With Mario Kart 8 having finally made its way into our sweaty, anxious palms, those of us who enjoy a good local multiplayer session are excited to throw those dastardly Blue Shells at our friends while we sit on the same couch as them, laughing maniacally at the anguish in their face as that coveted first place on the podium slips between their fingers.
At the moment there are a plethora of local multiplayer games to enjoy, each determined to offer more fun than their online peers. The games in the gallery below could each be categorized as “casual” party games, in that they offer accessible gameplay that anyone can get to grips with, even your friends who aren’t as skilled as you when it comes to playing video games; they’re the kind of games that are ideally suited to an evening spent drinking and slumped on your couch.
Here are the very best casual party games that are available right now.
Games to Play with People Who Don't Play Video Games
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Sportsfriends
Recently released on the PS4, PS3 and PC, Sportsfriends is a game for people who don't necessarily know anything about sports, nor games for that matter.
A compendium of games vaguely based around different sports, Sportsfriends is already being hailed as one of the best new indie games released on the market. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, this title is aimed at bringing living rooms together with its unique takes on pole vaulting, soccer and the like, and considering the amount of critical acclaim it's receiving, it looks set to do just that.
Also, for PlayStation Move owners, Sportsfriends is likely the only game that will be released in 2014 that will actually validate your purchase, as it features a jousting minigame that requires you and your friends to bump each others' Move controllers in order to score points. While this sounds like incredible amounts of fun, it also sounds like it could get pretty violent, especially after a few drinks.
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Mario Kart 8
Mario Kart 8 is a step away from the more casual gameplay of Mario Kart Wii, making it perhaps one of the most difficult games on this list. However, just because the series has experienced a difficulty spike doesn't mean that it's been dethroned as one of the best party games around, as Mario Kart 8 is one of the most polished, fun entries in the series' illustrious history.
While Battle Mode may have received an unwelcome downgrade, with dedicated arenas for the mode being dropped in favor of the game type being played on the game's tracks, the racing is still top-notch and will see you throwing your control into the air out of jubilation/frustration in the way that Mario Kart always does.
Mario Kart 8 is a great reason to pick up the Wii U if you're looking for the next best local multiplayer experience, and a huge new weapon in Nintendo's arsenal as it looks to increase the fortunes of its struggling console.
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Peggle 2
When Peggle 2 released without local multiplayer, we all let out an exasperated sigh in unison. Fortunately that wrong has now been righted, and Peggle 2 now features a Local Duel mode that allows you to hit those pegs with your friends offline.
Peggle is one of the most addictive puzzle series around, and Peggle 2 will see you wasting hours of your life trying to obtain the highest scores possible.
The Local Duel mode allows players to take it in turns on the same board, ridding the game of the timer placed in its online multiplayer mode and thus making for one of the most relaxing party games around.
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Nintendo Land
With Wii Sports Nintendo successfully introduced the Wii's motion-controlled gameplay to entirely new generations of players, both young and old. With Nintendo Land, which was intended to showcase the prowess of the touchscreen GamePad controller, it largely failed in doing so. That's a crying shame, because Nintendo Land is incredible amounts of fun.
Like Wii Sports before it, Nintendo Land is the very first game that Wii U owners play when they have friends round, as it features a plethora of unique minigames that could each demand a few hours of playtime. The picks of the bunch include Mario Chase, a hide 'n' seek game in which the player holding the GamePad is tasked with hiding from up to four other players, and Luigi's Ghost Mansion, where one player controls a transparent ghost who must successfully spook the other players before the timer runs out.
Nintendo Land is certainly one of the better local multiplayer games out there, in a time when local multiplayer is experiencing something of a renaissance. If you own a Wii U, or are picking one up in order to get your hands on Mario Kart 8, this is a must-buy.
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Goat Simulator
Though it has become something of an online phenomenon, the single-player version of Goat Simulator is mostly just a one-note joke that becomes very old, very fast.
However, the next update to the game, which will be released on June 3rd, will add split-screen functionality that will allow up to four playable goats on the same PC. It will also add a new playable map, a wall-running ability and the ability to ride bicycles and skateboards.
Goat Simulator is a notoriously silly game, and one that is based around a thin concept, but with the addition of multiplayer gameplay it drastically raises its replayability and ensures that it'll definitely be a game that you load up the next time you have friends around. It's not a conventional party game by any stretch of the imagination, but it'll certainly keep you and your guests entertained.
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Wii Party U
Wii Party U didn't make a very good first impression due to it putting a huge amount of focus on its Mario Party-esque board game mode, which was undoubtedly the worst mode in the entire game. However, those who dug a little deeper found that its other game types were where the most fun was to be had.
Wii Party U is full to the brim with minigames, and unlike most minigame collection the majority of them were solid. Forgetting the board game mode, there were a variety of other ways in which players could enjoy the game, including the Balldozer, which saw players compete in minigames in order to achieve more turns in an arcade ball-drop game, and GamePad Party, which focused upon minigames that only used the Wii U's touchscreen controller.
For those who spent enough time exploring its various modes, they found a party game that challenged the might of the Mario Party series. In fact, it could be said that this was the best Mario Party game Nintendo had put out in years, despite it not brandishing the same name nor featuring the likes of Bowser, Peach & co.
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Powerstar Golf
Powerstar Golf has now gone free-to-play on the Xbox One's Marketplace, meaning that anyone can jump in and enjoy this cartoon-y sports sim.
Aside from Peggle 2, Powerstar Golf is perhaps the best local multiplayer game available on Microsoft's latest console. With its stylish presentation and click-swinging mechanics ensuring that anyone can pick it up and play it.
While those who opt for the free-to-play version of the game will still have to spend money to unlock the various courses, for a casual playthrough in an evening of drinking downloading Powerstar Golf is really a no-brainer.
