When they're playing Downtown Beatdown , it reminds me of playing Double Dragon 2 on two player B mode. That's because in that mode you could actually beat up your partner and kill them, by knocking him into a pit for instance. Back in the day I would play Double Dragon 2 by myself and I would select two player B mode. The reason I did so was because of the stealing lives trick.
I was a big Double Dragon fan in my youth--the first game I ever beat was the first Double Dragon in the arcade. So I played quite a bit of Double Dragon II on the NES, but I'm not sure if I knew about that trick of using the two player B mode. Interesting.
Also, Battletoads is a game that's notorious for the whole 'friendly fire' thing in two player mode (I've never actually played that game though).
Oh man, Battletoads. I either owned that game or I simply rented it a lot. Can't remember. But I never beat it. Even when using the Game Genie cheat device. Last year I booted up a ROM of it and was determined to set right that wrong, but even using save states, I couldn't beat it.
Fuck Battletoads. (However, I was totally into the Dark Queen.)
I don't know about you, but I think it's odd that such an option even exists.
It exists to ruin friendships, of course.
Last summer, during our "honeymoon," Jessica and I played through my favorite co-op NES game, River City Ransom. That has friendly fire, but it didn't end up becoming an issue. Maybe due to the power of our love.