Party Games

I have some friends coming over this weekend to play some games for a few hours before we head down to Santa Cruz to see a play. I love having people over to play games – I’m just a big ol’ geek and if I had the space I’d start throwing LAN parties every weekend.
So I’m toying with what good party games are for three people. I should emphasize that the other two people are women, one of whom is fairly hardcore (Halo, NFS:Underground) and one of whom is basically a gaming newbie. So here’s what I’m thinking: EyeToy:Play, DDRMAX2, Mario Party 4, Ribbit King. Perhaps Gamecube WarioWare (I have to pick that one up still). Since we only have one PC we’re pretty much bound to console games, but I have three controllers for each console so we’re in good shape there. Hmmm, perhaps Karaoke Revolution too.
What are your favorite party games for mixed audiences?


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2 responses to “Party Games”

  1. robin Avatar

    I have always found Mario Kart to be a fun newbie selection – racing is easy and the characters are cute. Over time, you can get real rivalries going with people who have hardly gamed!!
    😛
    Super Smash Brothers is random enough that it can be fun even if you don’t know at all what you’re doing – and is fun for the hardcore too. It is best with a lot of people tho. Bomberman has that same big party, lots of laughs and action kind of vibe.
    Top Spin Tennis and Mario Golf (Ribbit King trumps that I suppose) are also pretty fun for mid-sized groups – if you have time. Doubles in Top Spin is great if you swap out the winning team and encourage lots of trash talk.
    The same goes for most fighting games – provided that you swap out the winner on each round. That way newbies get to train up and the others can advise them on strategy.

  2. markdeloura Avatar

    Thanks Robin – Mario Kart! Didn’t think about that one, that’s a really good one for sure.
    Why is it that most of the good multiplayer games are on Gamecube? I suppose a large part of it is because of the four ports – with the relatively small installed base of multitaps on PS2, why bother implementing anything beyond two-player multiplay? On the Xbox side it’s probably more that the games that show up exclusively on Xbox tend toward the hardcore, since that’s the perception Xbox marketing is trying to push for the box.
    Well, turns out the big hit was Gamecube Warioware… we played the heck out of that, pretty much every multiplayer mode. 🙂 Also Super Monkey Ball’s “Monkey Target” and some Eyetoy Groove. Fun!