10 Games with the Most Unique Multiplayer Experience

We have all probably played runners at one time or another, whether it be on our phones or something similar such as Mario. In Speed Runners you run as fast as you can while traversing obstacles, crevasses, or anything else that may get in your way, all while the looming threat of the edge of the screen draws ever nearer. What makes Speed Runners unique is that this concept has been turned into a multiplayer! Supporting Local and Online multiplayer, up to four players can test their skills against one another in a race to the death. Speed Runners hosts a number of different characters, grappling hooks, weapons, power ups, all of which can be used to leave your friends and foes in the dust and at the dreaded mercy of the edge of the screen.

We all crave a good murder mystery now and then. In the The Ship, there is no need to figure out who the murderer is because everyone is a murderer! Yes, that includes you. The Ship puts us on (you guessed it…) a ship and assigns everyone a target. Each person must kill their respective target and get away with it. (Oh yea, did I mention the ship is crawling with the local law enforcement?) Don’t worry though, if you get caught with a deadly weapon or attempting to murder someone with said weapon, you will be placed in jail only to be released seconds later. (On parole of course.). The Ship is an older game but has since been remastered and is currently in alpha. The remastered version supports 16 players on LAN or up to 8 players online.

Remember the days when playing video games with your buddies meant sharing a screen with them too? Remember how frustrating it was to have those so-called friends cheat by looking on your screen? Well in Screen Cheat, it is not only encouraged to cheat off your buddies screen, it’s essential! Screen Cheat is a split-screen first-person shooter in which all the players are invisible. The only way to kill other players is by looking at their screen to figure out where they are. Color coded areas make things a bit easier but you will definitely need some quick reflexes. Local co-op and online multiplayer are available.

In another play on the whole cat and mouse multiplayer aspect, Spy Party puts you into the shoes of either a Spy or a Sniper. As of now, it is played by two people each facing off against one another through a battle of wits. Perception and deception is the name of the game in Spy Party, with the Spy trying to avoid being discovered by the Sniper while accomplishing a number of missions and the Sniper utilizing subtle behavioral clues to identify and eliminate the Spy. The Sniper must choose wisely though as he or she only has a single bullet. Spy Party is currently in beta.

Being a father is hard. Being a father to a suicidal baby bent on ending his life by any means necessary is even harder. In Who’s Your Daddy, one player plays as an unusually resourceful baby, while the other player plays as the father who must thwart his baby’s plans to commit self-inflicted infanticide. If it sounds hilarious, that’s because it is! If you play as the father, you will spend your time pulling your baby out of the oven when he tries to cook himself, draining the bathtub when he tries to drown himself, and giving him pills when he decides to drink a whole bottle of bleach. Mommy will be home soon, but until then, father and son must try to survive while completing a number of chores around the house. Who’s Your Daddy is playable online and with split-screen.

Most people are familiar with the game Mafia, or Werewolf as it is sometimes called. It is a party game created by Dmitry Davidoff in 1986 and it models a conflict between an informed minority, the mafia, and an uninformed majority, the town. Town of Salem switches it up a bit but ultimately sticks to the core concept. At the beginning of the round, each person is assigned a role at random that range from town roles such as doctor, sheriff, war veteran, vigilante, etc., to roles such as the serial killer and mafia member. Each role has its own ability that must be used to further the player’s agenda. Each new day starts with discovering who died during the night followed by accusations and discussion, which may or may not lead to a person being voted for lynching. In order for the Town to win, all mafia members and the serial killer must be lynched before the Town are all killed off. A combination of deception and witty dialog must be used to escape lynching and make it to the final days of the round. In Town of Salem, you won’t know who your friends are until they are already dead.

Gang Beasts is a quirky physics based game with somewhat clunky controls that makes for hilarious fight sequences. Play up to a 4-player free-for-all in extremely dangerous environments as you push and pull and punch your way to victory. Use any means necessary to fling other players to their doom to be the last player standing. The gelatinous type characters make pulling yourself up from a ledge the hardest thing to do in this game, and also the funniest!. Gang Beasts is a very fun game to play with your friends or at a party. The game features only local Co-op at the moment and full controller support so multiple copies of the game are not needed. Throwing your friends into spinning blades of death is the best way to get revenge on them without, well, actually throwing them into spinning blades of death!

Dungeon crawlers have been around for ages and it is hard not to hold a soft spot in our hearts for them. Playing together with friends to beat a dungeon or kill a boss has always been one of gaming’s most rewarding feelings. Crawl has taken that feeling and turned everyone against each other! Though it is rewarding all the same. Crawl hosts up to 4 players with a single player playing the hero and the other players controlling the monsters. The hero must defeat all monsters before moving to the next room, collecting experience and gold along the way. If the hero falls, the monster to slay him becomes the next hero and gets to try their hand at defeating the dungeon. Only one can make it out alive so it is a race to collect enough gold and experience to take on the final boss before your friends can! Crawl offers local co-op with controller support.

When it comes to uniqueness in multiplayer, it doesn’t get much more unique than this. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes puts one player in a room with a bomb, and no idea how to disarm it. They must rely on their friend, or friends, and the trusty manual for that that. The ones with the manual can not see the bomb and the bomb defuser can not see the manual. A few missteps can lead to disaster. Ensue madness! The player, or bomb defuser, must describe the bomb to the ones with the manual as they frantically search for solutions to the bomb. Allegations will be thrown, friendships will be lost but when the bomb is finally disarmed, the feeling of relief and accomplishment is unrivaled. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is strictly co-op but hosts full controller support as well as VR support.

Concerning Space Station 13, it is always quite surprising as to how few people know about this gem of a game. Space Station 13 is, in essence, a job simulator role-playing game. Players are put on a space station with a job and must perform that job to the best of their ability. All to postpone the inevitable destruction of the space station due to deadly space piranhas, asteroids, sabotage, or someone forgetting to contain the singularity causing everyone to be sucked into an ever growing black hole. Jobs can range anywhere from engineers, doctors, mechanics, all the way to chefs, janitors and even clowns. Not everyone is there to keep the station running smoothly though. Most rounds include random antagonists that have secret agendas. Extremists will try and steal the nuclear device to blow up the station, cultists will try and build their cult and summon their dark lord Nar’Sie, changlings will use their shapeshifting powers to accomplish their goals and evade detection, all of which is made harder due to the fact that you are on a space station filled with, more often than not, incompetent workers that are more likely to blow a hole in the station then cook that burger you wanted medium rare. Space Station 13 is available through beyond with numerous builds made by different developers.