The Best Party Video Games

This is a guest post from Kyle Peterson.

If you’ve got the gang together and ready to have a giggle then you can always turn to the ever reliable console line-up to help keep you and your friends or family entertained on a night in together. Whether you’re swinging around your motion controller pummeling the life out of each other, testing your intellect and team work with a quiz game or shooting and causing as much virtual mayhem as you want there are a fine selection of party video games to keep you those of all ages tapping away for hours.

MARIO KART

One of the finest examples of a fun and exciting all-round family racing game and a game that also manages to make even the most placid players become terrifyingly competitive is of course Nintendo’s party piece de resistance, Mario Kart. Featuring a whole line-up of Mario world-based characters this genius racing game has become a fan favorite with a different version of the game becoming readily available to play on every new Nintendo platform that comes to market. Fire shells, drop banana peels and speed your way over the finish line ahead of your fellow racers.

HALO

When sci-fi shoot-em-up Halo first arrived on the brand spanking new Microsoft Xbox back in 2001 everyone was in awe at the brilliance of the gameplay, story and all the action involved in the series of games that followed over the years. But it was the excellent and incredibly addictive multiplayer feature that really made this a stand-out gaming experience. Getting together with friends and hooking up multiple Xbox consoles meant you could utilize its system link feature to play with up to 16 buddies at the same time. Of course since the introduction of online play it has meant that you can do so much more which has ultimately taken away that need to physically get together to play and has arguably led to somewhat less sociable gaming action.

MARIO PARTY 10

The popular mustached plumber returns to our list with Mario Party 10. The latest edition in the long-running party video game series arrived in March for the Nintendo Wii U audience and once more pits players against each other in a series of competitive minigames and allows you to play along with 4 players at once. As usual it’s a typically bright and vibrant Mario world, perfect for parents to take on their kids or for a group of pals to get together and have some fun. If you get too frustrated and things aren’t going your way you could always head on over to the party island at Euro Palace online instead.