Ryu, Guile and company make a return to console gaming with this critically acclaimed title released by CAPCOM this past February. Based on the traditional 2D platform that the series is well-known for, Street Fighter IV offers a fresh new fighting experience with all the classic characters from past versions. Although this doesn’t stray much from the standard formula of its predecessors, it is by no means inferior. The gameplay is fast and furious, the graphics are impressive and the same epic battles you can have with your friends remains true to the franchise.
Challenge: The game has included “focus attacks,” where you can absorb an incoming strike and counter with a deadly attack/combination of your own. If you’re on the receiving end of a focus attack, and lose the round, it’s bottoms up for you.
No.9 - Madden NFL 09
It seems to be the case that any title in the Madden series can be used for a multitude of purposes -- to get a true-to-life NFL experience; to piss off your girlfriend and move you closer to your childhood dream of one day coaching a pro football team. It’s also a great drinking video game that can provide hours of endless entertainment. The game also provides a tremendous online experience, with up to 75 players battling it out in a season and into the playoffs, getting your hands truly dirty in an authentic Super Bowl experience.
Challenge: Whether you’re playing with your friends or online against others, you can always pass out the shots to the other team based on the number of points scored (so you might want to prevent as many touchdowns as possible, but it’s a good way to get back at a friend who beat you good at NHL 09 with similar rules).
No.8 - Goldeneye 007
One of the greatest games to ever be released on the Nintendo 64 is still one of the greatest party games of all time -- assuming your N64 isn’t collecting dust in the garage. This near-perfect first-person shooter offers all the thrills and chills of a James Bond adventure, all within your own home. The gameplay is intuitive, the weapons are always a hoot (including the incredulous Dostoyevsky semi-automatics) and the multiplayer maps are off the charts.
Challenge: Play “golden gun roulette” -- first person to get the golden gun doesn’t have to take a shot. Anyone who gets one-hit killed with this famed weapon has to chug a beer. Also, try your hand at the “slappers only” setting, except the poor soul who dies by slapping has to chug three cold ones.
No.7 - Burnout: Paradise
There’s nothing like getting that adrenaline high when you’re racing your friends in high-speed pursuits -- and no, we’re not taking about around your neighborhood at 3 a.m. Burnout: Paradise offers all those same thrills without the extreme danger of actual driving -- and you can even chug a few in the process. The thing that makes this intense driving “simulator” worth the while to break out a few beers is that if your sick pleasure is to cause as much carnage as possible on the road, this is the game. Challenge your friends to inner city street races that can result in the ultimate devastation given the almost-hilarious physics-based environment.
Challenge: When competing in “stunt run” mode and crashing, the number of wheels you lose is the same number of shots you have to take. But if the crash score is higher than the other players highest score, the other player has to take that many shots. Don’t worry though, the hilarious instant replays will keep your mind off the amount of liquor you’ll have to consume.
No.6 - Little Big Planet
Nothing spells drinking games like a “sack boy” side-scrolling four-player adventure. Little Big Planet is Sony’s answer to Smash Bros. Brawl, except this one should be team based, but can be taken in so many other directions. Up to four players move through the user-created over-the-top levels, and the goal is to get through to the end while collecting power-ups, objects and bonuses all while trying to survive the booby traps, slides and other precarious predicaments in the name of survival.
Challenge: The fun part is not using teamwork, but instead trying to lure your friends to an untimely demise -- and that’s where each “sack boy” death becomes a raucous good time if it includes a shot or a chug after each fatal mistake (try bouncing your friends into a bottomless pit on a wobbly balance beam; that should count for at least two beers!).
No.5 - Mario Party
You can’t have a party without the beer, and Mario is the delivery man at the door with the keg. All of the games in the Mario Party series revolve around mini-games that can include team-based action and free-for-alls, so your choices are limitless. “Party mode,” as it is known, gives players the ability to engage in these battles and win coins. It even lets you put a few wagers on the battles with the coins your character has, making the mini-games have some seriously high stakes. If you like betting in poker or want to simply make the game more interesting, Mario Party lets you and your friends have some serious fun.
No.4 - Boom Blox
Boom Blox, a game exclusive to the Nintendo Wii, offers a different type of experience from the rest of the titles on this list. Rather than getting rowdy for an action, adventure or sports game, Blox is a series of physics-based puzzles that require the player(s) to either maintain the integrity of a structure made out of blocks, or bring it down in the most effective way possible (think of Jenga but with a Nintendo Wii remote control). The fun lies in the ability to use the Wii control to its fullest potential -- depending on the trajectory, speed and power of your control use, the blocks will fall (or stay intact) as a direct result.
Challenge: With the many mini-games in “party mode,” challenge your friends to a game of castle destruction, and whoever has the least amount of gem blocks left at the end of the round is the sorry sap who has to throw back. Boom Blox provides one of the best beer-chugging game nights you can have in front of a television.
No.3 - Guitar Hero: World Tour
Ever wanted to party like a rock star and grind out some of music’s greatest tunes while doing it? With Guitar Hero: World Tour, you can now live the life of excess like a rock star that never was. This game lets you bring together you and three other buddies to play the guitar, bass, drums, and vocals to some of the greatest tunes to ever hit the charts, including those by Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson and Tool. What makes this a great drinking game is that this is purely a team effort and try your best impression of Guns N' Roses (but we digress).
Challenge: Any band member who royally screws up the solo, bass line or drum beats and causes your band to “give up” has to take a hard shot (or two). Hey, you want to be a rock star? You gotta live up to expectations.
No.2 - Wii Sports / Wii Sports Resort
Wii Sports remains one of the pinnacle titles for the Nintendo Wii, and rightfully so. The game offers five simple takes on five simple sports: boxing, bowling, tennis, golfing, and baseball. However, it’s intuitively designed for an easy-to-pick-up experience that involves using the body to achieve your victories -- one of the most entertaining features of playing the Wii. Wii Sports allows multiplayer mayhem, and is great for not just guys and their buddies, but for anyone at the party. While sophisticated titles (such as the EA Sports line of games) give players a serious take on sports, Wii Sports (and its sequel, Wii Sports Resort) completely throws that out the window for a casual sports experience no booze lover could do without.
Challenge: The rounds are simple: If you lose any event, you have to take a shot or chug a beer. However, you can add new rules such as a shot for every knockdown in boxing or a strike in bowling. It can get rowdy -- and fast.
No.1 - Smash Bros. Brawl
Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii is an excellent game to throw back a few to. Well-known for its 2D beat ‘em up style that include most (if not all) of Nintendo’s famous game characters, Smash Bros. gives you that intense action and instant gratification that you need to slay your buddies and have a few pints. This action-packed title lets you choose famous Nintendo characters (anywhere from Mario and Luigi to Solid Snake and Metroid’s Samus), and compete in an elimination-style combat in over-the-top-but-familiar backdrops of Nintendo’s greatest classics.
Challenge: This game is highly entertaining, and for every time a player gets blown off the map into oblivion, each player has to throw back a shot (or at least a sip). To put it politely, this will happen frequently.
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