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I’m mostly a single-player game sort of guy. I love games that take me on emotional journeys through fantastical worlds, letting me lay waste to countless enemies with little narrative justification. But for fun experiences, you really can’t beat getting a few friends together and indulging in some local multiplayer shenanigans. There are some fantastic party games out there, many featuring a certain portly plumber and his pals. But, in my humble opinion, the best party game of all time is actually a driving game.
All (S)Mashed Up
20 years ago, a little arcade racing game called Mashed released with minimal fanfare and to absurdly wide-ranging reviews. Some critics loved it, praising its simplicity and just how insanely fun it was. Others lambasted it for its myriad issues, including horrendous physics, often sadistic camera, and very basic design. Funnily enough, both sides are right.
Mashed is a budget title in every way. Its track design is limited. The audio is tinny and the visuals have a tendency to make your eyes bleed. And every car feels like an ice cream truck plowing through gravy. Well, the better-handling ones do, anyway. In fairness, some of these issues were reduced in the updated version Mashed: Drive to Survive (Fully Loaded in Europe). But to say the game’s problems were addressed would be, um, misleading.
Another thing Gamespot lamented in their grouchy review, is the opponents’ terrible AI. Again, fair shout. The other racers oscillate between having the driving abilities of Ayrton Senna and a boiled potato, sometimes mid-race. But to dwell on this admittedly aggravating shortcoming is to entirely miss the point of Mashed. It’s objectively not a fantastic game. No doubt about that. But it’s stupendously fun with a few friends, for a few very good reasons.
Middle of the Road
Although they may seem simplistic, and often are, in fairness, it’s not easy to develop a good party game. In essence, party games (or minigames they contain) have to be easy to pick up and play but have just enough depth to them that they don’t get boring quickly. Too much complexity, however, and the skill ceiling raises, giving a huge advantage to whoever owns and plays the heck out of the game.
Games like the classic Goldeneye are great fun to play if everyone involved poured at least 1,000 hours into the multiplayer as a kid, as I did. But if someone’s inexperienced with the game, even letting them pick Oddjob isn’t going to result in a good battle. Similar applies for titles heralded as fantastic local multiplayer picks like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart. They’re still good fun with friends, sure, but someone who’s tactically and technically astute will have a huge advantage.
Mashed, on the other hand, is pretty simple. You hold down one button to drive. Push another to reverse if you find yourself stuck on a wall or turned around. You press another to fire a weapon. It’s not hard to explain, and it’s very easy to get competent at.
In fact, the “secret” of Mashed, if it can be called anything so dramatic, is just to keep driving! Whatever chaos unfolds around you, whoever mortars you or flame-throwers your ass, just keep your eyes on the road. Come to think of it, actually, maybe Mashed should replace driving lessons.
My point is, that anybody with only the slightest familiarity with games can play Mashed. Not necessarily very well, sure, but they can participate. And that’s pretty important when it comes to party games.
The Big Screen
The other major thing that Mashed has going for it is that all the action takes place on one screen. Anyone who grew up in the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 2 eras will be familiar with split-screen multiplayer. Now, I’m not going to knock it. Squinting at a tiny portion of the screen in a vain attempt to see what on earth is going was a big part of my childhood.
But, and let’s be honest, it’s not ideal. Most of us play retro games on flatscreen TVs and monitors really not suited to these older titles. The visuals often look like a kid has thrown a load of lego bricks onto the screen. Splitting the screen up only makes it harder to see what’s happening.
Mashed‘s rules are simple: get to the top of the screen before your opponents to win a point. Drop off the screen, and you lose. Unfortunately, this has the minor snag that when you’re leading a race, the camera zooms out to such an extent that you can’t see what’s coming up next. To that I just say, chalk it up to another of Mashed‘s quirky charms. Or rage-inducing disaster. Take your pick.
But in all seriousness, Mashed remains to this day one of the most fun party games out there, if not the most fun. I was being tongue in cheek when I called it the “best”. It’s objectively not. In many ways, it’s pretty terrible. But couple a few hours of Mashed with some beverages, plenty of snacks, and a few friends, and I guarantee you’ll have an absolute whale of a time. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned how Drive to Survive introduces air strikes, where eliminated players can get revenge by launching an air-to-ground missile at their nemesis. Pure chaos. It’s brilliant.
