'90s 3-Player Games: Poy Poy (PS1) and Twisted the Game Show (3DO)

[Retro STrife]

3-player gaming is tricky. It's tough to find games that work well with 3 people. And if you have a split-screen game, it always feels a little unfair that one player gets the better screen. But here's a couple suggestion off the beaten path that I played with friends this weekend.

First up is Poy Poy, an obscure PS1 game, which I had never heard of until I stumbled upon the Critic's review of it. He gave it an A grade, with such high praise as "best multiplayer game ever made" and "most underrated game of all time." While that review was written in 1999, he reiterated that point in 2002, when he reviewed Ooga Booga (Dreamcast), where he again called Poy Poy one of the greatest multiplayer games ever and noted that he and friends played it a ton (it was actually the Ooga Booga review that led me to the Poy Poy review). Poy Poy is a little pricey ($25-$35), but the VGC's praise was enough to intrigue me into it buying it recently. Poy Poy involves 4-players in a small single screen arena, with rocks and bombs strewn about the arena, and characters run around throwing the objects at each other for damage until only one man is left standing. It reminds me of a dumb-downed version of Power Stone, though there are no fighting mechanics in Poy Poy (the best you can do directly to your opponents is pick them up and throw them, just like the rocks). I think Poy Poy is the type of game where opinions will range wildly, because it really depends on how much your group gets into it. I imagine the Critic and his friends had a riotous time bashing each other with rocks, forming temporary alliances to take out the top person, and so on, which helped make it an A review. For me, my group was less enthused...I liked it the most and would give it a B. I bet if I asked them, they might have felt that it was more average, a C or D. Maybe it would be better with 4 players, but I liked having the computer player to gang up on too. But check out the VGC review and if it sounds interesting, I do think it's worth a look.

Next up is Twisted: The Game Show for the 3DO. I picked this up with my 3DO like 10 years ago because it sounded interesting in the Critic's review...but unfortunately I never got to play it until now. The Critic gave this one a C+. Twisted is like a game show, a board game, and a mini-game collection all rolled into one. With crazy characters played by real actors and lots of FMV video, this is one of those weird games that's great to pull out nowadays. There's interesting mini games and even some strategy involved in how you play the board. It's good for laughs (it tries to be funny and sometimes succeeds, but some of the laughs are unintentional, though those are the best kind in these old FMV games). Each player has their own turn, so only one controller is needed. I think 3 players is ideal for this game. It can be a couple minutes between turns while the mini games play out, so 4 player games would have too much waiting and last too long. I give this one a B+ by 3DO standards and recommend it. There's nothing else like it, so it's a good one to have in the collection and it's one you can play with non-gamers.

Anyone else played these and have thoughts?

[Retro STrife]

So I was just thinking Critic, if you happen to come across this, I wonder if you still play Poy Poy sometimes and if your thoughts on it (i.e., best multiplayer game ever) are still as strong as they were back in 1999? I will say, the graphics and concept are basic/straightforward, so it has aged well. So that part shouldn't be an issue. But I wonder if other games have unseated it over the past 17 years.