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I Realised Where Video Games Were Heading The Day I Played Chu Chu Rocket.

I remember a time when online multiplayer was something fresh. The first time I really experienced it on a console was back in the lofty days of the Dreamcast. A free title issued by SEGA via the DreamArena had caught my attention for a while – Chu Chu Rocket; a simplistic but fast paced puzzle title with a focus on online multiplayer gameplay.

I distinctly remember the day my copy arrived in the mail. I placed the disc in my console, hooked up the 28k modem and connected to the game servers. Quickly finding a lobby, I tapped away to my newly found companions on the Dreamcast keyboard before launching into a game.

“This is amazing,” I typed, “I’m in Birmingham and you’re in Newcastle. That’s like hundreds of miles. And we’re about to play a game!”

“I’ve been playing online with my PC for a while,” he responded, “What’s so fascinating?”

“Ah well, I’ve never been that into PC gaming, can we launch the game?” I exclaimed.

The loading screen popped into view and before I knew it I was thrust into the frantic world of Chu Chu Rocket. Totally unaware of what I was doing I lost the match horrendously. Much of the game was spent in awe. Was this an elaborate trick from SEGA, were these people really, like me, sitting in their bedrooms on the other side of country? Or were they just robots, designed by SEGA to make believe truth in their promise of online play? At the time, the latter seemed more feasible.

“What happened to you?” my newly found companion questioned upon returning to the lobby.

“I was in awe,” I responded, “That and I haven’t got a clue what I’m supposed to be doing.”

I bid my farewells and left the lobby, disconnected my 28k modem and set about spending some time with Chu Chu Rocket alone. Ahh the nuance of the single-player. I discovered a similar multiplayer mode with bots and a puzzle setting. I’ll rue that day for a lifetime.

See, that was the day I realised you can’t have both. Chu Chu Rocket had me in awe when I was online, but jump offline and the experience was shallow and empty. Perhaps Chu Chu Rocket isn’t the best example for the point I’m eventually going to come round to, but it provides a basis.

Gaming is filling boxes these days. Consumers vote with their wallets and their green suggests developers need to be making multiplayer. Step back and look at a franchise like Uncharted.

While I have every confidence Uncharted 2 is going to be everything I expect from it, did it really need multiplayer? Really? I’ve spent some time in the beta, and honestly I did enjoy the game’s attempts at a multiplayer framework, but at the end of the day, is it what people associate with the franchise? It’s not, it’s filling a box and it’s because consumers refuse to spend their money on a product without it.

I can appreciate that people spend weeks of their life with the likes of Killzone 2 and Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. But does that really devalue alternative products so much that they have to be padded with a line on their contents sleave? Uncharted is about character development, plot and intrigue – does that not carry a monetary value anymore? And if not, where is the gaming industry heading? Are we approaching a time when the single-player is little more than a series of bot fights; training for the main-course of online multiplayer like Chu Chu Rocket?

I don’t want to be a part of that world and I urge you to not give in to it. I love online multiplayer when it’s necessary, but that doesn’t mean I’ll only rent a game without it. So many forum posters seem to entirely disregard the campaign experience. Often we’re talking about extremely high quality single-player experiences too.

There is a place for multiplayer. But please, for the love of the industry, let developers know you appreciate the campaign too. Buy the games with acclaimed campaigns. Appreciate them. Explore them.

The day the singleplayer dies is the day the industry dies for me. I’ll hang up my controller. I’ll rue the day Chu Chu Rocket landed through my letterbox.

“Twiggy” is an anonymous PushSquare columnist who has been spotted in three major cities across the globe. It’s rumoured he’s on the run from the British monarchy who accused him of treason.

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