25 Best PS1 Multiplayer Games

Worms World Party was the last two-dimensional title in the main series before it moved to 3D. After Worms Armageddon, Team17 already had plans for a fully three-dimensional Worms, and that game arrived as Worms 3D in 2003. So this is the old flat formula at the end of its run. Teams of worms take turns firing weapons at each other, and the shots set each other off: a grenade can throw one worm against a mine, which sets off another worm, which hits a third worm who slips into the water.

Its reputation has slipped since release, and the Worms community is now mixed on it. Players still recommend it for a night with friends. Because the game is turn-based, one controller can go around the room, which makes it one of the cheapest ways on this list to get a group playing.

Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition is the home version of the first sequel to Puzzle Bobble, known in arcades as Bust-A-Move Again. The arcade game came out in 1995, and home conversions followed for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64 and Windows. Some of the contestants in its new tournament mode are based on characters from Bubble Bobble, including a Monsta and a Mighta.

The North American box is the famous part. Its cover art was considered wildly inappropriate for a cheerful game that young children could play, and the print ads went further, with large blue balls with human faces trapped inside, moaning in apparent agony, their eyes forced open by white sticks. The game inside could not be gentler. Of everything on this list, it is the easiest to hand to someone who has never held a controller.

Micro Machines V3 came out on the PlayStation in 1997, and ports to Windows, the Nintendo 64 and the Game Boy Color followed. It added weapons and power-ups to the miniature racing series, so you can blast the other cars with a hammer or drop mines behind you. There are 48 courses set on things like a breakfast table, a school desk, a science lab and a pool table, and 32 vehicles to collect, monster trucks included.

The big trick was the player count. The PlayStation version lets 8 people play at once, two to a controller. Critics praised the detailed, imaginative tracks but disagreed on whether the fun lasted, and the multiplayer modes were the sticking point. Players settled that argument for themselves. They name it among the best PS1 games for a big group.

Worms started as an experiment by Andy Davidson on a Casio graphing calculator before it moved to the Amiga. Davidson had trouble pitching it until he showed it at the 1994 ECTS and met Martyn Brown, Team17's co-founder, who immediately offered to develop and publish the game. The Amiga version came out in Europe on 17 November 1995, and the console ports followed. Levels are randomly generated from seeds, with over 55,000 possible level creations.

Across all its ports, Worms sold around 5 million units by 2006. It is the rough first draft of the series, and two later games on this list polish it. Players do not seem to mind. They still put it on their lists of PS1 games to play with friends, and the random maps mean no two nights go the same way.

Micro Maniacs is an unofficial sequel to the Micro Machines games, with the same 3D view as Micro Machines V3. The difference is that the racers race on foot. There are 12 characters, some of them unlockable, and each has its own attack moves. The tracks are real-world places seen from very close up, such as kitchens and gardens, because everyone in the race is tiny.

In North America it came out as FoxKids.com Micro Maniacs Racing, because Fox Kids sponsored the release. It was scheduled for June 2000 but was delayed to late September. Players who owned a Multitap still recommend it next to the other big party games of the console. For a racing game where nobody has a car, it holds up very well with a full room.

Speed Punks is the North American title of Speed Freaks. Sony had the rights to publish it in the region as early as the summer of 1999, but held it back to avoid competing with Crash Team Racing. The developers wrote hand-optimised assembly code so the graphics engine would fit into the small instruction cache of the PlayStation, and they believe it was only the second racing game on the console to use Gouraud shading.

That is a lot of engineering for a game Sony itself left parked in the garage for a while. The intro video uses "Travelling Without Moving" by Jamiroquai, which dates it to the minute. Players who remember it still recommend it, and it is a good way to find out what a second kart racer on the PS1 felt like with friends.

WWF War Zone was the first graphical 3D game based on the WWF. Development began in 1997, so by its summer 1998 release several wrestlers on the roster had already left, most notably Bret Hart. You grapple, tap a series of presses on the directional pad and then press a button to pull off a move, while Vince McMahon and Jim Ross provide the commentary.

For a group, the modes are the point. It has four-player action with Tag Team, Tornado, War and Training modes, and you can create and save up to 30 customized wrestlers of your own. Mick Foley shows up in three personas, and two of them, Cactus Jack and Dude Love, have to be unlocked first. It was followed by a sequel, WWF Attitude, released in 1999.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo was a response to Puyo Puyo 2, which had been sweeping the Japanese arcade scene, and its title is a play on Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Gems only clear when a Crash Gem of the same colour touches them, which sets up the potential for huge chain reactions. Clearing gems drops Counter Gems into your opponent's field, and they only turn into normal gems after they count down to zero.

The fighters come from Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, and most of the same sprites went on to Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix in 1997. Players keep naming it as a game for two. With a friend next to you, it is the closest the PS1 gets to a fighting game for people who do not like fighting games.

