As I get older and older and gaming becomes more reliant on online capabilities, I’m beginning to miss the days when my buddies would come over and we would play Super Nintendo until we fell asleep. Now it is harder to find those types of nights with all of the online functions, grown up life, and the movement away from couch co-op. Finding a game like that is very rare as well; Rock Band and Guitar Hero are trying to bring it back, and the fledgling Wii U has some titles that allow for it, but other than that Sony and Microsoft somewhat shun the concept. They’ve accepted that online is the way to go and push for it, even though some of us long for the days of eating pizza and gaming into the wee hours of the morn. These are five of my favorite couch co-op games from my youth.
5) Street Fighter II
There was one summer in my youth that involved many sleepovers, lots of time in 7-11, and bags of quarters. This is how I was introduced to Street Fighter. My buddies and I roamed Northern California, looking for convenience stores that had this game readily available since it hadn’t been released on consoles yet. That was one of my favorite summers; I spent some great time with friends, saw a lot of 7-11’s, and got pretty good at Street Fighter. When the game was released on the Super Nintendo, I begged my parents for it and received it a few weeks later. I told my buddies about it and we concocted plans to have sleepovers at my place so we could have much cheaper Street Fighter tournaments. We would write down who won which matches and play long into the night. I wish I could wrangle up the same group of buddies for a huge Street Fighter V tournament when that hits, but I’ll just have to enjoy my memories for the time being.
4) Mutant League Football
This is the only non Nintendo system game on my list due to the fact that I had a Nintendo childhood. My parents wouldn’t allow me to have both systems, so I picked the one all my friends had — Except for that one friend who went against the grain and grabbed a Sega Genesis. I don’t actually think it was his choice. One of his family members worked for EA and he loved sports, so the Genesis found its way onto his television. He and I would huddle up in his room with some Brass Bear sandwiches and soda, and play the day away with Mutant League Football. Seeing as we lived in Northern California at the time, I would always want to play as the Sixty Whiners, just because they were a knock on the 49er’s. I never really did — and still don’t — play sports games too much, but I loved pitting my skeletons and trolls against the opposing team’s zombies and such. What made this even more fun was the fact that you could call plays to kill the refs, and you could slowly kill the other teams players, as well. Many games were lost because I ran out of living players to man the field with. I need to get my hands on a copy of this game.
3) Rampage
Rampage was another game that I was introduced to in arcade machine form. I remember glimpsing a long line at a local pizza eatery and slowly wandering over to see what the buzz was about. My buddy and I waited in line, quarters in hand, and when we finally got to the head of the line we were greeted with something that blew our young minds: A game where we could play as King Kong or Godzilla facsimiles and destroy buildings in a tandem competition. Holy crap that was great. Thankfully, my parents took note of my enjoyment playing this game and got it for me one Christmas, so I got to battle my buddies from the comfort of my room. This game was always on the top list to play during our fifth grade sleepovers, having pizza and destroying cities in its 8-bit glory. I remember having mini contests of how many people we could grab out of the windows and eat. The top person consumer would get the last piece of pizza or first choice of dessert.
2) Contra
Up up down down left right left right B A select start — that Konami code is burned into my memory, along with many of my friends and other people my age. After that code was discovered, many a night was enjoyed playing through Contra over and over. I never really beat too many video games when I was younger, but I remember this and Mega Man 2 being some of them. I’m sure that I could easily beat this game again in one sitting, but it wouldn’t be the same without my buddies surrounding me, one helping me defeat the aliens while the rest rooted us on. It was so much fun jumping and shooting through these levels as you tried not to kill your fellow player by moving ahead too fast. Nothing beat the feeling of defeating a boss with a friend and continuing the mission to rid the world of aliens.
1) Super Mario Kart
The Super Nintendo was the system to have in the 90’s for all childhood festivities, and one of the games that was a must play was Super Mario Kart. Playing with friends made this game worthwhile; It really wasn’t fun unless you were playing against a live person. There was always that danger of your friend hitting you with that turtle shell or accidently running over your own banana. These competitive evenings were great, nothing was better than knocking your friend out of first place and zooming ahead of him to win the race. The dirty look you would receive, then the laughter that would ensue are some priceless memories. We never got one of those “participation” trophies during game night — We were out to win and out to win hard.
Fellow “aging gamers,” are there any games that I may have missed in my list? I know I was Nintendo heavy, but that was all that I had when I was younger. Please, enlighten me to the Genesis side. Let us know what some of your favorite retro couch co-op games were in the comments below!