The End of Single Player?
Is the single player experience nearing an end? I would argue not. We've seen a raft of great single player games in just the past few months. Portal or Bioshock anyone?
But MTV thinks otherwise. The MTV Multiplayer blog has an interesting bit of speculation up, suggesting that the "solo-only" experience is on the way out and more simultaneous play is on the way in.
For proof they cite Super Mario Galaxy and the inclusion of a two player mode. One guy is jumping about as Mario while the other shoots incoming enemies and collects golden goodness. There are also all of the ads featuring groups of happy people on couches - even if the game in question (Metroid Prime 3) is single player.
Perhaps MTV are on to something here... though I would hesitate to say that Nintendo is the only one leaving the solo experience out in the cold.
If anything, I'd say Nintendo are just now catching up with a wave that the industry has been riding for some time now.
Gears of War did a phenomenal job with the co-op campaign last year and looks poised to repeat it in the "single player/tournament" mode in Unreal Tournament 3. GRAW 2 and Lego Star Wars also had stellar co-op campaigns. In fact, there were entire sections of the game that practically required co-op play in order to access. Guitar Hero 3 is in the same boat here, with co-op play being required to access songs like "Reptilia"" and "Sabotage."
I believe that Nintendo are, however, doing what they do best: taking a fairly straight-forward concept and applying it new and in novel ways.
Mario Strikers lets you take local co-op to a new level by competing against another team of two humans sharing the same Wii. The same will be true in the new Smash Brothers title due out next year.
While MTV makes some great points, I'm more inclined to believe that Nintendo's recent designs are less about leaving the solo experience out in the cold and more about offering Player 2 a cozy seat by the gaming fire.
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