Years ago, long before I was in games journalism, before I started playing games every day, before I’d ever bought a games magazine, I used to play games WITH people. We’d play kart racers or Street Fighter in the same room… together. My sister and I would take shots each playing Tomb Raider or trying to take down that bloody helicopter in Metal Gear Solid or throw the controller at each other in fear of opening that toilet door in Silent Hill – the one where you could see the feet under the bottom of the door. Then I discovered RPGs and RPGs can’t really be played with someone else. In fact it’s rare that someone would even sit and watch another person play an RPG. They just aren’t group participation games. Ten 200 hour-long RPGs later I’d kinda lost the ability to share my gaming experience with others. I didn’t want my sister to play half the levels in Tomb Raider. I wanted to play THEM ALL. 

You could argue that online gaming has completely replaced the ‘shots each’ experience. LAN and Split Screen options in games are definitely still worth having just for the option, but I’m pretty sure people don’t use them as much as they used to. More games these days, like the RPGs of old, don’t lend themselves to being played side by side where you can say “Hey, you missed a door back there!” and “No, no! Shoot him in the tentacles!”

The one console that’s very much maintained the old ‘side by side’ way of playing though is, of course, the Wii. Games like Wii Bowling thrive on the ‘shots each’ idea and many of Nintendo’s games just aren’t the same if you don’t have a friend to help. I’ve rediscovered my party gamer self with the Wii - surprisingly never more so as I play through Super Mario Galaxy now. You can use the second Wiimote in SMG to help the main player along - holding back old Bullet Bill and knocking Goombas over. Switching controllers every level with my partner and my sister and her partner all sitting on the couch reminded me of ‘back in the day’ and it made me smile. Gaming changes over time and so does the way I play, but never so much that I can’t still find a moment to shout “No, no! In the tentacles!”

Below is a little video I made that may be very familiar to you. Family parties more and more often look like this.

P.S. If you’re wondering why this blog has such a strange title, check out this story about the cover art for Super Mario Galaxy. Gaming is a weird, weird world!