I wish someone would make a decent multiplayer

Seriously! How hard is this? Say what you want about Nintendo, but they pretty much NAILED multiplayer with the New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. Four people can play together on one screen. It's great for people with families or real life friends you can touch (don't touch your friends, that's weird). The only thing I think would have made the experience perfect would have been if players could drop in and drop out at any time.

Many game developers make decent multiplayer games. Call of Duty's multiplayer is decent, if you're looking at the ability to play with a group of friends. But I wish I could play online with more than one friend at my side (like, in my house). I can play split screen with four people,but not online, and only two online. I could play LAN parties, but I don't have enough friends with their own PS3's or copies of the same game to justify this excursion. The online multiplayer on Battlefield 3 is great, if you don't have friends that live in your vicinity who play it. I was so disappointed when I finally had a gaming friend over, popped in BF3 and found out there's no split screen. The best we could do is stay in our own houses and play online together. Brink is the same thing.

Hunted: The demon's forge had a great idea, in my opinion. The whole game is two player dependant, although you can play by yourself you still rely on the second character. But it's so gimmicky in it's reliance on using the second player. I found the game hard to perfect and repetitive. I could play the game with a friend, or online with a friend, which is a cool idea. Dungeon Siege III has a good handle on multiplayer, it allows me to play with up to three friends who can drop in and out at any time. Cool idea, but I find it harder to connect with the game from a top down view.

The entire time I played through Dragon Age and Mass Effect I wished my wife could pick up a controller and just casually take control of one of my companions. Kind of like Tail's (Sonic the hedgehog's fox friend) in Sonic 2. In one player mode, a second person could control tails, or he could stay computer controlled, but everything was still about Sonic. I don't want the game to rely heavily on having a second or third or fourth player, I just want the option. I don't want a gimmicky multiplayer, I just want something accessible. I have real friends over to my house, and we like to play video games together, but there is very little we can actually pick up and play for a long time that has any meaning or substance.

So, game developers, are you listening?!? I really doubt any are, but if you agree with me, let's start suggesting this to game developers. If enough of us say it, they might just listen. Even if they don't, we can have some fun making some noise and them complaining about said game developers afterwards. Tommy out.