Second Player Bias?

johnny_ultimate

Does it exist?
You know, the times you swear you lost because you were using controller 2,3,4 etc...
Is there any games that truly feature 2nd Player bias?
There are, of course, obvious examples - playing as Tails co-op in Sonic 2, if that's counted.
But I could always swear Guitar Hero throws more notes at Player One....

Hercule

As far as i know most fighting games have a bias towards the player on the left as that is the position you learn most moves for. It adds to the difficulty to have to key in the opposite commands in terms of directions especially when doing the quarter-circles and half-circle mixes from most 2d fighting games. I find myself trying to jump over my opponent or throwing them behind me to swap positions when i use the 2nd player position just to make it less complicated

Setun

Well I know if I'm player 2 or whatever in an FPS', occasionally I instinctively start looking at the player one screen - thinking I'm great bludgeoning a few hapless friends, when in fact it is me, stuck in some scenery, being bludgeoned by my friend.

Ah, the bitter irony.

quad_red

If you went to play at a mates house, you'd inevitably get the ****ty cheap controller or the faulty one.

petes

quad_red wrote:

If you went to play at a mates house, you'd inevitably get the ****ty cheap controller or the faulty one.

True, but when they come to yours and get the crappy controller and blame their inadequacy on it swop them over and give them another kicking with the **** controller.

K.O.Kiki

Some old-school fighting games had glitches where some esoteric combos/loops could ONLY be done from one side (usually 2P). Pity I can't remember any; think it was an SNK thing mainly anyway.

As for learning to play from the right -- just takes practice, really. Or an investment in a decent stick, as QCB/QCF motions are not nice on the thumb IMHO.

quad_red

petes wrote:

True, but when they come to yours and get the crappy controller and blame their inadequacy on it swop them over and give them another kicking with the **** controller.

But what if they owned the console! But despite this, you adapted to the crappy controller and still whupped ass almost every time.

Yes Kevin, I'm talking to you!!

smokingman

No such thing....only an excuse for some godawful shameful lack of "ability to bring you downtown....yeah....to Chinatown..."

:cool:

Zombrex

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Is there any games that truly feature 2nd Player bias?

Split screen games do, it is more naturally to look at the left side of the screen and ignore the right than to look at the right and ignore the left. And the same with top and bottom (more natural to look at the top screen).

I also used to find the top down games like Sensible Soccer were slightly harder if you were playing down the field.

KdjaCL

Striker 98 on SNES had it, some tennis game always put P2 at the top of the screen.

SWIV p2 got the Jeep, PES all P2 gets the players P1 didnt want to change too.
Sunset Riders P1 always got eh power ups.

And in rgds ****ty cheap controller, well its the way of the world. Only now i can afford to have all original pads and now my mates are good

Had to buy 2 Hori sticks to shut one of them up.

kdjac

User45701

Gran Turesmo on the pc, the 2nd player as i nwhoever was comming 2nd or losing was given a speed boost because 2 same cars at max speed on a straight road whoever is 2nd will somehope be able to overtake the person who is in 1st

johnny_ultimate

User45701 wrote:

Gran Turesmo on the pc, the 2nd player as i nwhoever was comming 2nd or losing was given a speed boost because 2 same cars at max speed on a straight road whoever is 2nd will somehope be able to overtake the person who is in 1st

Gran Turismo PC
Most racing games feature that. Some are particularly bad. Playing Bully recently, you could have a godawful crash into a river or something, get back to the course, find a new bike, hop on and catch up to the leaders within two seconds. More serious racers feature it too - although I'm not sure that too many feature it in multiplayer.

monkeyfudge

KdjaCL wrote:

SWIV p2 got the Jeep

Oh yes.. and the Jeep was even crappier in the original Silkworm... with it's little jumping ability.

Creamy Goodness

mario kart, the losing player gets an unholy amount of red shells.

DS

Apparently Pro Evolution has a random factor applied in each match to give one team an advantage, to make sure results are less predictable.

wayne040576

Hercule wrote:

As far as i know most fighting games have a bias towards the player on the left as that is the position you learn most moves for. It adds to the difficulty to have to key in the opposite commands in terms of directions especially when doing the quarter-circles and half-circle mixes from most 2d fighting games. I find myself trying to jump over my opponent or throwing them behind me to swap positions when i use the 2nd player position just to make it less complicated

That's not bias, that's just a weakness in the player because they haven't learned to do the moves on both sides. It's like a footballer who is used to kicking with his right foot. I learned to play street fighter using the player two side on home console as I always let my brother use player one. So the player one side has always been my weaker side.
Bias is that the game actually makes it easier\harder for a particular player on purpose.