Good spectator games that invite audience participation?

What are some "spectator" games that are good at inviting audience participation, even if they're one-player (or one-player-at-a-time) games?

Does DDR count?

Extra 1: Poochy Ain't Stupid

I've found that the PS 2 GTA games are good for that sort of thing (haven't played any of the ones after San Andreas, so can't say how good IV or its spinoffs are in that regard)

RED BULL BATTLEGROUNDS TRIAL OF THE XEL NAGA, WHOOOOOO

I've always found the Warioware games as fun to watch as they are to play, but the Gamecube version in particular does a good job of encouraging audience participation with its "Listen to the Doctor" mode. For those who haven't played it, "The doctor" (not to be confused with The Doctor) comes on screen before the microgame starts, and tells the player to do some arbitrary task (such as standing on one leg or humming) while playing the game. The players who aren't currently playing have to rate how well the player who was playing did at accomplishing that task, which is a great way to encourage the other players to watch what's being done and think about it.

Call Of Duty Black Ops Two is apparently going to fun to spectate, only time will tell if it is.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

Many fighting games easily get a crowd. The flashier, the better. All 3 Smashes are crowd pleasers.

Quest 64 thread

My parents, who are by far not gamers of any sort, really liked to watch me play 1080 Avalanche.

All the adventure games.

ALL OF THEM.

No, seriously. Me and a group of guys at my college have a habit of playing through adventure games with about 5 or so people shouting thigns to do at the guy controlling the game. You'd be surprised at what the combined brainpower of half a dozen people can do.

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

World in Conflict replays were particularly fun to watch or sit in and observe because of how much action, detail, and destruction was going on. You didn't even have to know very much about the game to enjoy it: my dad used to watch me playing it and comment upon random little things, like how the trees swayed whenever an explosion was near, how the gunships crashed and fell apart, sometimes even into buildings, how the shockwave from the bigger explosions would actually shatter windows, knock smaller objects down, the combat maneuvers the infantry did when in battle... everything, really.

Amnesia The Dark Descent and the Silent Hill-games. Also a lot of other Horror-games.

"It's behind you, it's behind you!"
"Hey, what was that noise?"
"No, don't go in there!"
"THERE'S A FOURTH BUTTON NOW!"
- Genuine quotes from my friends and I playing Horror-games

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!

Sounds like P&C adventure or text adventure games might work, or horror experience games.

Does anyone think that Fire Emblem would work, or would that be too complex for an informal meeting?

edited 8th Sep '12 12:16:54 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

Strategy games usually rely a lot on individual thinking and keeping track of everything yourself. The audience may want to participate, but the player may not like it. Also Fire Emblem's stories are, at least to me, more like books that you sit down with on your own (what with them being long war-stories that take quite some time to play through and are as you say very complex), not movies that you can sit down to watch with friends.

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!

I was thinking of having the room make strategy decision.

That might end up really badly though.

Namco's 90's theater rail shooters (Starblade, Galaxian 3 etc) are an hoot to watch

finding surviving machines might be hard, though.

May I ask what kind of audience we are talking about here?

edited 8th Sep '12 12:55:00 PM by Lemurian

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!

Simulation games (Roller Coaster Tycoon, for instance) are pretty good, since your audience can help you name stuff and pitch all sorts of crazy ideas to try.

"I've come to the conclusion that this is a very stupid idea."

^^ A bunch of gamers. That's why I'm not sure that stuff without easy audience participation might bore them.

Speaking of shooters, I actually played some Jamestown yesterday, and it seems like a decent choice if you want continuous multiplayer action because you only need to keep one ship alive at a time, and if you have four players...yeah!

Orgies?

The "multiplayer" in the original Super Mario Bros. games was pretty much exactly this. Player 1 would play through a level while Player 2 watched, then when Player 1 died, Player 2 got his shot at it.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

Depends on the kind of "participation" you are looking for. I know that whenever I have a bunch of friends over, we slap on Blaz Blue or U Mv C 3 and take turns with everyone sitting out doing commentary.

Me using Tager on Blaz Blue tends to have the following commentary:

"gg"

"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior Val