Category Archive

I have a great many weaknesses, but one of the more prominent lies in the area of cooperative gaming.

Oh, how I miss the blocky good times.

I remember, back in the day, that occasionally Blades of Steel (hockey) on the 8-bit NES, a glitch would occur and somehow you and your friend could both control players on the same team.  It was chaos as the controls mirrored each other so the defence guy had to be careful not to interfere once he passed the puck out his area of responsibility.  It was often traumatically funny, with our pixelated little hockey avatars swooping around seemly at random, the game confused by two sets of input, while the computer went in and scored on us.  Oh the angst and thrills of victory (especially over the pink tinged Montreal Canadians).   In the same vein, Contra, another 8-bit classic we played to death as it was one of the first legitimate two player co-op games on the home console market.  Life was good, but things were poised to become great back in the summer of 1991.

Nineteen years ago,  Electronic Arts (back when EA was just another good budding developer) released NHL Hockey.  My best friend and I had been waiting for this game to be released for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis for about a year.  I can still remember coming home from school and seeing the large cardboard box wedged in the mailbox.   My pulse still quickens at the memory.

Co-Op + Playoffs = Awesome!

You see, EA Hockey was not available in Canada(!) when it was first released, I sent away for it, buying directly from EA via snail mail.  We got our copy an entire delicious month before the rest of Canada had retail access to the game.  EA Hockey was innovative for its time, the first game featuring a top down vertical play action, but more importantly, you could choose to both play on the same team.

Sweet Mother of Jebus, but was it fun!  The Edmonton Oilers, back in the 1990 still featured amazing talent and my best friend and I relished making the one timer players, and those oh so sweet cross ice passes from Messier to Kurri, not to mention those wacky breakaways with the speedy Petr Klima.  EA did not get the license from the NHLPA so the avatars only had numbers, but that was fine, back then we knew all the numbers for the Oilers.

Oh, Mega Drive, with the crappy homemade s-video to RCA converter.

I’m sure, if I found my school records, I could track the dip in my academics when that first game was released.  I’d do it again though, in a heart-beat as those were some great times for me on the video game front.  Yes gentle reader we’re getting to War in the North, but know that the road getting from there to here passed through many a classic co-op title – Streets of Rage 1,2 (especially 2), 3, Double Dragon (sega master system), Contra, of course the EA NHL and NFL games, Altered Beast, GOLDEN AXE 1,2 (Oh how I miss you sweet barbarian princess),oh don’t forget NBA Jam (boomshakalaka!!).

After about 2003ish, gaming companies finally got the idea that people like playing on the same team together and titles began to pour out – Soldier of Fortune 1,2, Serious Sam, Team Fortress, SW Battle Front, Counter-Strike, Diablo 2, and of course the current pinnacle of co-op shooter gaming Left for Dead 1 and 2.  (I realize this is far from comprehensive list, add your favs in the comments).  The number games now that feature co-op gaming are simply too numerous to list here,  however it is nice to have your particular gaming addictions properly fed. :)

Having played the Lord of the Rings games for the original xbox (and being a Tolkien fan, pre-movies) the idea of entering realms from the fantasy series has always been particular appealing.  As a side note, I always wonder why developers try and take a game based around a successful and wildly popular co-op mechanic and make it into a turd-a-rific single player experience; yes I’m looking at you Golden Axe: Beast Rider.

Back to the LoTR though, on the PC-gaming front not much has been done (well) with regards to cooperative play until now.  The Lord of the Rings: The War in the North fills out the cooperative role nicely so far (I’ve only played 2 of the 8 chapter of the game).  Like its Mega-Drive predecessor LotR:WiN is based around the singular concept of finding neat new ways to put the pointy end of your sword into nearest Orc baddie.  I was leery of purchasing the game reviews were mixed at best.  What won me over was the price drop from $50down to $20 dollars.  Twenty dollars is the sweet spot for purchasing most computer games, as they tend to disappear from shelves and not return until a “new and improved” gold edition (for more $$) is released later in the year.  Anyhow, for forty dollars, even lacklustre hack and slash is fairly good deal.

Economics aside, I did feel a certain amount of trepidation due because this was one of those “gut-purchases” more than my usual “brain-purchases”.  Hmm…how does it look?

Yah, okay…I’m sold.  It is as fun as it looks (so far).   Seeing that this is already some eight hundred words, I’ll continue this nostalgia/anecdata/game review in another post when I have more of the game under my belt. :)