For years, the four video games that made up Sportsfriends were rare gems, unavailable on consoles, Steam, or anywhere else. You had to find them at special events—typically game festival parties or games-as-art galleries like Babycastles—because they were odd, economically unfeasible curios.
Even in the modern, indie-friendly, downloadable era, these games pushed their luck, at least in terms of the dreaded “bang for the buck” proposition. A simple pole-vaulting battle; a thin, retro-styled take on Smash Bros.; a minimalist spin on soccer; and a PlayStation Move game that required giant space and (ideally) at least four of Sony’s unpopular wands. Those would never become commercial smashes, especially since they lacked solo play, but, man, were they fun at rare parties.
Kickstarter changed all of that. In December 2012, the quartet of games rode its fest-favorite reputation and ganged up to barely squeak over the $150,000 mark as a PS3 and PC/Mac/Linux package, and the developers tacked on a half-year delay to add free PS4 support. That brings us to this week, in which the mystery vanishes and the games see wide PSN release as a $15 package deal.
By now, the games should be less special, whether because they’ve been beaten to the punch by copycats or because they lose some mystique in your living room. That’s not the case. Though admittedly uneven, Sportsfriends delivers a lively, diverse, and powerfully singular collection of accessible party games—but be warned. The game delivers the “sports,” so long as you have the “friends.”
Get ready to Joust
Let’s begin with Sportsfriends’ best-known, weirdest offering, Johann Sebastian Joust. This game alone may be worth the asking price, in spite of its barriers to entry—it needs a large play space and motion-sensitive, Wii-like Playstation Move wands as ideal controllers—but it’s also not a video game.
The experience of JSJ better resembles a wacky party toy you’d see in a mid-’90s Nickelodeon advert, along the lines of Bop-It! By default, a match starts once everyone takes their own Playstation Move wand and taps a button to turn it on. “Get ready to joust,” an announcer says, and slow music starts playing.
The object is to be the last player standing. Players lose when their own wand moves too rapidly, so if another player comes up to you and smacks your wand-holding arm, you’re probably out (though they may inadvertently take themselves out if they hit too vigorously). Occasionally, the music will rise in tempo, which means players can speed up without accidentally setting their own wands off.
Speed shifting proves to be a crucial twist, because it affords players a few good opportunities to lunge and act aggressively in each round. As a result, JSJ feels like a smarter, more controllable take on laser tag, or a high-tech version of Red Light/Green Light.
Not surprisingly, players are expected to play JSJ in a giant, open space, where they can walk around and dodge swipes while attempting their own. Before you even bother playing JSJ, ask yourself two questions. Is your ideal gaming space big enough for people to chase each other playground-style? And are you and your friends prepared to hurt each other? Each session in Ars’ testing resulted in accidental smacks and swipes to the face and chest, along with personal objects being knocked over or stepped on.
In good news, while testing the PS3 version, we found that the Move wands and other controllers gave us a good 30 to 50 feet of Bluetooth-powered wireless range, so that we could turn up our TV set’s volume, move into a different room, and comfortably run around like nincompoops. (By the way, the game supports DualShock 3 and 4 controllers on their respective consoles, but DualShock 3 games don’t allow teams and other options, and quite frankly, it’s not a comfortable setup for the game’s active play.)
Moving our sessions to another room was fine, as we didn’t miss what little was on the TV. JSJ visually keeps track of players by way of cute, animated avatars dressed in Renaissance fashions, at least, but the speakers are far more essential, thanks to the game’s speed-up/slow-down cues.
However, JSJ’s eventual computer versions will prove the logistical winner once they launch “in a few months.” For one, a laptop with loud speakers makes more sense for cord-free locations like parks and bars. Perhaps more importantly, the computer version won’t suffer from simultaneous player limits.
On PS3, up to seven Jousters can compete at once, which is a pretty decent number for a living room game (especially with teams enabled), but PS4 only supports four players at once. Considering we’ve been at game festival parties with a whopping 16 simultaneous Jousters, we can’t help but blush on Sony’s behalf. (Developers have yet to confirm how many Bluetooth controllers will work on PC/Mac/Linux versions.)
Don't move! I have a Move wand!
Player limits feel particularly cruel once the game’s not-very-hidden options menu opens up. After playing in default mode for a while, we realized two of the game’s hidden tweaks were essential for lengthy sessions.
The first was invulnerability, which lets players hold down the wand’s trigger to become shielded from losing for a brief span (two seconds by default). There’s a catch: If you overuse your shield beyond its time limit without letting it recharge, you get knocked out instantly, which makes for a good risk/reward balance. Having that extra bit of power enabled some awesome psych-out JSJ tactics.
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