I love playing video games and I love competing. That’s why I have been drawn to sports my whole life and that’s why I pursued becoming a PE teacher. I also believe that there are healthy and unhealthy ways to be competitive. With my own family I am making it a priority to learn how to compete without being mean or unsportsmanlike to those around you, especially if those people are your family. If you and your family tend to be a competitive bunch, I am creating a great list of video games for you to try. The games I will be talking about in this list are games that I love to play competitively and are family friendly. For games that are part of a series, I will be discussing the newest entry in the franchise.
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS,
Wii U
Release Date: March 4, 2016
Ultimate Chicken Horse is an incredibly silly sounding name for a game but don’t let the title fool you, this game is an absolute blast. It is a competitive 2D platforming game for up to 4 players. Each player controls an animal of their choosing and is tasked with making it from one side of the level to the other without dying. What makes this game interesting is that at the start of each round, players pick from a selection of obstacles to place on the level, building on the course from the previous round. The goal is to make the game easy enough that you can make it through while making it hard enough that other players cannot complete it. This brings a lot of hilarity and strategic thinking into placement and what types of obstacles you use.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: December 7, 2018
Super Smash Bros Ultimate (SSBU) is the newest entry in the famed Super Smash Bros franchise. I recommend any game in the series but this is the newest one for the Nintendo Switch (my personal favorite is Super Smash Bros Melee for the Nintendo Gamecube). Super Smash Bros is a 2D platform fighting game where players control one of many iconic characters from Nintendo’s cast with the addition of some third party characters. SSBU has the largest quantity of characters of any game in the franchise with over 70 characters in the base game and an additional 12 characters purchasable through DLC. SSBU is one of the best celebrations of gaming and is an absolute joy to play. It can be very fast paced and technical so if you’re more of a slow paced gamer, this might not be the game for you. And the fact that it is a fighting game can mean it has more chances to encourage unsportsmanlike behavior if that’s not intentionally handled. But when handled with good sportsmanship, this game is an absolute must-play couch competitive game with friends and family.
Mario Kart 8 (& Deluxe)
Platforms: Original - Wii U
Deluxe - Nintendo Switch
Release Date: Original - May 29, 2014
Deluxe - April 27, 2017
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the newest iteration of the Mario Kart series. Check out my full review here: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Review. It is a great kart racer game that is playable for 1-4 players locally and up to 2 players from the same console playing online. It’s a great competitive game that lets players test their driving skills but has systems that make races more even. You still earn points and can be competitive, even if you don’t get first place. This is especially apparent in online races as you can earn ranking points even for lower place finishes. Mario Kart also implements systems that make it easier to come back in a race than to maintain a lead (e.g. people in lower positions get better items). While Mario Kart can be known to cause people a lot of frustration because of the randomness of the item drops and the annoyance of getting blasted by a blue shell, if you have the right attitude and mindset Mario Kart can be a great game to play against friends and family.
Gang Beasts
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, Xbox Cloud Gaming
Release Date: August 29, 2014
Gang Beasts is a goofy 3D party fighting game that uses ragdoll physics. This game is absolutely hilarious to play with friends and family. Each player controls a customizable character who can punch with either arm, headbutt, jump, kick, and grab onto other players and surfaces. This game often devolves into utter chaos as the players not only have to worry about other players, but the dangers of each stage. The variety of stages keep every round feeling new and different. Often this game becomes a battle of who can simply survive the longest rather than who is actually the most skilled fighter. This game is a great pickup for anyone wanting a funny competitive fighting game.
