Sofa Sharers: Ninten-do Split-Screen

Split-screen, couch co-op, just playing with your mates; whatever you want to call it, it’s dying out. Sure, online gaming has brought people from all over the world together and made it easier to game with your friends, but in my opinion there’s nothing that can replace the brilliance of playing a videogame with your friends literally beside you. This is the third edition of Sofa Sharers, a bi-weekly feature that aims to bring the injustice into the light or, failing that, it’s a small dedication to split-screen gaming. This week we’re taking a look at the world of Nintendo, whose developers have long remained the kings of couch co-op. Plus, a bit of speculation over one of the biggest games of 2014.

Looking Back - The Best of Split-Screen

Nintendo has left a split-screen legacy in its wake. Many of the company’s most famous and impressive titles have featured a local co-op mode. What’s more, in many games the split-screen is often the crowning feature, the Pièce de résistance. Without a doubt, there’s one Nintendo game that tops all the rest when it comes to couch co-op.

As discussed in the previous edition, Goldeneye is often noted as the best split-screen game ever. It’s a difficult statement to deny given the stupendous popularity of the game. But if there’s one game, or rather game series, that could stand toe to toe with Bond, it has to be the beloved Mario Kart. If the split-screen in Goldeneye is the best, then Mario Kart has to be the most widely known, played and enjoyed. The game has a general appeal that only Nintendo seems to be able to achieve; for many gamers it’s one of the few games they can get their non-game playing friends or family members to try. For this reason alone, it’s a standout title.

Split-screen in Mario Kart has a long and prestigious legacy. Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideki Konno (producer and director) have often noted that the original Super Mario Kart was created specifically for two players to play on one screen. Certainly, this concept wasn’t remotely unusual when the game was created in 1992, but arguably Mario Kart took couch co-op to a whole new level. The gameplay, to begin with, is perfect for split-screen gaming; the subtle aggressiveness is hidden beneath the game’s charming exterior, making the game accessible for new players, yet incredibly diverse, tense and often difficult for experienced gamers.

Every single home console version of Mario Kart has featured couch co-op play: from Super Mario Kart through the most popular Mario Kart Wii all the way up to the upcoming Mario Kart 8 on Wii U. Mario Kart: Double Dash even saw two players occupy one kart! So yes, this series is quite possibly the standard-bearer of split-screen. Nintendo has always focused on the player experience over any other factor, so it’s no surprise to see that they continue to place importance on playing literally alongside your friends and family. In my humble opinion, it’s the split-screen that has made Mario Kart the huge series it is today. There are few games that manage to be so fun, yet so unbearably frustrating at the same time. That alone deserves an award.

Looking Within - Split-Screen Memories

This week, we’ve got a little treat in store. GameGrin’s Helen Ashcroft takes a look within, providing us with some memories of one of her favourite local co-op games:

Mario Party. Two words which always evoke a ton of awesome memories. Playing Mario Party 4 and 5 on our Gamecube with a couple of friends used to be a regular occurrence. The game lends itself perfectly to co-op gaming. For anyone who has never had the pleasure, Mario Party is basically a giant board game on your console. Up to four players pick a character and then the game begins. The aim is to move around the gameboard collecting stars and coins. After each player has had one turn you all play a mini-game.

Although some of the special squares and items on the board can lead to fun consequences, it is the mini-games which make Mario Party shine. Hours have been spent in our house perfecting skills in random things like penalty shoot outs, paragliding and dungeon exploration. You can choose to play the whole game as teams of two or as individuals. Whatever you decide however, the mini-games can make you all play against each other, in teams of two or even one against three. Switching up the dynamics means you could be teamed up with someone in one game then fighting them in the next, adding a new level of competitiveness as sabotage comes into play.

Every time I see this game I am reminded of the hours of practising mini-games, the times a game was turned on its head by a badly timed Bowser space, the epic rolls that let you snatch a star from under someone’s nose and the feeling you got as you waited for the scores. Never quite managing to keep track of who won the most stars, coins or landed on the most “happening spaces” meant that half the time the eventual winner would be a surprise.

Fun times.

Looking Forward - The Future of Split-Screen

There’s one game on almost everyone’s lips (or fingers) at the moment, Titanfall. The next-gen FPS from Respawn concluded its high-profile beta this week after a hugely successful trial period. Titanfall, over the past week, has gone from one of the Xbox One’s most enticing prospects to the biggest game of 2014. The beta is great fun, that much I’m sure you’ve heard from just about every gaming site, and it looks as though the full game is going to be a real winner. But Titanfall won’t feature split-screen, or at least that’s what Respawn has been saying over the past months, so why is it in Sofa Sharers?

Interestingly, the game files of the Titanfall beta were ripped apart last week by a NeoGaf user (info via Reddit) revealing some nice little tidbits of info. As well as the name of the 15 maps that will feature in the main game (among other things), the game files also showed traces of a split-screen mode. It’s more than likely these are simply remnants of an excluded mode, but it’s a real point of interest. Why did Respawn remove split-screen from the game? Were they ever really considering it? At what point was the mode removed? Maybe we’ll never get the answers to those questions, or maybe (hopefully!) Respawn will surprise us by releasing the game with couch co-op in tow. The Call of Duty bloodline that Titanfall stems from would suggest that this could happen, but modern FPSs don’t have a great track record when it comes to split-screen implementation.

It’s all hope at this point, so don’t expect a nice surprise like that. It’s a sad sign of the future of split-screen that revolutionary titles like Titanfall don’t include local co-op. Respawn’s desire to keep the game running at 60fps is probably the primary reason for the missing split-screen; although I dare say that this same aim didn’t prevent Infinity Ward from including 4-player split-screen in CoD4. My friend and I were playing the Titanfall beta the other day, swapping the controller upon death; it’s still a fun way to play, but a split screen would have been ideal. There are undoubtedly a lot of players out there who want the same; we just need to get a bit more vocal!

 

That’s all for this week’s Sofa Sharers. The articles go live on Friday every two weeks, so keep your eye on GameGrin for the latest editions. Let’s not let split-screen die, but help it rise from the ashes like a Phoenix!