12 Classic Things Most Modern Video Games Are Missing

12. Local Multiplayer

One of the great revolutions of the mid-to-late 90s was the popularity of couch-based local multiplayer, whereby usually four players could gather around a TV and race or shoot each other via split-screen play. Of course, it had the major draw-back of anyone being able to simply glance at anyone else's screen to discern their location, but in honesty, that was all part of the fun and charm of it. Classic local multiplayer games like Goldeneye 007, the TimeSplitters series and the earlier Halo games brought gamers hours of fun, though in recent years, couch multiplayer has begun to be phased out in favour of online play. Though it's understandable that it might not seem worth developer man-hours to implement something that's become less popular with the ubiquity of online multiplayer, it should still be a standard feature in any racing game or shooter worth its salt, because as great as an 18-player shootout can be, sometimes there's no beating some flesh-and-blood buddies all crowded around a giant TV with beer and snacks. Soon enough, for the majority of games, local multiplayer will disappear completely, though hopefully a few developers will continue to carry the flag for as long as they can.