Hmmmmm. I have arrived here by a somewhat circuitous route that I have to come clean on.

I posted a question over at the Edge forum last night and when I looked back earlier today I saw a post has been deleted and I jumped to conclusions that some old Edge "fuck-wittery" had happened with wits derailing and ridiculing the post.

I posted a self-rightous little rant about cliquishness and so on and then Dante educated me as to what actually happened...a post telling me to come here had been deleted. I've left my indescretions visible on the old Edge forum and come here on bended knee saying "Sorry"....hope I'm accepted.

Anyhow - question pasted in from OP in Edge forum:
December past, I suggested having a video game competition in - gasp - work. No big deal - kind of a wind-down thing held over a couple of lunchtimes the week leading up to the office party. Its an IT office with a good range of ages and game experience but the game had to meet certain criteria.

I wanted a knockout format - no leagues or anything elaborate - so the game must be 2 player Vs, a game can't last too long (5mins say) and most important - be pretty accessible so that it's a relatively level playing field AND be kind of entertaining to watch. I chose Tetris and selected the SNES version's "Game B" which is a 2 player first to 25 lines mode with garbage on. I managed to get 16 people interested (+ more just watching & slagging),

We got the SNES outputting via good old s-video through a projector and well - it went down a storm. So much so that I've been led to believe that more similar events (say once every two months) would go down pretty well. The young'uns found using the SNES to be quite quaint and it all added to the fun so I'd like to throw a couple of older consoles into the mix with this gen.

My problem is thinking up 5 more games that fit the bill - its harder than you think. Fighting games are too anal and would degenerate into a button mashing thing, split screen racing probably wouldn't be much fun to watch unless people are really evenly matched, and an FPS requires messing about with a LAN or split screen and wouldn't be much craic to watch for the uninitiated (there are folk at work who go off and have LAN parties and that isn't really what this is about). Shmups are too manic and don't really offer a proper vs game - and I have puzzle games covered with Tetris.

I've thought of Virtua Tennis - I have the first 2 on DC, 2 arcade sticks and a VGA box so that would probably go down well. A first to 3 games set would meet the time limits.

Given the business we are in Typing of the Dead would probably go down well too (have it on DC as well with 2 keyboards) and Let's Tap on Wii (that little obstacle course game) is a riot and a 4 player format could be squeezed in. The thing is I'm not familiar with what the 360 or PS3 would have to offer so I'm a bit stuck.

I've toyed with Bomberman but not sure its a spectator-friendly game. There's the obvious Wii bowling et al but the turn-around for a game might be too slow.

Anyone have any other ideas? There's bound to be loads of games to meet these requirements.

EDIT : Wii Sports Boxing, Monkey Ball and Punch Out have been suggested...any others?