Poy Poy is a multiplayer party game at heart. You fight three other opponents in seven 3D arenas strewn with throwable objects, from logs and rocks to ice blocks and atomic bombs, and the last one standing wins. If you run out of stuff to throw, you can toss your opponents around too. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses, and the strong ones pick up heavier props more quickly.

If you cannot find three friends and a Multitap, AI characters fill the tournament modes, and two players can still play a deathmatch. A sequel, Poy Poy 2, was released in 1998. Players call it one of the best four-player party games on the console, and it is easy to see why after one round where somebody gets hit by a log.

Worms Armageddon was originally developed as an expansion pack to Worms 2, under the name Wormageddon, before it was released as a standalone game. It came out on Windows first and was later ported to the PlayStation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. Each turn, a team moves one worm, and the weapons run from real ones like the bazooka and shotgun to the sheep, which serves as a mobile explosive, and the skunk, which releases poisonous gas.

You can build your own teams down to the grave marker and the victory fanfare. Jeff Nash of The Electric Playground gave the PlayStation version nine out of ten almost a year after it was released. Players rank it above the other two Worms games on this list, and they call it a blast with a room full of friends.

WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role sold 3.2 million units and became the best-selling combat sports game on a single format, the PlayStation. Yuke's built it directly onto the engine from the first SmackDown!, and it came out on November 21, 2000. It added the Create-A-Moveset and Create-A-Stable features that had been cut from the first game due to time constraints.

It was also one of the first wrestling games to allow 4-player Season Mode, and the PS1 paid for it. Four player profiles meant the game was constantly reading and writing to the Memory Card. The developers even put a large padding file on the disc, the tutorial video from Yuke's Evil Zone, to push the game files toward the outer edge. With three friends on the couch, nobody minded the wait much.

Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 was developed by SingleTrac, the studio behind Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2. After a contractual dispute with Sony, the developer was bought by GT Interactive, and it built this game on an overhauled version of the engine from the first two Twisted Metal games. You choose one of 16 automercenaries, pick up tourists and take them to photo ops, and the money buys weapon upgrades and health.

Reviewers compared it with Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal III, the two other big car combat games of 1998 on the PlayStation, and GamePro called it "Twisted Metal with tourists." That works as a summary and as a recommendation. Critics praised the play control and the level design. If you have worn out Twisted Metal 2, this is the closest thing to another game from the same people.

Point Blank is Namco's light gun party game. It is a first-person arcade shooter made of non-violent, all-ages shooting contests, like hitting targets and cardboard cutouts, and some missions want speed while others want pinpoint accuracy. You are shown four missions at a time and may try them in any order, and you usually have only three lives for the entire game.

At the end, the ranking may advise you to try out head to head with a friend, which is the best advice the game gives. With two light guns plugged in, it turns into a contest anyone can follow from the couch. Point Blank 2 followed on the PlayStation in 1999 and Point Blank 3 in 2000. Players remember the series as great fun.

Twisted Metal III is the first game in the series fully developed by 989 Studios, after SingleTrac's dispute with Sony and its sale to GT Interactive. It came out only in North America, the first installment not released in the PAL regions and the first published directly by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was re-released in the Greatest Hits line-up in 1999.

Advanced Attacks let you hit enemies when you are out of weapons, once the energy bar in the lower-right corner of the screen is full. The first level is Hollywood, devastated by the Great Earthquake of 2007, a date that has since come and gone without the earthquake. It is a step down from the first two games, but it still gives two players a full new set of arenas.

Twisted Metal 4 came out in North America on November 16, 1999, and it was the second and last game in the series developed by 989 Studios. The story belongs to Sweet Tooth this time, who first encounters the carnival as a child and follows it until he becomes a contestant. The soundtrack features seven bands, and one of them, Rob Zombie, also appears as a playable contestant.

Reviewers considered it an improvement over its predecessor but still short of the first two games. They praised the level design and the vehicle roster, and they were divided on the controls and the multiplayer. It sold fewer copies than each of the first three entries. For two players who have finished the early games, it is more car combat on the same couch.

Fighting Force came from Core Design soon after the success of Tomb Raider, and Core originally pitched it to Sega as a fourth Streets of Rage. You play one of four characters and fight waves of enemies from a police cordon to a shopping mall, a subway and Zeng's island headquarters, with weapons from fists and bottles to chairs and guns. Ben Jackson, called Smasher, can lift car engines and throw them at enemies.

All four characters have a special move that costs a portion of health. A Battle Arena mode was added during development and then cut, and the villain, Dr. Zeng, was inspired by Heaven's Gate. It sold well despite mixed reviews. Players remember it as a co-op beat 'em up, and with a friend on the second pad those reviews matter a lot less.

Team Buddies was the last game developed by Psygnosis' Camden Town studio before it moved to Sony, and Midway Games released it in North America. You stack crates on a pad to build battle toys, and stacking them directly on top of each other makes up to three additional team members. In one mode you capture the enemy's animal, and in another you throw a ball through a set of goalposts, with six more points for a ball exploding in the goal area behind them.

