Sportsfriends

Release Date: 2014 | Players: Multiplayer | Genre: Compilation | Console: PS3, PS4, PC

The Intro:

So let’s say you’ve just moved to a new city. You’re starting up your career, and you don’t have the money to afford the most spacious apartment. One of your friends has a pool table in their basement. Another one has a countertop mini-bar. Now, if you had to guess, one of your other friends’ apartments would automatically qualify for hosting a fun party, right? Wrong. With Sportsfriends, all you need is a bunch of fun people, a few extra controllers and a couch to have a guaranteed fun time.

The Game Play:

Sportsfriends needs other people to play. There’s simply no getting around it. There is zero single-player content in the game and there isn’t an online multiplayer option. So you need at least one other person before you can start playing this game. If you have more, all the better. And if you’re short of controllers, the game even offers up the option to share one between two players. While things might get a little close for comfort if you’re sharing a controller, as long as your friends don’t have terribly body odor, you should be just fine.

The Games:

Sportsfriends is a collection of four separate games, the first of which is BaraBariBall. This game is probably the most difficult and complex one in the collection, but it also can offer up the most fun if you have equally skilled players on both sides. You have two teams of two players, and there’s a ball right in the center of the stage. You have to get the ball to your opponent’s goal, which is a watery zone that lies below the actual map you fight on. You can beat up your opponents, caveman style, in attempts to get the ball to their goals. You can also save a goal from being scored by performing a heroic dive into the water to stop it from sinking, but this is a tricky move. If you get too far below the water, you end up conceding a point to the other team. You have to jump frequently to get past your opponents and the heights in the stage itself, but you can’t just bunny-hop your way across a stage. After you’ve jumped a certain number of times, you need to head back to terra firma before you can jump again. There are lots of fun moments that happen, such as when you’ve dived into the water to rescue a ball, only to look up and see that your opponents are waiting for you once you get back up. The different mechanics at play make BaraBariBall the most complex game in the collection, but that’s not saying much because it’s still simple enough to get the hang of after a couple of tries.

The second game, Super Pole Riders, is more intuitive and immediately accessible for new players. Here too, you have to get the ball into your opponent’s goal, except there’s a twist. The ball is hanging on a rope above the stage, and you have to use your poles to vault up and kick the ball to the other side, or just use the length of the pole to nudge it and stop opponents from scoring. As is the staple of all fun games, you can also kick opponents in the face. You’ll often find a confusing and hilarious mass of bodies and poles on the screen as players desperately try to move the ball this way and that. Some of these moments end in hilarious misplays, which are sure to raise a cackle in the room. The whole idea of the game and the visual style is so goofy, that it’s hard to get annoyed even in the most intense of matches.

The third game on the list is Hokra, and this is one game that allows two players to share one controller. Often, you will need to, because unless you have four players, you can’t play this game. There are two teams of two, and each player appears on screen as a colored square. You have to score goals by getting the ball into your opponent’s goal, indicated onscreen by a colored area. It’s not all simple though, since you can dash, tackle and pass, much like a Cristiano Ronaldo, if he was a colored square. You can even choose different player types, each with different strengths, such as extra speed or extra strength. You also have the option to create your own maps if you’re bored of the default ones.

The fourth and arguably the most entertaining game overall in the collection is Johann Sebastian Joust. This one will require a bit of space, since players need to physically stand up and move about. The controller senses motion, and if you’re too jerky with your movements, you will perish. You need to win by making your opponents make them move their own controllers too fast. Yes, this does mean that you will have the occasional shove and push. We all have that one friend in our group. Interestingly enough, you don’t actually have to look up at the screen to play this game. You can just listen to the music and understand what it is you need to do. When the music slows down, it’s OK to move your controller a bit faster. When it speeds up, you have to be extremely sensitive about your movements. And when the music stops, you have to literally stop. The slightest of movements will cause your character to perish. This game also allows one of the four players to take command of the music, so he can speed it up and slow it down as he sees fit.

The Conclusion:

Sportsfriends is a fantastic collection of games that can even be picked up and played by the most novice gamers. This makes it an ideal party companion, especially over a few drinks and in the company of a few good friends, not all of whom might be gaming black belts. While it’s not a game that you will play for too many hours at a time, it’s great for short bursts of fun. The games are impossible to take too seriously, and even players who lose will enjoy themselves immensely. So if you’ve got a couch and a few friends over, you can now turn your own apartment into a certified Party Central.

Sportsfriends PS4 Game Review Score: 8.5 out of 10

Author: Brandon Perton From: (The Old School Game Vault) OSGV