Have You Played... Strikers Edge?

Right, Strikers Edge is a multiplayer masterpiece that at least several hundred of you should have heard of. It simply won't do that I reckon in reality I could count you on one hand. Let's change that.

It's a top-down battler about dodging and aiming projectiles, honed to the point of laceration. There isn't much to it. Dodge, chuck, block if you fancy. Each character's special ability adds a twist to their style, but everyone essentially dances the same dance. Precision plays its role, but so too does trickery and mind games. Landing a hit isn't just about hitting a moving target, it's about manipulating that target into moving where you want them to. That psychology is integral, and why so much of the magic leaks out when you're reduced to brawling against AI, which is the only option unless you've tricked a real world human into sitting next to you.

I understand why the market isn't friendly to small-scale online multiplayer games. Unless you can retain a player pool for most hours of the day, your game's entire reason to exist has vanished. Who wants to buy into an empty room?

It's a tragedy, though. For every great multiplayer game I see smashed on the shoals of too many people's indifference, there's an excellent team out there who'll turn away from making one.

I don't blame them.