I like Killer Queen so much that I’m going to spoil a future video of mine

Play the Switch version of one of the best games of the decade, Killer Queen

Killer Queen, a five-in-five two-cabinet competitive independent arcade game released in 2013, finally arrived on a console - the Nintendo Switch - in 2019. I love Killer Queen so much that I will spoil a future video of mine: the original form 2013 is one of the three best games released this decade. You can watch Cecilia and I the 2019 Switch version in this video.

The Switch version changes some of the original rules without sacrificing the fineness or their alignment. Unlike the arcade version, we have two or four teams on the Switch, with arenas that are slightly narrower than arcade players might be used to. It works spectacularly well.

In Killer Queen, each team has three ways to win. If you pay too much attention to one state of victory, you can accidentally ignore another. Killer Queen gives all players all information, always and everywhere. There is nothing hidden in Killer Queen. Imagine a MOBA in which the camera never moves. No one has an excuse for noticing anything but "I wasn't paying attention." It is fascinating.

Killer Queen inspired me in the design process of my own game. I wrote a lecture about the thought experiments that led to the crystallization of the design of my own game, and it was impossible to write that lecture without praising ten minutes aside praising the "Omnia-available" information from Killer Queen, making "spectators" players. "My reading was apparently the number two with the highest rating at the Game Developers Conference 2016 - a fact that I mainly attribute to the Killer Queen analysis. You can watch it here on YouTube.

You might be able to watch screenshots of this game and raise some doubt. I have heard MOBA players mock when I say that Killer Queen is 'pretty much a MOBA'. I have seen FPS players roll when I say that Killer Queen is 'the best sport'. These doubters are wrong. I don't have time to go into all the details about why now because I would have to write a dissertation for that. Let's leave it at that: if you doubt Killer Queen, you're a loser. Or you just didn't have the chance to play with nine other people in an arcade or bar in a major American city.

If you do not live near such an arcade, you are lucky: the Switch version conjures up the magic formula of the arcade forbear, despite a small reduction in the number of players. You can play it online. Or, if you can bring people together, you can play it at home. If you play eight-player rounds or Killer Queen Black and you don't absolutely love it, I have no idea how I can help you. You have something that I cannot cure.

I say all this as an introduction to a video that unfortunately contains Cecilia and I play two players with six bots, instead of the ideal eight screaming people.

Moreover, you will see that we are struggling with technical problems. My 8bitdo SN30 + Pro controller experienced unbearable delay or about a full second. I have confirmed (at home, with the help of a Hori Pokkén Tournament controller) that this is not the fault of the game. The Nintendo Switch can be written over Bluetooth.

I sincerely hope that Killer Queen Black catches on. For the past six years, since I first played the arcade version, I have longed to see it broadcast live on Twitch. I wanted to see it play in an arena. As a canvas for brain games and a reason to scream, the pristine design is unparalleled elsewhere in video games.

I know the reality: the esportsphere is busy. The public can only think of so many games at a time. In a perfect world, every esportser around the world would remove all other games from their devices and dive deep into Killer Queen Black, and soon they would play it on high school gyms and in presidential debates.

Well, the world is not perfect. But if you have a Nintendo Switch, know seven people and have twenty dollars to spend, you can turn your living room into a perfect place for a few hours. If you find out how you can connect eight controllers, that is.