8 ms·
Very clever. Anchor for home, and again trying for the mobile area where their creativity really worked (3DS). I'll be curious in the system specs and the decis
by 6stringmerc 10y ago
Very clever. Anchor for home, and again trying for the mobile area where their creativity really worked (3DS). I'll be curious in the system specs and the decisions they made - such as having that apparent card slot. Hooray for the headphone jack.
I'll never understand the marketing motivation to show a bunch of people getting together for a social gathering and togetherness, then cram together to watch / play on something with a screen the size of a hardback novel.
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoWe usually all bring our own. ;-D. But I'm glad Nintendo doesn't seem to be giving up local MP: It's the best part of having a console, and dropping it is a REALLY BAD IDEA.
- pimeys 10y agoI still have fond memories when we gathered together after school with friends to play some Mario Kart or Smash Bros. It's still damn fun!
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoOh yeah. Dropping LMP isn't just dumb from a "fun" perspective, it's also a stupid business decision: LMP is the one place where Consoles are inarguably superior to PCs. By tossing it out, you're tossing away a major selling point for your system.
- shuntress 10y agoI think the gap that makes Consoles 'inarguably superior' in local multiplayer is going to close rapidly as the steam link's issues get worked out. But I do agree, Consoles (Specifically Nintendo's) are currently inarguably superior by a wide margin for local multiplayer. And local multiplayer games provide distinct enjoyment that remote multiplayer games cannot replicate effectively.
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoSteam link is effectively just a way of turning your PC into a more console-like device. But most of us don't have Steam Link or an HTPC, so consoles are more convenient, which has always been the console tradeoff: loss of control for added convenience.
- eropple 10y agoThe Steam Link's primary issue for local multiplayer is the speed of light. It's kind of intractable.
- mcphage 10y ago> Dropping LMP isn't just dumb from a "fun" perspective, it's also a stupid business decision [...] By tossing it out, you're tossing away a major selling point for your system. It seems to have worked out pretty well for Sony and Microsoft—and the manufacturer that does still focus on LMP (Nintendo) is struggling. So I don't think it's actually a major selling point. I mean, I wish it were; that's one of the things that I love best about Nintendo hardware. But it really doesn't seem like it is.
- fsloth 10y agoAt least several Xbox one titles seem to have local multiplayer. Skylanders is a good example.
- mcphage 10y agoHow many of them are Microsoft published, and how many of them are cross-platform?
- fsloth 10y agoSorry, no idea. I don't really see what the difference is from user perspective either way (as long as the feature is compatible with the underlying hardware). My experience is that of a bystander with fairly high standards none the less. My kids seem to love Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Plants vs Zombies Garden warfare local multiplayer on Xbox one and what I observe works great.
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoThose ones do, but the games for which this is true are increasingly rare. It's no longer an assumption with multiplayer games.
- blakeyrat 10y agoMicrosoft never dropped local multiplayer. Just as many kids younger than you have those same nostalgic memories about going over to a friend's house and playing 4-player Halo 2 or Rock Band. They might not "focus" on it (whatever that means-- it has the feature, it works, what more "focus" do you need?), I suppose.
- jbpetersen 10y agoOnly because multiple controllers are practically standard when it comes to consoles. Grab a few gamepads that easily fit in a laptop bag and there's a plethora of great options for local multiplayer. Spelunky (the remake) is a personal favorite.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- protomyth 10y agoMario Kart (after Warlords on the Atari 2600 or MULE on the Atari 8-bits with 4 players) is my favorite group game. It just has the fun feel, and hearing the various characters screaming or victory yells is hilarious.
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoYeah, it's mine too, followed by Xonotic/Quake. It's semi-luck based, which just makes it more fun for MP. Doom is also a good one.
- protomyth 10y agoThinking about it the Warcraft series when they were RTS was a pretty amazing LAN party game. Marathon on the Mac also.
- 6stringmerc 10y agoOther than Mario Kart my go-to would be N64's Goldeneye. That thing was a masterpiece in so many ways.
- protomyth 10y agoGoldeneye is an amazing game which I hope is ported. Perfect Dark was pretty good when played in multi-player. It pretty much was a Goldeneye sequel at that point.
- monocasa 10y agoUnfortunately, there's a lot of licensing issues. It was pretty much ported to the 360, but legal reasons kept it from being released. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRRuhviJGMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRRuhviJGMQ
- shuntress 10y agoI also played a ton of goldeneye when I was around 10 years old, so I get where you are coming from and it pains me to be the bearer of bad news but that game is ... so bad. That doesn't mean it wasn't fun. It doesn't invalidate the good times we had. But there is so much about that game (from the controller itself, to the control layout, to the gameplay) that just does not hold up. N64 Goldeneye is a clunky, hard to play, unbalanced mess. It was a ton of fun, and I wouldn't trade the experience of playing it for anything; but it is not a 'masterpiece'. Mario Kart 64 is, even by modern standards, a good game, but calling that a masterpiece would mean we need to come up with a classification higher than masterpiece for Mario Kart 8.
- amyjess 10y agoSmash Bros defined my college experience. Large chunks of the best years of my life involved playing Melee almost every day.
- emehrkay 10y agoI recently watched a long video for a Kirby game for DS and not only was it like 8 games in one, it was setup so that one person could have a physical copy, but four people could play on their own DS'. Amazing in the age of micro transactions.
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoYep. Download Play, the name of that feature IIRC, means that for some MP games on DS, only one person needs a copy. It makes finding games to play with your friends a lot easier, I tell you.
- throwaway1892 10y agoAlso if a game does not have local multiplayer, people who want to play together will buy more than one game. At least I think it's the rationale behind this decision. Also local split-screen multiplayer is harder to do since you have to do two (or more) graphic rendering at the same time, so dropping it allow the dev to spend more time on the rest of the game.
- wmeredith 10y agoYeah, the two people playing Mario Kart split screen on that thing was laughable.
- hprotagonist 10y agowith half a controller each, too.
- Cyph0n 10y agoWhich struck me as a brilliant idea.
- 6stringmerc 10y agoAs the years go on and my fingers get more wear and tear, my first question seeing the tiny controller option was "I wonder how bad my hand will cramp using this" but it looks absolutely perfect for kids.
- GrumpyYoungMan 10y agoI dunno. I'll grant that it's a clever idea but those half-controllers aren't going to have all the buttons that a full controller does, so games using that mode will be restricted in what controls they have. Plus, the ergonomics is not going to be as good as a full controller as well.
- abjorn 10y agoIt looks like they've kept the D-Pad in so it can double as the A/B/X/Y buttons in that situation, which I think is a really clever way to alleviate some of that issue. I think the type of games where this use case makes sense probably don't need a large number of buttons anyways, though.
- r-w 10y agoBut they don't need to have all the buttons or even be ergonomic; they just need to be convenient enough that there's nothing else that provides the same functionality or better. Everything else just affects the quality of the experience, but that determines whether anyone even buys it.