Epic Flail: 2QWOP Adds Multiplayer To QWOP
I remember where I was when I first heard about QWOP, because I was in the offices of a certain other PC gaming publication, working for The Man. Now I work for A Man, that man being me. Stop looking at me like that! I am so. Anyway, QWOP popped up on someone's screen and we all gathered around watching as something as simple as "run 100 metres" had been made needlessly complex. It gives direct control over the leg muscle groups of a sprinter: it's like watching a drunken Riverdance on a sinking ship. We all returned to our keyboards and attempted to jerk our way to the gold medal, sadly aware that hilarious, flaily defeat would be a solo experience. Years later that particular sadness has been rectified in 2QWOP: in typically awkward, QWOPPY fashion it forces both players to use the same keyboard.
The new QWOP isn't without fault, but then developer and academic Dr. Bennett Foddy wouldn't have it any other way: the keys used are QWER UIOP, so both people are pressing on the same line of keys on a keyboard. It's kind of cramped and, as he points out, it takes a gaming keyboard to register that many keystrokes. Or you could plug in a second USB keyboard, if you have one. But it's the same, wonderful QWOP. I hope it inspires more cosplay.
