Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello BETEO friends,
I would like to borrow your brains for a few moments, if I may.
Basically, what games do you know of that have a format similiar to The Lost Vikings and Towel of Babel? Basically, you control multiple people, and each person can do a different "thing", e.g., one of them may only push blocks, one of them may only jump, one of them may only do poos, etc.
The idea of the game is to win/get to the end of the level using a combination of their skills.

So; how many do you know of?
GO!

Lemmings?

Lego Star Wars I/II/CS (in a 3d kind of way).

Chronos Twin Maybe?

myoptika: Rubbish!
Sheepeh: Good! But I have 'doned' them. Except CS, but I think that's a rehash of the others but with bits missing?
LewieP: Excellent! I think, I have yet to check it out. Your "Excellent" response may be revoked at any time.

Com-fucking-mandos.

The main problem with it is that it is 'old school' hard, think Megaman/Castlevania style difficulty. I love that kind of game (if/when I am in the mood) but it is an acquired taste.

Fury of the Furries is along similar lines. You only control one character, but it can change colours to utilise different attributes that are needed to solve the puzzles in each level (at least, I think so - it's been years since I played it).

Thunderbirds and Survivors on the Speccy

Also Pet Alien on the DS

Head Over Heels

PLAYED! PLAYED! PLAYED! PLAYED!!
I believe that covers the first game, the two expansions (2?) and the second game. I refuse to play the third. By the second game the gamepaly had devloved into this:

* Hide behind a corner.
* Group Select Commandos
* Fire once with pistol
* Kill the stream of nazis that come running around the corner

done. If it was a "stealthy!!" mission, then you just ran around slowly stabbing everyone until they were no more.


Some nice out of the box thinking, MrD! I like it! Keep it up.
If anyone cares, that video of thingy Twin has a "related" video of commando (no s) 3. It looks like some 360 arcadeathon.



Yes, it looked mega confusing. Keeping your eyes on two screens at once!? I can hardly keep my eyes on one! Plus, I don't have a DS




Very good candidate, but I beated that. (lie: thinking back, I only played the amiga demo.It was my PC background for about a year and I never completed it, even when I DOSBOXED it)



Excellent. I played this (Well, a PC remake, but I believe it's veryfaithful?). Anyway, was lots of fun.




Excellent. I shall look these up! I had a thunderbirds came on the amiga that was bastard hard. Is it the same one? I don't think I could get past the second mission? (some kind of underground one)... I'm gonna find a rom if I can.


Btw: None of these are really "new". As in modern. Has this style of gameplay worn off?

I had Thunderbirds on the Spectrum, it were good.

It is hard to think of many games like this in recent years. I can think of a few games where you have had to switch between different characters with different abilities, but they have by and large become 'arcade adventure' games, rather than puzzlers, and often it's just a plot contrivance.

Maye Kuri Kuri Mix / Cookie & Cream. Except, in that you don't have distinct abilities, but instead have each access to only half of the screen, scrolling vertically, and have to work together. It's an excellent co-op game for the PS2; I've not tried the DS version.

It doesn't quite fulfill what you asked for as a genre, but it's a similar-ish excellent game, if you're looking for something recent to play.

Thinking out of the box...? It's kinda exactly what you said!

Thinking out of the box would be suggesting Morph.

You control a single character who must traverse a small puzzle world and collect specific items against a time limit. You can use environmental gizmos to change your current form, or you can force a direct form change up to a specific limit.

Or suggesting Catrap (Pitman)

You control two demon/cat kids who have to defeat all the monsters on the screen by running into them. There's blocks that must be pushed, and things that must be done in the correct order. You can switch between either character at any time, and rewind to any point if you find you've made a mistake.

And if Catrap counts then Puzzle Boy counts, even though there's no different abilities here: just multiple characters like Catrap
Boop! I was thinking of the GBA one, but here's a Flash one.
You have to push blocks into holes, rotate walls and try to get two characters out of a series of small mazes.

It appears to be the same as the amiga version. How do I know this? http://www.atomic-city.co.uk/pages/game ... rbirds.htm Cos that guy says so, and he done the graphics for both versions. Anyway, I'm thinking of sending him death threat. Why? BECAUSE IT'S A CUNT OF A GAME.

I know exactly why I couldn't do it as a kid:

a) Stupid time limit that is pretty much EXACTLY the EXACT amount of time the missions takes if you follow the EXACT route and pick up the objects in EXACTLY the right order.
b) half the game is walking around, picking up objects, walking to the other side of the map, useing the object, then walking to the otherside of the map to pick up the object you had to drop in order to pick that one up
c) You had to press "fire + direction" in order to use the items..... this was the main thing stoppnig me from progressing as a kid, I imagine. (don't laugh!). This, added to the "pressing down on the last screen in the last mission of FireFight" makes me want to hate my youthful self for not figuring those things out.

also, I'm going to send death threats to one "Your Sincalir". Why?
http://www.arowe1.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tb-l1+2.jpg

You use the sodding hammer, not the sodding spanner, to fix the lift. Grr.
Anyway, thanks to some kind [url="http://usuarios.iponet.es/dardo/birds.txt"]spanish guy[/url] and some kind google-translation-tools, I shall spend all day tomorrow putting my childish mind at rest. (I spent today watching ReBoot, so I'm on a kind of "things I done as kids" theme).

