What Miner Warfare is
Miner Warfare is a frantic 2D local multiplayer game where up to 8 miners dig through dirt blocks and through each other to end the match as the wealthiest gold digger. Each match runs for 4 minutes, so the clock is doing as much work as anyone else. You break dirt with a deadly pike, but the real noise comes from the crates that get teleported onto the battlefield at random. Open one and you might get something to shoot your friends with, something to throw, or something that blows the whole map apart.
The store text lists 20 maps and more than 40 weapons, plus over 30 costumes to dress your miner in. Explosive buggers and a nuclear bomb are named directly, and there's a Holy Grail in there too. The tagline the developers give the game is a warning rather than a promise: excessive use can destroy friendship.
How a group plays it together
The setup is unusual and worth understanding before you pass out controllers. The game supports up to 8 players locally, but you don't need 8 pads. One mode is called "2 gamers 1 pad," where two players share a single controller, so a group with 3 gamepads and one keyboard can fill the whole roster. That means part of the fun is the physical squeeze: two people fighting over the same buttons while trying to shoot each other in the face.
Because everything happens on one screen, the match is a constant pile-up. You're digging for gold, dodging your own teammate's stray shots, and trying not to be standing where the nuclear bomb lands. The gold is the score, but most of a round ends up being about survival and opportunism. Remote Play Together is available, so someone not in the room can join in over the feature.
Before you start
Expect chaos rather than a slow tactical round. Four minutes is short, weapons arrive randomly from crates, and the terrain itself gets chewed up by laser cannons and bombs, so no plan survives contact. Bring enough controllers for the group you actually have, since the shared-pad mode is the intended way to reach 8 players.
The game is tagged Action, Casual and Indie, and it's built for local multiplayer first. If your group treats every match as a grudge, the developers' warning is not a joke.