already present in the world of gaming, especially in arcade beat-em-up games, but they lacked true cooperativeness. Double Dragon 2 featured cooperative gameplay based on strong teamwork. It's the first game that made me realize that I had to work with my partner to "survive" the challenge. In the other co-op multiplayer games, my partner and I usually took care of our business on each side of the screen and we'd actually compete to see who would score the highest at the end of the level/mission/game. However, in Double Dragon 2, we couldn’t afford to actually split up too long. The game difficulty was so high for our skills that we had to back each other up all the time. Also, numerous levels featured jumping obstacles with instant death on a failure. Since no playable character could go off-screen, both players had to make sure that they moved enough so that the screen wouldn't block before the landing area was accessible. On top of that, players had to watch where their blows would land. Players could injure their partners, so swinging wildly at enemies while their partners were trying to attack them could result in an undesired kill, especially when throwing knifes and metal bars around. Of course, if the tension between partners were too high, there was always the option of settling it in-game! My partners and I had to actually talk a lot while playing, saying what we had to do, when we needed assistance and what strategy we would take on certain levels (the chopper level comes in my mind). We had to rely on both our and the other's skills to win but at the same time, you remained partly independent. If the other failed, you did not fail automatically. You still had the chance to continue until you failed too. Multiplayer games have gone a long way since. The internet made it all easier to find partners, the number of partners playing simultaneously increased, multiplayer level design has gotten better and styles of games allowing multiplayer mode have soared. Still, I feel like Double Dragon 2 changed something in the field of multiplayer. It's the first game I can remember that made me think that cooperative play can be fun and that having a game where partners are actually handy are possible Anonymous
You can't have a question about the quantum leap in multiplayer game play without including Quake III Arena. In my opinion this game has proven itself, to this day, as one of the most 'pure' multiplayer games on the market. Competitions like www.cplworldtour.com still recognize it as one of their premiere highlights of the event. Few other games in this genre have lasted through the tides like Quake III Arena. Benjamin Quintero, Inland Studios
Ikari Warriors for the NES. I know it was an arcade game at first, but it took co-op from the arcade and put it on the couch. Games likes Gears of War revitalize co-op and show fun and powerful co-op play can be. Eric Monacelli, 2K Games |
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