Our friend Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report has penned an interesting article discussing as aspect of coin-op gaming that has had a strong history and is starting to resurge once again – co-op gaming. Kevin looks over notable co-op games that have come along since Pong Doubles (no mention of some of my favorites like Rip Off , Elevator Action Returns and Xybots but that’s OK, you can’t get them all in there), discussing how Atari carried the water for a long time in this arena but eventually they were surpassed by Japanese developers who gave us multiplayer co-op games like The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many, many others. Click here to read the article!
Kevin does mention how we are seeing trends taking us back to co-op gaming and I think that it’s a great thing. There is nothing wrong with competitive gaming but there is a thirst out there for co-op games as well. I’ve mentioned this before when discussing the success of games like Left 4 Dead, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies, etc. I found it interesting that one arcade developer said that they were paying close attention to the New Super Mario Bros. Wii with it’s co-op aspects and while I can’t tell if that means we’ll see a new co-op sidescroller anytime soon, I do look forward to seeing more co-op games in arcades this year. Namco is certainly on that path with Tank! Tank! Tank! and Dead Storm Pirates; I think that Justice League missed a great opportunity last year to provide a four-player-on-one-cabinet design but the game still offered 2p co-op. 2p co-op is nice and all but after recently playing Arabian Magic and Dungeon Magic I have to say that I long to see more four player games on the market that don’t require operators to have to buy several expensive cabinets to achieve that.