The North American version is rated E because the profanity was censored. The European version gives each multi-player team colour its own nationality. Players call it one of the must-plays for a Multitap, and they say it is at its best with three friends on the other pads.

Crash Bash is the fifth Crash Bandicoot game and the first in the party genre. It was the first game in the series not developed by Naughty Dog, and the last Crash Bandicoot game released only on a Sony console. Up to four players can play its 28 mini-games with a Multitap, across three modes, and the games are reached from Warp Room hubs, four of them in the first room.

Critics widely noted how much it looks like Mario Party and found it short on depth, but they regarded it as an enjoyable multiplayer experience. Players put it among their Multitap must-plays, and fans of Crash Team Racing tend to name the two together. Played alone it loses most of its charm, so this is one to save for a full couch.

Electronic Arts released Diablo for the PlayStation in 1998, in a version developed by Climax Studios. The big change is control: you steer your hero with the controller instead of clicking where to walk. Underneath, it is the same action RPG, where you kill hordes of monsters through randomized dungeon levels for gold and better equipment. When Blizzard took it on, it requested two major changes: make it real-time and give it multiplayer.

The Sorcerer is the physically weakest of the three classes, but his Mana Shield spell sends enemy damage to his mana instead of his health. Players still recommend Diablo as a co-op game on the PS1, and it is one of the few dungeon crawlers on the console that two people can play together from start to finish.

Vigilante 8 began life as a PlayStation port of Interstate '76. Luxoflux, a development team of five people, got the job, and at some point they asked Activision for permission to make it into its own thing. The result is set in an alternate 1975, where the terrorist Sid Burn is hired by OMAR to wipe out the competing oil companies, and a kind-hearted trucker named Convoy forms the Vigilantes to fight back.

The PlayStation version lets you play your own music CDs during a match. The endings go to strange places, and one villain is undone by a stray bee that stings a nuclear warhead's fuse. Players remember playing it with a friend more than anything else. The sequel, Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense, was released just over a year later.

Future Cop: LAPD was originally developed as an installment of the Strike series. In the Crime War story mode you are an LAPD X1-Alpha pilot, starting in a futuristic Griffith Park and unlocking places like Venice Beach, LAX and Long Beach as you go. The other mode, Precinct Assault, has five different areas and 10 difficulty settings for a single player.

Players remember both modes as two-player games, co-op through the campaign or Precinct Assault head to head, where you have to take the opponent's base. It ranks this high because the people who played it with a friend have not stopped recommending it. Few games here work as well with two players on the same side as with two players at war.

Hogs of War is a turn-based tactics game where anthropomorphic pigs fight in the First World War. Developer Andrew Fox described the premise as Worms in 3D with pigs, and Gremlin's founder Ian Stewart was inspired by the film Babe as well as Worms. The humour draws on Blackadder Goes Forth, and British comedic actors Rik Mayall and Marc Silk do the voices.

Development took 3 years, partly because Infogrames bought Gremlin in 1999, and early builds were rough enough that cancellation was considered. It received mixed reviews at launch but high praise for its comedy, and some critics now call it a cult classic. Players call it amazing to play with friends. An official remaster is in production.

Twisted Metal is a series of arena battles against an increasing number of opponents in increasingly large arenas. It ends with Darkside, the winner of the previous year's competition, in a large armored car that fires multiple missiles at once. You choose one of 12 different vehicles, each with its own driver and special move, and the arenas have weapon pickups, repair stations, pedestrians and course stewards armed with missile launchers.

The first game already had a two-player duel mode, and the sequel brought it back. The original and its first sequel were also released for the PC, but the PlayStation is where most players met them. Players name it with no explanation at all, as if the words Twisted Metal were enough. The arenas are smaller than in the sequel, and that makes a duel tense.

Twisted Metal 2 was released in 1996 for PlayStation and Windows, and two years later it was re-released in the PlayStation's Greatest Hits line. The arenas are spread across global locations, and every character has a backstory and a special weapon. It also added advanced moves, button combinations for rechargeable tricks like a cloak or a napalm blast.

The two-player duel mode is back, and a co-operative mode lets two players fight through the tournament as a team. Players call it one of the most fun co-op games there is, and plenty of them had house rules. One player's was short: "Spectre is banned." It came to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on July 18, 2023, so it is easy to play again today.

Crash Team Racing is the fourth Crash Bandicoot game and the final one developed by Naughty Dog. You take control of one of fifteen characters from the series, though only eight are available at first, and win trophies until each world's Boss Garage opens. Collect all three letters in a level and come in first, and you earn a CTR Token. Clancy Brown voices Doctor Neo Cortex, and the story ends with a race against the boss Nitrous Oxide.

Critics called it a highly polished kart racer that drew heavy inspiration from Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing, and many argued it surpassed its competitors. The arcade modes take up to 4 players. Players call it the PlayStation's Mario Kart, and some say it is better. Players recommend it more than any other PS1 multiplayer game.