Most fun multiplayer games on the Amiga

Nowadays, with internet-gaming being so widespread and easy to access, having a couple of chums over for an all-night bout of gaming goodness is becoming rarer and rarer. More and more often, 'multiplayer' in this day and age means logging into PSN/Xbox Live/Battlenet, and battling it out against anonymous l33tkids.

In the good ol' Amiga days, this wasn't so. Back then, 'multiplayer' meant inviting friends over, sitting down on the comfy couch with a sixpack and a bag of crisps, and beating the crap out of each other in a game of Street Fighter, Sensible Soccer or the like.

Do you have particular fond memories of multiplayer gaming on the Amiga? What were your favourite multiplayer titles?


The games I've had most fun with playing with friends/my brother are definitely:

The Chaos Engine: Finished this with my brother at least 5 times. It never got old.

Speedball 2: Frustrating as heck when your opponent is on the roll, but bloody good fun anyhow.

Sensible Soccer: Probably the king of multiplayer games.

Pang!: Played this a lot with my brother also. Completed it at least 6-7 times. Definitely a lot more fun in two-player co-op mode.

SWIV: Bloody brilliant shoot'em up, made even greater in two-player mode. Very good challenge too.

Sensible Soccer was superb for multiplayer. I used to made championchips with all the guys on my street, we were +/- 10 and we did a championship table with all the matchs we had to do, at what day and time the match would occur, the goals, points, everything like a real league. It was so fun!
We did the same with Kick Off and Emlyn Hughes International Soccer.
But sensible soccer was the best one!

We used to play all those games. Speedball 2 was probably the most played multiplayer Amiga game I had. Rampage was another that was only ever good in multiplayer mode.

Some of the side scrolling beat 'em ups like Double Dragon 2 were also great multiplayer, along with Gauntlet 2.

And then there was Super Bomberman and Mario Kart on the SNES. Those are still as great today.

Double Dragon was great in multiplayer, as were a lot of sports games. Mostly I played Turbo together with a friend or Bubble Bobble but also games like Oil Imperium were a lot of fun playing together.

Skidmarks and Micromachines were brilliant fun in two player, as were some of the simpler PD/covermountes games like Bip, Gravity Force, Atom Smasher, Obliterator (I think it was called) and of course the classic Tanx.

Oh, multiplayer games on the Amiga - what fun to be had! :)

One I've spent a large amount of time on back in the day is obviously Bloodwych, for which I wrote an in depth review:

http://www.lemonamiga.com/reviews/view.php?id=231

I know all the dungeon maps off by heart!

Many other classics already listed above have been the subject of heated competitions and arguments.

Serial link cable games were always fun and an early form of LAN multiplayer gaming. StuntCar Racer and Populous II come immediately to mind, and I think you could play one of the Lotus games four player and have a few dog fights on Falcon.

Some of the more simple multiplayer games were always a hoot - Bi-Planes/Dog-Fight, Sky Chase, Tanks - good times.

Yep, Lotus 2 could be played via two linked machines for 4 players. And Stunt Car Racer was definitely one of the best link up games. But for some reason I never did try Populous in this mode. Not sure why as everyone I knew also had the game.

Another good multiplayer game if you had two mice was Lemmings!

Some other good multiplayer games:

Rodland: Cute platformer.
Parasol Stars: One of my favourite platform games ever. It was hard to master, but managed to complete it in the end. Have played this a lot in two-player mode.
Deluxe Galaga: Oh yeah, this shoot'em up simply rocked!

I also remember the other games mentioned here, like Sensible Soccer, Kick Off, Speedball 2, Skidmarks and so on. All great games!

I forgot about Rodland, that was definitely more fun in two player mode. In fact all games similar to Bubble Bobble are. Rainbow Islands is another.

What do you guys think of the trend that's been going on, where more and more games - even those that have traditionally always been played with a couple of chums in the same living room (like versus beat'em ups, football games, etc.) - are getting online play modes?

Good thing? Bad thing?

In my eyes, nothing can really replace the social aspect of competing against friends, face-to-face. On the other hand, always having people on hand to play with/against is a big pro when going online, plus online multiplayer can reach a much bigger scale. Yet, everything seems so much more impersonal.

One that hasn't been mentioned is Twintris, in my opinion one of the best Tetris games made. As the name implies it has two playfields and is designed for head to head play, but plays excellent as a single-player game as well.

About online gameplay, I think it's great that games can be played online. But not at the cost of playing with visiting friends on the same machine. Several recent games have gone that route, Colin McRae Dirt for example has no local multiplayer capability but does have an online mode. It should've had both in my opinion.

I agree. Multiplayer games should come with LAN and Internet play. It is much more common now for a home to have 2 or more PCs, and with wireless routers now being so popular they are normally networked, so being able to play games over a LAN is more useful now that ever before.

I've not played Twintris for a long time. Another similar game I used to enjoy, that we played a while back for a comp, and is great in multiplayer is the PD game Dr. Mario.

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One that hasn't been mentioned is Twintris, in my opinion one of the best Tetris games made.

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Whoo, don't know what to say :unsure: At the time the game was released I had my first "real" girlfriend (yes, I didn't have sex before 18), and we played a lot of Twintris, and I lost almost every time we played, and that just drove me mad. And nowadays Tetris is still annoying me, I get too aggressive whilst playing :wall:

Tetris definitely is one of those games where staying calm, almost going into a meditative trance while playing yields the best result. So definitely not one for aggressive gamers, I agree. :lol:

Very true. It is amazing how focused you become as you play Tetris into the higher levels and the blocks get faster. It's not until you die that you realise how hyped up you have become due to the concentration.

So have you already seen this guy:

Japan Tetris Finals

That is mad. How can anyone think and move the shapes that quickly. :blink:

Some of these people are simply crazy. There was also this Japanese guy who could solve a Rubik's cube puzzle in less than a minute (or, if it was more, it was very quick anyway).

I saw that rubik's cube guy on the TV the other week. That was mad to watch. I didn't know a human could move his hands that fast! Those Japanese are dedicated, you have to give them that!

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Originally Posted by Demon Cleaner

So have you already seen this guy:

Japan Tetris Finals

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And my g/f used to say I was quick!

I remember watching that years ago in work with half the office sttod around my desk in amazement. I think i have been sticking folk like that on japanese warhawk servers - you respawn, take two steps, die - and so on. It certainly forces you to play better!

I don't know so much about online multiplayer..
Not the same unless you can the see the look of shame and defeat in their faces and hear the sweet music of lamentation in your ears.