The Best Co-op modes of our time?

[DJ Sack]

You have just lost all of my geek respect

Do you remember that you could chnage the control method so that one controller controlled movement and the other controller controller aiming and firing. It was great fun on many missions and really had to work together to achive results. It was alos lots of fun becuase you only had to focus on one aspect of the game and it made getting some of the cheats much easier.

Firstly: Phew im glad my geekiness is now sliding away, im thankful

Secondly: Is it co-op or is it someone being inventive with a control scene that was meant to simulate the two stick effect? Oooooo

[scruffycat]

Toejam And Earl?

I'm going for Gauntlet though, especially for the fact that any well concieved co-operation could be destroyed by the 'It' monster

[Tetchy]

Xybots and Escape from the Planet of The Monster Robots....two great examples from mid to late eighties.

[Meat]

Personal experience:

-Double Dragons

-We used to have fun throwing cars years ago in a game at the arcades called "Crude Dudes" or "Two Crude Dudes" or something like that.

-Bombermans

-Smash TV

-UN Squadron (only on the Amiga and Atari ST; devastatingly, Capcom left co-op out of the SNES version)

-Secret of Mana

-Golden Axe

-Hired Guns

-Silkworm

-Metal Slug series

-PESs (and pretty much all sport games)

-Mario Kart (sort of)

-Halo

I think the co-op genre has been criminally underused over the years as co-op games have provided the best enjoyment and satisfaction playing games for me. So what we used to do sometimes was to take any single player game (Turok for example) and take it in turns with either a life, or a level each.

[dr_lha]

Wizball, one player as the Wiz and the other as the cat. Classic stuff.

C64 version I'm talking about here, every other version should be deleted from history.

[emjay2kay]

Bonanza Bros. Me and my mate used to play this all the time. "You go left, I'll go right", or "you go upstairs..." or whatever. Working together, especially on the last level to get all of the loot and get out on time was brilliant.

Sunset Riders. Pick up a gun and shoot basically. Thoroughly enjoyable, and me and my sister used to play this, like Streets of Rage 2, absolutely loads.

[Tetchy]

All the old Konami scrolling beat em ups as well like TMHT, The Simpsons and X-Men....MAMe I love you!

[Jack]

Phantasy Star Online

Fucking A.

[Flockheart]

How does the Coop mode in Return of the King stack up, I've got the game but not tried the 2 player mode?

[New York Mikey]

I quite enjoyed the co-op mode in the PS2 version of half life.

Until Halo came along and blew it away.

[TomCGCG]

Bubble Bobble . That and Gauntlet were two co-op games me and my bro played lots as kids.

[Alex W.]

System Shock 2- unbeatable in my opinion. Better than Halo co-op, better than TS co-op, better than Double Dragon II. Incredible.

[whatwhat]

Hired Guns.

I totally agree, thats my favourite co-op game. 2 Mice & 1 Amiga, absolutely legendary

[fasteasyfree]

Another vote for Duke Nukem 64. Shame that there wasn't double the amount of items

Serious Sam is great fun for the first six hours, after that you're actually quite bored.

[Hitcher]

Super Mario Kart

Perfect Dark

Secret of Mana

Halo

[pelago]

How does the Coop mode in Return of the King stack up, I've got the game but not tried the 2 player mode?

I've played it a little and it's fine, if a little busy on the screen. Mind you, in co-op mode the players have a P1 and P2 about their heads, which you don't have in single player mode, which helps work out who's who.

[mechamonkey]

any MMORPG.

Crystal Chronicles.

[Systemshock]

Final fantasy XI by several long chalks.

[cinabar]

I love co-op modes.... my faves are:

Serious Sam

Conflict Desert Storm (1 and 2)

Brute Force

Starsky and Hutch (had both lightgun and steering wheel!)

Time Splitters (1 and 2)

Ghost Recon (all)

Balders Gate DA (1 and2)

Dungeons and Dragons

Twisted Metal World Tour

Vigilante 8

LOTR Retun of the King

I know it said other than Halo - but arrghh come on: Halo!

Oh yes - lets not forget all the great gun games - i have two lightguns, so Time Crisis, Vampire Nights and Virtua Cop need to be included too!

What i really hate though is when you buy a game JUST for its co-op mode and then they won't actually let you play it without playing the one player first... (Return to Castle Wolfenstein - I'm looking at you)

Also i hate when the co-op mode is just an extra add on... if i am buying it for the co-op mode then i feel like i have to play the one player to get my moneys worth... grumble. (XIII, SWAT looking at you!)

On the horizon we have: Doom 3... Serious Sam: Next Encounter... Unreal: The Awakening... Champions of Norrath.... Halo 2.....

[Blackeyedangel]

Just remembered one: Lucky and Wild.

Old arcade game, not sure how many people have played it. Two cops, one drives while the other shoots, great fun I'm telling ya. Bit like the Starsky and Hutch game, but better.

[daveodeth]

Zero Tolerence on the mega drive.

[daveodeth]

Yeah, cheap eggs, AND they do funerals.

fuckin funny

[Wyrmling]

On the arcade, defientely Dungeons And Dragons, Vendetta and Smash TV, and TS2, Halo and FF:CC for consoles.

How come no-one's mentioned Shining Soul II for GBA?

[Matt G]

So far unmentioned I think, I thought Dynasty Warriors was awesome in multiplayer - last one I played was number three on the X-Box. Involved lots of shouting for help and backup

[Yod@]

I totally agree, thats my favourite co-op game. 2 Mice & 1 Amiga, absolutely legendary

Seconded. Er, thirded in fact. B)

[McCoy]

Swat also had a really good co-op mode desighed purely for the co-op mode which was nice.

[Mk.]

Anybody remember trying to work the 'two seperate controllers controlling Bond' setups in Goldeneye? Now those were class, and get my vote.

[bobontheway]

The Chaos Engine

I've lost so many hours to that game.

That music is evil, it just keeps you going..... never was too good at that game tho but with co-op i could have a good jaunt on it.

*Wishes he had his megadrive with Chaos Engine*

also i'd like to mention Age of Empires (and Mythology). Don't know if i would technically consider it co-op in the sense of Chaos Engine etc but still.

Gets me through the days here in HK, internet cafe skirmish with flatmates.

Ally against the computer then just when we're moments away from winning one of us will change teams and wage war on the others. Makes for some interesting moments, sometimes we play nice - others we don't. Attitude depends on how nice the students have been that day.

[taiAtari]

Wizball, one player as the Wiz and the other as the cat. Classic stuff.

C64 version I'm talking about here, every other version should be deleted from history.

This was indeed a great coop mode. I lost many an hour playing as the Wiz and a friend as Nifta. Utterly brilliant and one of the best games ever in my opinion. I seem to remember Zapp! not giving it a gold medal, somewhat like Edge not giving Goldeneye a ten.

[BossSaru]

I remember that Sonic 2 kept my sister and I amused for a long time.

Linking up X Wing versus Tie Fighter was an important stage in my youth too.