Towerfall (Towerfall Ascension)
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, Playstation Vita, Ouya
Release Date: June 25, 2013
Towerfall is an indie competitive 2D action game where up to 4 players control archers and battle in a platform arena. Games are customizable but often to kill a player, you just need to shoot them once and the last player standing wins that round. Games are typically played where the winner is the first one to get a certain number of victories. This game is a ton of fun and is actually very good at testing tactical skills of players as you can use terrain and verticality to get an advantage on your opponents. This game also has a feature where players can leave the arena through the edge of the screen and end up on the opposite edge of the screen to get sneaky flank attacks on their opponents. There are also varied powerups and arrows that provide players with different advantages. Towerfall also has a campaign mode that can be played with other players to give a non-competitive mode to the game. This game can get fairly competitive but is also a lot of fun for players wanting to test their platforming and tactical skills and have a blast doing it.
Nintendo Switch Sports
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: April 29, 2022
Nintendo Switch Sports is the follow-up to Wii Sports. Nintendo Switch Sports features some of the same games as the original and adds a few more but it never quite reaches the peak gameplay experience that Wii Sports did. This may be that Wii Sports was novel and it’s a tried and true thing now, or maybe it’s because Nintendo Switch Sports uses more realistic character models, but I personally prefer the original Wii sports. However, Nintendo Switch Sports is still a great game to play with friends. Bowling is still the classic that everyone loves, Tennis is basically unchanged from the Wii, and Badminton is a welcome addition. Chambara, which is basically sword fighting, is good but not up my alley. The soccer gamemode is my least favorite because it plays better when not using motion controls. And my personal favorite sport they added is Volleyball. It’s a blast and very competitive. They have added Golf since it was released which I have not tried but it was much requested. While I wish this game included the classics like baseball and boxing, it is still a great wholesome time that can get players to be a little active too.
Mario Party Superstars
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: October 29, 2021
Mario Party Superstars is the newest title in the Mario Party series. This game isn’t actually any new content but a collection of some of the best boards and minigames from older Mario Party titles, most of which are fan favorites. I recommend this game over the Switch’s other Mario Party game, Super Mario Party, for a number of reasons. I think that Superstars offers more variety and quality in what it does, and doesn’t opt to use motion controls, which can be hit and miss. Superstars also features a much better online feature that lets players match with other people around the world which is a bonus for people who just want to enjoy some Mario Party. Superstars maintains the classic Mario Party gameplay that is competitive but random enough that anyone can play and feel like they have a legitimate chance of winning the game. This can be infuriating for more competitive players who feel they are more skilled but I think it’s a good opportunity to practice letting go of what we can’t control. Mario Party Superstars is a great option for people looking for a casually competitive game to play with friends and family.
Any Mario Sports Game
There are a huge number of Mario sports games, too many for me to recommend specific ones in detail. These games all take a concept of a sport and its basic rules and simplify them to a formula that anyone can play and quickly understand. But just because these games are more basic doesn’t mean that they don’t have any fun or depth for those of us who love sports. There is a high ceiling of skill for most of these games that can satisfy that competitive edge. The sports I would recommend most would be the games focused on soccer and baseball (the Strikers and Sluggers franchises respectively). These games are some of the more polished Mario sports games. These games are available across Nintendo consoles throughout the years so you can find whichever one speaks to you most on the Nintendo console you own.
Any Simulation Sports Game
Simulation sports games are games that try to realistically adapt a sport to a video game. These games include FIFA (soon to be called EA Sports FC), Madden, NBA 2K, PGA Tour, MLB The Show, etc. These games are released on basically all platforms. My personal favorites - the games I have put the most time into and would recommend most - are FIFA and NBA 2K. Simulation sports games have been structurally the same for many years at this point, new releases are big mostly because of roster updates and minor changes to the technical framework and systems of the games. But more or less, the yearly version of one of these won’t be too different from the previous version. These games can be great for people who really love the featured sport, and I think they are also great for teaching strategies and rules of the sports. I for one have learned a lot of my strategic knowledge of sports like American Football and Soccer from simulation games. These games also all offer local and online competitive play so players can test their skills in both ways. These games are great options for those wanting to play a sport without the equipment or all the people.
I hope I told you about a new game or two you didn’t know about today and that you are interested in any of these. Let me know if there’s anything major that I missed and leave a like or comment. Thanks!