Blog Post #1: Childhood Multiplayer

There are several vague recollections of board games: candy land, monopoly, etc. However my first memories clear memories of multilayer games takes place on the original Nintendo entertainment system. Most notably a well known game entitled Battletoads. My brother and I would play for long stretches of time, learning to strategize each section of the levels one piece at a time. We never got further than the "lasagna" level (level 3); because of the speeder bikes but, it was a very enjoyable experience. We learned valuable lessons such as: you can attack each other, and do damage; however this will only make progressing through the remainder of the game much more difficult. We also learned that distracting each other’s enemies was more beneficial than fighting our own enemies alone. It was through these exercises that I think I first grasped the difference between two people playing a single player game in parallel, and two people playing the single player game as a team.

Another multilayer game, in a looser sense, my brother and I played together is Megaman 3. At first glance one would say Megaman 3 is a single player game, but there are 2 cheat codes that can be inputted with the second player controller. By holding down a combination of buttons, the second player can freeze time or give player one super jump. It is important to note the effects of these codes were not always to the benefit of the player. If time is frozen at the wrong moment, enemies may be stuck in an attack animation, hurling invincibly towards the player without stopping. Consequently, super jump can land the player against ceiling spikes, which as in all Megaman games, ensures instant death. The dynamics of this game play are surprisingly similar to Mario Galaxy; the player effects game play drastically, without being represented in the game world. It was a multiplayer experience very unlike any other I would experience in the coming decade.