Some people have things in their home that make it a more desirable location for parties. Rachel has a billiards table. Don has table tennis. But Johann? Johann has Sportsfriends, a collection of four simple, enjoyable games that are easy to pick up and play. Provided you have a good group of people and a few controllers to go around, it can be exactly what a party needs to go from good to great.
I stress the party theme, because having people to play Sportsfriends with is a requirement. There are no single-player options whatsoever (not even any sort of practice mode), and there is no online play. To get anything at all from Sportsfriends, you need at least two people (preferably more). Fortunately, even if you have four people but are lacking a couple of controllers, half of the games in the collection allow you to share a controller between two players. Things may get a little cramped (I hope you're comfortable being close to the person you're sharing with), but this is a valid and enjoyable way to experience these two games, and it's a great option to have.
The first game on the Sportsfriends list, BaraBariBall, is the most complex and hardest to master, but it's potentially the most rewarding for those who want something with depth to seek their teeth into. The game pits two teams (of either one or two players each) on opposite sides of a stage and drops a ball into the middle. Each team then fights over the ball (often literally, as physical attacks are encouraged) in an effort to get the ball into their team's goal--a goal made of water below the stage. You can jump into the water to grab the ball before it sinks offscreen, but it's a risky move. If you sink too far yourself, your team loses a point.
Getting around each stage and past the opposing team requires some jumping, but you have a limited number of jumps you can use in a row before you have to land on solid ground to recharge. Because the liquid goal lines are typically a fair distance below ground level, managing how many jumps you have at any given time is vital to success in both offense and defense. At times, BaraBariBall has the same frantic nature of a fighting game, including the physical violence that comes with that. Desperation can set in when the ball is sinking into the goal and an opponent is about to score. You know you have enough time to dive into the water and grab it--but will you have enough jumps to make it back out alive, especially considering your competitors will be waiting for you back on land? Decisions must be made quickly, and the difference could be a well-timed punch to the face.A handful of character and special move options allow for different individual strategies, and you need to adjust your tactics depending on whether you're playing with two people or four. If you don't like the default rule set, you can tweak everything from point values to the number of jumps you can use before recharging. This all combines to make BaraBariBall the deepest game in the Sportsfriends collection, but it's still simple enough to not be too intimidating.
The controls for either strategy are simple: the left analog stick moves your character, while the right analog stick moves the pole. When left to your own devices, vaulting toward the ball is effortless. In practice, four-player games of Super Pole Riders often devolve into a tangle of bodies all trying to get airborne at the exact same spot, resulting in numerous face-kicks and riders on top of opposing poles. This is frustrating if you're taking the competition too seriously, but the insanity is usually enjoyable thanks to how ridiculous this mayhem looks, if nothing else. So what if you're struggling to get the ball where you want it to go? It looks really funny while you're trying.
