10 best drinking video games

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?

Eric Bratcher
I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.
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