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Free Duel, Oh This Hot Seat Of Ours
Introduction
One of the most important things my gaming hobby has ever given me are its social dimensions. It's actually a bit funny how some worried parents are worried that kids who spend time with computers would get somehow anti socialized - nay! A good violent multiplayer game which has all the players on one computer is a communication method, a people connector, a common language between the youth if there ever was one! I don't like to quote without a source, but there have been sociological researches on the issue, which "prove" among other things that even one-player games, as well as computer use in general, are often (or at least can be) group events.
Besides playing way too much Street Fighter II on SNES at friend's (hi Jammu & Joonas!), my most important multiplayer scene has not been the network 3D-shooters, but instead some sweet little arcade action games, with bitmap graphics, focus on uncomplicated gameplay, loads of different special weapons with specific tactics, and mostly multiplayer modes only. Very important - multiplayer on the same PC. You may also notice that a suspiciously large portion of these games are of Finnish production - it became very trendy in the garage industry of Finnish shareware scene in the latter half of the nineties to make this sort of games. The genre indeed was, and is still very popular and captivating, so a successful game could become quite famous and very played. I'm not sure if they were really sold that much, most being released as shareware. Anyhow, many a game featured in the article is genuinely freeware, some being released to freewaredom after a period of sharewareness.
This article covers over a dozen games. That's actually quite a lot of games if you were intending to start playing them all, and most of them are very similar to one or many games featured, which might make going through all of these quickly tiresome. I'm pretty much just trying to give a selection of games for a quick multiplayer battling which play in a simple, arcade fashion. When in need, you and your soon-to-be-a-friend-no-more could read this article and pick the one that appears most interesting.
Although.. I've noticed people don't actually get bored of smashing each other's faces in (that's mister figuratively speaking, mind you), especially if they can do it through a good hotseat two-dimensional, classic arcade feeling and action. But you do get bored if you only play one or two games, unless they're exceptionally good, featuring a lot of stuff, secrets and all this balanced so that the variability means more ways to win - there's no point having sixteen types of shotguns if only weapon you'll ever use is a bazooka -- yeah, that's a universally understandable in-real-life - comparison if there ever was one.
An enjoyable gameplay, especially the good old "easy to learn, hard to master" - phenomena is crucial for a good dogfighter. These games usually get a lot of playing.. and even the good ones eventually wear out. But - lo! behold! - switch to a new one, and things will be spiced up. If your cousin says he's bored losing a round of Liero to you all the time, give him a chance of beating you up in a round of Triplane Turmoil.
Ah well.. just another thought. Noticed ever, especially with games like this, more people the merrier and especially a lot more noise - I remember a game of Scorched Earth with eight people, it was actually pretty much just having fun, we hardly got any real playing done - but with a two player duel it gets a lot more intense. A true test of skill and ability. Ability, of course, which practically redundant in real life, but heck.. it's a hobby..
Alright, time to pick your weapons..
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