Out with the New, In With the Old: 2-Player Games

Contra is definitely not for 2 players. That's how you quickly get the game over screen.

im 24 and this video brought an insane amount of good memories of playing 2 player games. Damn I miss playing Soul Calibur on Dreamcast all winter long against my friends, good times

I definitely agree with everything said EXCEPT with the part of online gaming and playing with friends. As an older gamer, with a wife and not a lot of gas money, it's hard to be with friends to play games. Thanks to online multiplayer, I can play with my friends easier. I would prefer that we'd be in the same house but that's just the situation I'm in. 

Other than that, I can't hate. Awesome video.

WOULD YOU KINDLY O.O

nicely done my friend

Of course they don't want you to play with your friends at your home, they don't want 4 people sharing 1 videogame, they want 32 people each one with his own videogame!

Wow, a very well done video from Gamespot. Someone give this guy a medal or something! And it was about something that the gaming world desperately needs, more split-screen games! It shouldn't be hard for every shooter game that has online co-op for story mode to also allow split-screen co-op. I guarantee that they will have more sales that way. There have been many games I have not bought becuase it only had online rather than any sort of split-screen. The most glaring and most recent example would be SSX. Why that game had no split-screen is beyond me, therefore they didn't get any of my money...

I call it "Couch gaming" cause it's playing co-op on the couch next to your friends Lol. Developers who don't forget about that are awesome. The only reason I got into Call of Duty in the first place was because me and my cousins could do 4 player vs matches. Same goes for Super Smash Bros. and GoldenEye 007. Those games were a blast to me, not because of online multiplayer but because they let me hang out and spend time with people that I knew

and does anyone remember LAN?

i go off on most of these subjects on a daily basis.

but corporate economists are who make games now, not inspired people.  They dont make a game  because they have a good idea, they make a game because target market x shows positive statistics in one field or another.

ive said it before and ill say it again 'you cant mass produce art.'

also, i can play conta just fine with 1 player =)

it is so everyone has to buy thier own system, copy of the game (its about sales)  example #2.. YLOD .. everyone has bought 2 systems, and destroy the used gaming market, in which they do not profit. (ths is also why you need codes to go online)

"It's like they don't want us to have REAL friends anymore"

Holy crap, thank you. I have been saying this for the past 5 years. People talk about about games as socializing tools and yet 1 in every 20 has split-screen co-op. I HAVE REAL FRIENDS. The most stupid thing that has ever happened to gaming is the absence of split-screen in racing games.

"...a teammate nowadays is just a thing you can't shoot at."

Well said!  For me though, a get together with one of my best friends back home is never complete without a Smash Bros. Project M match.

Still love Wipeout HD and play that with my boy on a regular basis.  Wish they would do more games like Marvel Alliance and Golden Axe, as the only thing that are multiplayer focused, are your COD (which isn't really a family game/child friendly), or MMORP games, (which are pretty much reliant on online play).

BTW, I totally agree, nowadays nobody cares about playing coop

I love this series! I played almost every game showed here when I was a kid

This is a great series, keep up the great work!

Was i the only one who caught the BioShock reference at the end of the vid?... "Would you kindly?".... Mind control at its finest... Dude gets massive points from me for that

I was really looking forward to the future when Xbox 1 came.Halo with 2 player co-op and 4 player split, DOA3 with 4 player local,  Fuzion Frenzy with 4 player local, Rallisport Challenge with 4 player local, soon Brute Force, Timesplitters and Conflict games with 4 player co-op... I was expecting things to get better. Increase the limit of local players in all games and throw in bots. Flatout with 4 player local, Splinter Cell with 4 player local etc.

But then at some point after Live launched things started to decline. Still plenty of co-ops, but they haven't gotten any bigger in scale unlike pretty much everything else in gaming.

How about EA showing all of us NFS/Burnout fans a middle finger and they no longer have ANY local 2 player split screen modes. None!

