Halo aside, I'm not very big on multiplayer games unless they're of the local kind (Hello street fighter IV!). This thread, though, is about those single-player experiences that have been enhanced by playing with someone else. I generally find that the most suitable games for this sort of thing are ones which are light on narrative (Super Mario Sunshine) or heavy on death (Super Monkey Ball; Ninja Gaiden).
My best experience was probably playing Super Mario Sunshine when it had just come out with a school mate of mine. We had both just started our first job and at some point I had saved enough to buy a Gamecube and a copy of Wind Waker and Sunshine. Zelda was always too sacrosanct to play with someone else, but Sunshine....
Anyway, this Andre guy worked in a pastry shop and he'd come over with a couple of beers in tow and this almighty smell of icing sugar hanging on his clothes, not having bothered to change just to make it to our next Sunshine session. It added to the saccharine visuals unlike anything else. Fun times! The way it would work was we'd pass the controller every time we collected a Shine Sprite. The fun was had not in seeing the other player fail as much as in out-performing each other as if it were an acrobatic performance.
We played Ninja Gaiden together a few years down the line, but that was a different experience.
Single-player for Two
Posts: 28
I used to watch my neighbor play Elite on the BBC when I was young. It kicked off my interest in games.
Anyway, two people playing sp together... Portal is brilliant for that, as is all puzzlers. Braid... Coming up with solutions together, passing the controller, taking turns when there's a dificult passage. Great stuff.
I much prefer playing single player games with other people to be honest. I don't know if I've just got a really bad attention span or something, but I just get really easily fed up playing on my own.
Highlights would be playing though OOT at uni with my housemates, did Ico over a couple of nights once with a mate. And when I was young a friend came over every day one summer to play Mario World.
Recently played through Portal 2 with a friend, and enjoyed it much more than I think I would have alone.
I remember back at Uni playing Ninja Gaiden Black pass the pad with 4 of us. I recommend it. It's far less frustrating when only 1 out of every 4 deaths are yours. It was also the first time I had met 2 of the people, which was a lovely introduction.
My favorite example of these is where a second player can drop in and out whenever they like. I think the first time I saw this was Sonic2, then Ico did it. Makes gameplaying even more wife friendly when they know they can not only observe and advise (christ they like doing that) but join in with little to no penalty
I think the general consensus here is going to be Portal 2.
Fantastic fun with 1 or 2 players. Just ask Stevo who completed one co-op section on his lonesome.
PSN: Sasukekun
Currently trying to play: FIFA 12, Virtua Tennis 4, Uncharted 3 MP, Portal 2, Naruto: UNS2, Nier, Ico & SotC HD, Child of Eden, House of the Dead: Overkill EC, Alpha Protocol.
@cockbeard - you can have a second player in Ico?
Weadre, here you go: Enable 2 Player Mode
This code does not apply to the North American version of the game
Play and finish the game once, wait until the credit finish and once you get control of ICO, search for Yorda beside the sea shore. After the final ending you will be prompted a save screen. Save it and restart the game with Yorda controllable (2nd player) and 5 different background music / screen to choose from. I believe you need an Action Replay contraption, too. But I could be mistaken.
Not quite that complicated
Just finish the game once, then on a subsequent playthroughs, the second controller is Yorda
If there's one thing i dearly, dearly miss about being a kid with nothing to better to do, its playing through huge, epic RPGs with a little group of mates.
Its something thats sadly impossible to do as an adult. When you look around the smoke filled room at four in the morning, the bird song faintly nagging you to go to bed, the room littered with empty crisp packets and beer cans, your little group of mates wrapped up in sleeping bags, dreary eyes fighting to stay awake, you just can't justify it as an adult. It just feels wrong! You have work on Monday! You should have done something more productive! As a kid with nothing better to do its magical.
You share the highs and lows, the characters plights and triumphs, the world, the action, the horror, the emotion, the controller. You talk endlessly about the plot and about tactics and about who should be the one to go to the shop to get some more rizzler. You live in a little hazey bubble and become totally immersed in the game..and you do it all together.
I miss those days yo. This one goes out to my RPG fam. You know who you are. *lighter*
Back in the C64 days me and a friend beat combat school together. We had trouble with the first level where you waggle the joystick to build up speed and hit the button to leap. So the team-up was I would waggle the stick (er...) and he would wack the button to make the little soldier jump (em...)
Another great SP as MP moment was a few of us were a bit drunk and decided to take turns through Halo on Legendary (split screen 2 player between I think 5 of us)
Great fun but we didn't make it past the Library.
White Knight Chronicles 2 out next week.
I'm pretty sure the online mode is making a return.
PSN: Sasukekun
Currently trying to play: FIFA 12, Virtua Tennis 4, Uncharted 3 MP, Portal 2, Naruto: UNS2, Nier, Ico & SotC HD, Child of Eden, House of the Dead: Overkill EC, Alpha Protocol.
The SNES was my 'pass the pad round' console of choice.
In particular - Axelay & Super Aleste, Aladdin, Cool Spot, the Star Wars games, Another World, Cybernator & Tiny Toon Adventures.