The Humans games? Not sure if they all have different abilities.
I believe one of the recent 3D Simpsons games does this too. And err, maybe the Harry Potter ones? They're not particulary good though.

Some point and click games:

Lure of the Temptress is on ScummVM, which while not allowing you to switch characters, allows you to give commands to your servent Ratpouch.

Also Gabriel Knight 3 is worth a punt - again you don't get to switch characters at will through most of the game, but you play alternate chapters, with each solving bits of the mystery which open up other bits for the other character. Still Life is simmilar but not as good.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, for around 60% of the game if you choose the Team path.

Ooh, Maniac Mansion was possibly one of the first games to do what you've mentioned.

Star Trek: A Final Unity uses this heavily, and the two earlier Trek games, 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites also use it quite a lot too.


Slightly leftfield but there's also Anachronox - it's more like a western take on the Japanese RPG, so you put together a party of adventurers, but there are puzzle elements where you have to use the right player on the right bit in the world I think.


There was also a western version of Commandos (Desperados?) and a Star Trek version, Away Team.

Ooh! Just remembered about The Gobliiins games. They pretty much fit what you're looking for (although I suspect you've probably played them already).

Going old school again, would Knight Lore have sneaked into this category?

Lost Vikings 2.

Ah not, there were two Thunderbirds games on the Spectrum; the one I mentioned was the first one by Firebird, where you switching between Thunderbird 1 and 2 to, um, push coloured blocks around a maze.

I guess if we're including "switch between different characters with identical abilities" games then Xor needs to be mentioned. There are also rather excellent remakes for the PC and GBA (although the website for the GBA version is broken at the moment so I've uploaded it to Zshare -- not sure if it's the latest version though).

A few more I thought of; Stifflip & Co. had you switching between characters but that might be more of an adventure game than a puzzle one. Pyracurse also has multiple characters but that could be more of an action game than a puzzle game (but if Head Over Heels counts...). Moving away from the Spectrum, Infocom's Suspended has you switching between different robots with different abilities.

How utterly smug was I when I finally completed this? More smug than you can possibly imagine, let me tell you. It only took me 15 or so years, too.

(Although, I can't remember for the life of me what the decoded message was. It turns out I lose)

Team Fortress 2. Well, why not.
Project Eden?
Shadowfire (on the Speccy)?
EVERYONE'S A WALLY!
Maniac Mansion

Oh you absolute swine.

I really wasn't kidding with Lost Vikings 2 btw, there is one and not everyone remembers it.

Exit kind of fits the bill.

The Humans games : Done-ed!
3D Simpson: Ooo?
Harry Potter: Bah!
Lure of the Temptress: Done-ed!
Gabriel Knight 3: Never got into it.

I done-ed the following two, but do they count? In Maniac Mansion, did people have radically different abilities? Can't remember.
Indy4 :
Maniac Mansion

I remeber a final unity being a bit rubbish, but absolutely loving the other two. Especially the shitty ship to ship combat . I really liked the graphics style as well.
Star Trek: A Final Unity
25th Anniversary
Judgement Rites

Anachronox: I've had two failed attempts at (buying -ed) this! It looks so cooooooool.

Desperados: Done-ed! Actually, I got about 40% of the way through then got a bit bored. I also own the Robin Hood game by the same guys. I thuoght it was really good, the press didn't seem to ;(

Star Trek version, Away Team -- never played. It got slated in the press, didn't it? Also, wasn't it just commandos but with less puzzles and more guns?



Yeah, I "completed" them. As in I cheated my way through with a cheating cheaty walkthrough. I might replay them because of that...


I never played it, and I imagine it's more effort than it's worth; getting it running and playing it and all that. Ta though xx


I never played this. I did mean to...but...it'll just be like LV1, won't it?



I played the demo of this and thought it was really good. I might have to 'buy' it.

Anyway, some excellent suggestions. But the ones that I haven't done-ded and the ones I CBA playing I might make a new game in this vein, there appears to be a gaping hole in the market...

You can play almost all Speccy games online at World of Spectrum, with no downloads needed. There's also loads of Spectrum emulators that are easy to use.

I have an actual retail box copy (really!) of Anachranox. I can see if I can seed a torrent with it or something if you're interested.

Oh! Oh! Oh! I just remembered: Hammerfist had switchable characters too. Not so much of a puzzle game though IIRC.

Little Savages 3

I don't know if this 100% fits in, but oddworld:munch's oddysee was kind of, you had to control different types of people to do certain things. Plus it is a v.good game!

I have wasted a good part of the last 13 years trying to complete "Chip's Challenge". One day I will beat all the levels, and then expire (or at least find another source of procastrination)

Isn't that a good thing?

Well, yes. In a way. But at the same time I want newwwww.


and not little savages, that were RUBBISH that were!