Those days when you had your brother, cousins and friends next to you while you played Contra , Streets of Rage 2 ETC, were the best days of our childhood. Now as grownups life demands too much of us to find time to get together and play like we used to. All we can do to remember those days is playing them on our own and our children (if they are not already spoiled by this generation's graphics). Online gaming has helped somewhat bring those friends together, but is not the same great experience we had as kids. Sigh....Good ol days.

I think that one that rendered the most laughs and overall entertainment for us was Gauntlet legends which you could get on the origional xbox... but went way back to our arcade days.

I agree completely.  Its something I have been complaining about for years.  Back during the origional xbox I understood due to limitations of its hardware and especially with the PS2.  But today?  There is no excuse.  And the few good games that allow co-op (more specifically split screen or same screen co-op) get setup in a way that they are annoying to play ie - Resident Evils split screen split, or fables severely limited distance between characters. 

I miss the days of Streets of Rage, Sonic, TMNT, X-men, (the list goes on and on) of genuine co-op games.

One of my favorite couch coop experience was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in time for the SNES (I did not like the Xbox arcade version of it)

You hit the nail on the head. It is such a disappointment that as technology advances they are still choosing not to keep co-op. Surely, it should be less difficult to implement now. 

TVs are even bigger these days so space shouldn't be a problem. They are even implementing dual viewing so there shouldn't be an excuse. (http://dvice.com/archives/2012/02/philips-new-tvs.php)

I remember back in the day I would only play 2 player games. Sonic with Tails, Fighting games, Contra, battle-axe, streets of rage, TMNT, Racing games, Super Mario, football games etc.

I think one of the reasons that Wii is doing so well is because of the co-op.

Hope there will be a rise in those games again. Thanks for the video. :)

One game my cousin and I played a lot back in the day on the Sega Genesis was "Forgotten Worlds". I believe we also played "Mercs".

Oh yeah, can't forget why arcade shooters (i.e. Vitua Cop) with co-op were so great. They were on rails, but because they were on rails you could either play with someone else or wield 2 guns by yourself. First person shooters can sometimes give that effect (i.e. Call of Duty), but there is nothing like sharing the same large screen with someone else. Nintendo hasn't forgotten even though developers have.

Thank God for Kega Fusion!!! and the rest of the emulators...thanks to them the golden age of co-op gaming is accessible to everyone

Streets of Rage 2 on the Megadrive....the game I must have played more than any in my life!! I must have finished it like 500 times....I remember getting it on its release  back in '93 when I was 14 years old, after reading its review on issue #16 on SegaPro (an english sega game magazine of the era).  I have never been happier buying and playing a new game, and i 've been a gamer for 20 years.... Like the guy in the video says, I think that no matter how technologically advanced games become, nothing will ever beat the feeling of beating a hard boss fight with another player sitting next to you, who happens to be your real life best friend...that brought a sense of achievement that nothing else ever could, not even a great single player experience

classic game, needs a remake

I miss playing Golden Axe, Double Dragon 2, TMNT, Contra, Streets of Rage, Final Fight, and many other games of the like with my big brother. Battletoads was probably the most frustrating experience since it was so hard. Ah, memories. I purchased Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light specifically to play local co-op with my son and that's likely why I enjoy it more than Diablo 3...which is the same kind of game but lacks so much that LCatGOL has.

Great show. And yeah. I miss games for two players...

I remember playing EA's original NHL game on the Sega Genesis back in the day with my cousin. We would always play as the Los Angeles Kings because Wayne Gretzsky was still playing back then.

ah streets of rage! what a classic! My brother and I do a streets of rageathon every year from 1-3 straight through on the megadrive. Its still amazing to this day! 

Future Cop: LAPD on PS1 may have had an average single-player mode, but the 2-player game was utterly awesome. 

what a great show, shame it wasn't longer !! thanks gspot and more with length please :)

Sports games are a blast with a few mates. We have 6 player WWE matches, Fifa, NHL, NBA and 4 player Virtua Tennis. Then there is the Call Of Duty series with 4 player split screen. The Moves Sports Championships is a fun social game too.