What I Played Last Week Stag Edition Pt. 3
Last, but not least, I wanted to chat a bit about the video games played at my stag weekend. I am so excited by the recent return to same-room co-op that we’re seeing in games, and I can’t pass up an opportunity to mention a few. Well, to be honest, I’m only really interested in telling you about one game: Mount Your Friends. The others are a footnote.
Mount Your Friends
Mount Your Friends is a skill-based physics game that theoretically supports more players than you have friends, but realistically plays best with 8 players or fewer. It is turn-based, so, a little like a rowdy game of ten pin bowling, you’ll be cheering each other on as you go about each turn. As the timer in the top corner ticks down, the crowd around the active player will become louder and louder, and each successful turn is always met with cheers from the crowd and groans from whoever has to take the next turn. The tension builds throughout the game and you’ll all be screaming by the time you’re down to a 1v1 climb to determine the champion. This is a fine example of sport transposed into video games and you all need to play it.
Oh and by the way you all play as men wearing nothing but banana hammocks and your dongs swing in the breeze as you mount each other over and over again.
Nidhogg
When you first play Nidhogg, the 2-player sword-fight-em-up you never knew you needed, you think it’s mostly button-bashing and you don’t understand how anyone can ever actually be good at it. Then you play a second round and realise you were so, so wrong. You figure out that you can throw your sword, punch, jump kick, dodge, parry and disarm. You realise that, in fact, it is possible to be good at the game, and you probably never will be.
Nidhogg looks gorgeous, sounds gorgeous, and plays incredibly well.
Crawl
Ok so I didn’t actually play Crawl that weekend, I just watched a bit, but I’ve played it before and it is so innovative that I can’t leave it out. This is a 4 player dungeon crawl in which one player becomes the hero and the rest take on the role of the monsters in the dungeon. if you manage to kill the player, you swap roles, and suddenly the team of monsters you were working with are against you, and you’re on your own. Levelling up the player gives the monsters levels too, and there’s a whole tree of monster advancements you can work on as well as a shop full of treats for the player. I love the way you swap from being friends to enemies in moments, and it doesn’t hurt that the game plays really well and looks great.
Crawl is in development, and my only criticisms of it feel like things that will change as they develop it: it needs more variety to stay fresh. Therefore, it might be worth waiting for a full release, but I absolutely recommend keeping an eye on it.