Above: The real trick is remembering what instrument you're playing
1. Rock Band (360/PS3/PS2)
What it is:
Forget the academics for a second: Rock Band, and to a lesser extent Guitar Hero, are ego-stroking masterpieces that make you feel like a rock star. As to the specifics, it's all about fake playing a fake musical instrument by hitting buttons in time with colored fake notes that move along the screen like fake sheet music. And it feels totally real.
Why it's perfect:
It's instantly understandable, it's novel and cool, it rewards teamwork so there's minimal animosity inspired, and people simply will not want to stop playing. Nonetheless, you'll get the chance to swap people in, out, and around every five minutes, so nobody gets left out of the fun for long. It may be the greatest multiplayer game ever.
Where does the booze go?
There are several ways to go here. We're not fond of the normal head-to-head modes (they're two-player only) but you could play them and make the loser drink. For a less boring approach, you could have people drink after every song or set, or make it more competitive and have only those with especially high or low accuracy ratings (shown after every song) take a slug.
For added challenge, you could also put two people on each instrument, which leaves a hand free for holding a drink, throwing the horns and other rock star-like shenanigans. Us? We liked getting the crowd involved and having other folks feed us the beers as we played. That's how the real rock stars do it, right?
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