Jamie Antonisse

But after playing RJ's test session of Four Swords, a Gamecube title so wildly unpopular that it was being used to shingle roofs in 2004, I can't dent it. The game is almost UNFATHOMABLY FUN.

Four Swords has it all and more: personal /secret missions on a private screen, side scrolling action, special one-player items, coop boss battles, popularity contests (yes! If your friends hate you, YOU LOSE POINTS!) . You throw your other players around, blow them up with bombs, shoot arrows at them, and scramble over their faces for treasure... at the same time, if you don't work together, you will experience an epic Fail. There's an amazing balance struck between being a complete Linkhole and being a team member. The designers polished this dynamic til it achieved that patented Triforce sheen, and the result (if you have the right mix of players) is beautiful.

So it's too bad they made it almost impossible for anyone to play.

As is often the case, someone at Nintendo had a dream. They realized that the greatest multiplayer experiences happen in one room, with a group of people all huddled around the same screen (campfire?), able to yell at each other, laugh at each other, even push each other. Smash Brothers, Goldeneye, Mario Kart... Nintendo KNOWS the value of the shared single-screen experience.

Yet there's something magical, and from a gameplay perspective, incredibly FREEING, about private information. About the ability to move out beyond the common space, or even keep a secret from other players. It's just not possible on a single unit.

Nintendo came up with a """""""solution""""""" to this problem. Make everyone buy their OWN private screens, four connective cables, AND a system for collective play. For the combined cost of this setup, you could build Hyrule your damn self.

The real tragedy isn't that the system was stupid. The real tragedy, of course, is that the game was so fucking GOOD, and very few will ever see it. I'll never forget picking up John, our resident griefer, and CARRYING him to the next screen, forcing him cooperate. Or getting my own bomb tossed back at me, and going nuts as Diana grabbed all the hard-earned gems off my corpse. Or getting confused and forgetting to look at my GBA (over and over and over and over).

It's a shame it's so difficult to set up an common/individual screen dynamic, considering it's so rewarding. Four Swords is the most notable, but not the only, example of this; I remember a particularly amazing four-player game of Gears of War at Ethan's house, on two TVs mounted on opposite walls. Again, there was a shared screen, a shared space, and hidden information. Again, it's the SETUP that's prohibitive, and stops us from partaking more often.

Hopefully, someone will eventually create a solution that doesn't take QUITE so much time or equipment/money. Until then, I'll just rattle my Wiimote, wait patiently for online Smash Bros Brawl, and try to bug RJ for another Four Swords session as soon as possible.