It’s been a busy and stressful week so I’m a bit late with this episode of Side by Side. If only I could have got another version of myself to post this on Wednesday!
Well that’s sort of the idea behind Chronobot, a free 1v1 competitive local multiplayer game where each player co-operates (hah!) with previous timelines of themselves to jockey with the other for different objectives. Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I were pleasantly surprised, and confused, by this one.
There’s been a lot of balls this season. First, the not-so regular Regular Human Basketball, followed a little later by the zany Anyball, and now we’re on to our third (but not final): Waynetron’s Birdsketball, which is undoubtedly the most straight forward of the lot. Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I adored this which translated to one of our favourite episodes of the season.
Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I put our fingers on the big red buttons in a bid to annihilate each other in Sven Ahlgrimm’s Nuclear Reaction, a one button whirling nuclear war game for up to four fingers. Local only, unless if you’ve got really long fingers.
As I mentioned in my previous review, I just got back from PAX West 2018. Here’s a by no means complete list of games I played there and thought were interesting!
I’m not going to talk here about upcoming AAA releases like Kingdom Hearts 3 and Devil May Cry 5. (Though if you didn’t know that both of those games are coming out, they are!) Instead I’m just going to talk about small/indie games that caught my interest. Not only do I love indie games, but the lines to play them are a lot shorter, so you get more game in your day. Win/win!
Watch Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I momentarily trade the dog-eat-dog for… fox-help-raccoon in Piece of Cake’s split-screen asymmetric stealth action game Hacktag. This is the first — and unfortunately only — co-op title in this season of Side by Side.
My momma always said “itch.io is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get”. She wasn’t wrong, but thanks to some handy search tools it’s easy to get some real treats. This week’s treat is Totemori, a local multiplayer… uh, tot’em up? Tot’em up. Yeah, that sort of works.
Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I see whether it all stacks up.
Side by Side’s been a bit twitchy so far hasn’t it? Well in this week’s episode, Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I take a look at Cuckoo Curling to break that run up a little. It’s curling meets Connect 4 for up to four players and it’s a lovely gentle thing.
Earlier in the week Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance published our fourth episode of Side by Side where we wrangle with Anyball, a loosey-goosey local multiplayer sports game where the rules and equipment keep changing. Yikes!
In this week’s Side by Side, Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I take on the trippy channel hopping arcade madness of Tuned Out.
Next up Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I play Slampunks’ adorable slippery cephalopod racer Muddledash.
We’re back and this time we’re actually on a couch side by side. It’s only taken four seasons. I even got some pictures hung up on my back wall.
This year’s Rezzed in London was a smörgåsbord of local multiplayer delights and I was fortunate enough to tuck into a plateful of them with Joel Goodwin, friend and fellow Side by Sider over at Electron Dance.
In our final episode of Side by Side Joel and I take a look at Metanet Software’s triple-distilled platformer, N++.
The requirements for playing Die Gute Fabrik’s Johann Sebastian Joust (or ‘JS Joust‘, or just ‘Joust‘) are high. You need the game which comes bundled with Sportsfriends, the local multiplayer compilation that Joel and I covered in Side by Side season 1 quite extensively, you need a PS4 or a computer running macOS or Linux, you need two or more PlayStation Move controllers, and you need space. Oh, and friends –physically present friends– let’s not forget those. As such, and despite owning Sportsfriends, I’ve never been able to play a real game of Joust.
Until now.
This week Joel and I are the men who stare at goats. And barley. And clay, and bowls, and beer and various other things related to Studio Wumpus’ Sumer.
Quick heads-up: I think this is one of the best episodes of Side by Side.