5. Exploiting The Second Player (Mega Man 3, Battletoads)
Poor Player 2 is always getting the short end of the stick. In games with an over world, its always Player 1 who gets to move around it. Player 2 always goes second and sometimes has no control over the pause button. Player 2 is usually on the bottom half of a split screen. But that second controller has significant value even in some one-player games. In Mega Man 3, holding Right on the second controller allows Mega Man to perform a higher super jump. The second controller can also freeze all the enemies on the screen, and there is even a way for Mega Man to gain invincibility by exploiting this trick. Not that this is always helpful a mean-spirited Player 2 can throw Mega Man off by triggering the super jump at unexpected or inopportune moments. Battletoads is an excessively difficult two-player game in which the second player is usually more of an obstacle than an asset. However, by starting a two-player game and staggering when players choose to continue, its possible to play as both Toads one right after the other so that only one is on-screen at a time, effectively granting a single player double the lives. There are other ways to take advantage of another player. In the New Super Mario Bros. franchise, players bounce off of one another when they collide and can pick up and throw one another. Any player can fall victim to the nasty tricks these physics afford. It must be satisfying for Luigi to get his revenge by bouncing off Mario's head to grab an out-of-reach extra life, even if it means sending Mario to his death by spike or bottomless pit.