Big-Screen Video Games

March 18, 2016 12:59 AM

A friend of a friend is going to have three hours in a movie theater all to themselves for a birthday party. What would be an amazing awesome local-multiplayer game to have running on a big screen?

Needs:
- Cool graphics that justify theater-grade projection
- Relatively quick and light gameplay
- Ability to rotate players for maximum party enjoyment
- Fun to watch as well as play

System can be flexible, but probably PC is a good default setting.

posted by Scattercat to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (25 answers total)

Not sure if the graphics meet your standards, but TowerFall is an incredibly fun local-multiplayer "archery combat platformer." If you've ever played a Super Smash Bros. game, it's a lot like that: easy to learn, quick to play, but with a certain depth to the gameplay that draws you in.
posted by panic at 1:21 AM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Mario Kart 8?
posted by a lungful of dragon at 1:38 AM on March 18, 2016 [7 favorites]

Rocket League can be played four player split screen. It's very easy to get the basics down and a huge rush when someone manages to do something even slightly awesome.

Keep in mind that it degrades extremely rapidly when someone is more experienced; four players who have never played it is optimal.

If you are very motivated you can even play your four person local team vs a group of four online.
posted by meowzilla at 1:51 AM on March 18, 2016 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Towerfall was my very first thought, too! But he says it wasn't "cool-looking" enough because apparently pixels are for peasants.

(I really want to play Towerfall on a huge movie screen though, god damn.)
posted by Scattercat at 1:57 AM on March 18, 2016

SUPER.
HOT.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:38 AM on March 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Not sure if it fits ths bill, but Artemis space ship simulator could be fun with the cinema screen as a giant display.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:38 AM on March 18, 2016

If it were me, I would get ahold of a PS2 and do one of the Katamari Damacy games. Colors! Shapes! Music! Rolling!
posted by Gordafarin at 4:41 AM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't recommend playing anything from a PS2 or same-generation machine. You might be surprised at how underwhelming NTSC graphics will look on a digital cinema projection system.

I think what you choose has to depend in part on the culture of the group that's gathering (are they serious, experienced players or more casual?) but if it were me I'd probably just pick out some current-generation fighting game (even Mortal Kombat could work if it's on PC) and let people play that semi-tournament style. It'll be entertaining to watch, easy to play even for button mashers, and should have suitably impressive pixels/polygons/fractals/nurbs.
posted by Mothlight at 5:52 AM on March 18, 2016

Samurai Gunn is a delight. Fast-paced, easy to switch players. The graphics are nothing special, but they do their job and don't get in the way.
posted by AmandaA at 6:24 AM on March 18, 2016

You could always grab a PS3 and get the HD version of Shadow of the Colossus (I imagine it's cheap nowadays digitally or on disc). That seems like something that would be impressive on a large screen, and would be pretty conducive to trading off with each colossi.

I missed the whole 'local multiplayer' portion of your question, sorry. In that case, I'd second both Rocket League and Towerfall. Sportsfriends is another great one, as would be Mount Your Friends, though the last two won't necessarily wow you with their graphics, they're fun as hell to play in a group.
posted by mrhaydel at 6:24 AM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Trackmania games are very playable, and look spectacular on a large screen.
posted by pipeski at 6:32 AM on March 18, 2016

Whatever you choose as the main event(s), also toss in a game of Pong.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:48 AM on March 18, 2016

Most of the party games I can think of that have gotten popular in the last few years have simple graphics because they're easier to track when a lot of things are happening within the game. I'm trying to think of graphically impressive multiplayer games for the PC inside the parameters you've given and... man. There's not much, especially once you take pixels and other stylized graphics off the table. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head would be Street Fighter IV or V. Worth a look:

Wii U
- Mario Kart 8
- Super Smash Bros.

PC
- Screen Cheat
posted by Poppa Bear at 7:00 AM on March 18, 2016

I would be concerned about latency and thus would not recommend any games with pixel-finicky hit boxes or that require any kind of controller precision (e.g. Platformers).

Mario Kart 8 would be my first pick.
Legend of Zelda Windwaker HD would be my second, but I'd want way more than 3 hours.
posted by Doleful Creature at 7:49 AM on March 18, 2016

Monaco is a great, fun heist game with local multiplayer and simple graphics. It'd be perfect. Available on multiple consoles and via steam.
posted by protocoach at 8:50 AM on March 18, 2016

I think the 2-player mode of Portal 2 would look AMAZING on a huge screen, but might also cause a lot of people to get very, very motion sick if our at-home projection of it is any indication. It's kind of...alarmingly immersive...when embiggened.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 9:16 AM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Rock Band 3 or 4. Set up a bunch of photogenic characters ahead of time for people to choose from. I haven't touched it in ages, but my usual guy was called Aux Tomates and he wore (IIRC) little shorts and no shirt and a viking helmet and had MR COOL ICE tattoos on his arms and chest and a POOR IMPULSE CONTROL tattoo on his forehead and so on. Like that... you know, *awesome*.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:26 AM on March 18, 2016

You could run any number of multiplayer Wii games (Smash Bros., etc) using a decent PC, the Dolphin emulator, and Wii controllers. Looks better than it does on an actual Wii, too.

I was going to recommend Broforce (currently 50% off!), but apparently pixels aren't cool.
posted by neckro23 at 10:16 AM on March 18, 2016

Alien Isolation survival mode is great with groups. Each person survives about three minutes of terrified creeping and hiding before being murderalised by the stalking alien. Everyone jumps and screams and laughs at the muderalised person. Good looking and much more fun than the actual game. fTR, the he of SotC ain't that HD :(
posted by Iteki at 10:23 AM on March 18, 2016

The answer to the question is Rocket League.
posted by The Bellman at 12:11 PM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Some of the multiplayer games in Nintendoland for the Wii U are pretty amazing. They are all short and easy to learn, so rotating would be quick and painless, but you'd need a Wii U and three Wii Motion Plus controllers.

On Xbox, Age of Booty is a favorite at my house. It is a pirate-themed battle game where you try to take over towns to win.
posted by tacodave at 3:50 PM on March 18, 2016

Gang Beasts is a game where you are a jellyperson who needs to murder the other jellypeople. It is a fantastic local multi game, and it is hilarious to watch as well.
posted by Brassica oleracea at 10:38 PM on March 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh my god. Take a look at Gang Beasts. I just **** myself with laughter. It's like all the fun of Chip and Dale'so Rescue Rangers with 4 people and a lot less excuse to go forward other than to torture your friends in a new and funny way. Watch the trailer!
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:18 AM on March 19, 2016

I was going to suggest something like an arena FPS like Halo or Unreal Tournament but you'd need an Xbox 360 for Halo games. But did this recently for Thanksgiving at my future MILs house and it was super fun because they have a lot of different modes, like zombie/outbreak and such.

Also:

Ultimate Chicken Horse
Obliteracers
Move or Die
Screen Cheat

Then I also looked at Gang Beasts, though, and it looks awesome and funny.
posted by Dimes at 9:20 AM on March 19, 2016

i would specifically go straight for nintendo stuff. Mario kart, smash bros, mario party. A few people might play halo or something, but everyone will play mario kart. I've done quite a bit of put-game-on-big-screen-when-people-are-around, and nothing actually gets people engaged like nintendo stuff.
posted by emptythought at 7:26 PM on March 20, 2016