My younger cousin comes over today (like every few months) and we will be playing some couch coop games over the weekend.
So far we tried a lot of games and found some great ones along the way. Sidescrollers work sometimes, but third person and isometric is better. And I won’t touch another twin stick shooter haha. Do y’all have any suggestions, it’s always so much work to find a good new game (as opposed to just going after steam review, buying, and returning within 30min of playtime because it sucked).
Honorable mentions:
- Swords of Ditto (literally no one plays this, but it’s a pretty neat co-op zelda-like
- Darksiders Genesis (hack n slash)
- It takes Two (co-op puzzle)
- Children of Morta (great roguelite)
I also bought Secret of Mana, maybe we’ll play this.
Not seeing any love for Toejam and Earl Back in the Groove. Reimagining of the 90’s Mega drive classic made by the original dev.
Some retro suggestions:
- Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 - it sounds like your cousin is probably too old for this but this has one of the best “younger sibling” modes. They help collect and shoot bits. Which ultimately doesn’t matter much
- The Legend of Zelda 4 Swords Adventure - It’s basically multi-player Link to the Past! Bonus points if you dig up a GameCube, link cables, and GBAs
- Kirby Super Star - a mix of competitive and coop games
- Super Mario World (any) - you take turns but if you don’t go 6 levels without dying to his one it can be fun
- Halo 1-3 + ODST - Great classic shooters, the campaigns are customizable for difficulty, and a little kid probably loves alien shooters
- Borderlands 1/2 - Looter shooters with a sense of irreverance
- Dead Rising 2/Off the Record and 3 - Zombie hoard murdering with combo weapons
- The Simpsons '91, Battletoads, TMNT, Streets of Rage, etc - Beat Em Ups are great for multi-player
borderlands3 on console has couch coop too and is pretty fun.
I see lots of excellent responses, but one of my favorite games is never mentioned, so I’ll mention it here, it’s Out of Space it’s essentially overcooked but calmer.
If you have a Nintendo Switch then Snipperclips is a really fun and cute co-op.
Borderlands and Full Metal Furies spring to mind.
Cats Quest 2
Pretty cute game and if one person is significantly better at games, they can carry the team pretty well.
Pampas and selene: the maze of demons seems fun
I don’t see Out of Space on here. It’s pretty fun and challenging.
Goat Simulator is silly fun, especially with kids.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is awesome since it lets you play up to 4 player co-op.
Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse is a good co-op twin stick shooter.
Have you tried Broforce? It seems like a run and gun, but the key is thinking how to get out of situations.
Broforce is a very good one, fun and nervous, but it may be a bit gore sometimes, so it may not fit all players
Most of my suggestions that I’ve been playing with my brother are already posted, so I’ll just add 3 more I haven’t seen yet:
- Human Fall Flat
- Enter the gungeon
- Vampire survivors
If you like Enter The Gungeon, definitely try AK-xolotl. Same type of game, but more linear in a way. Rather than a single dungeon with multiple rooms to explore around, you go into a room, clear it, then choose 1 of 2 doors. Each door has a symbol to tell you which reward you will get after clearing it. Modding your weapons is much easier too.
Oh, it didn’t have co-op when I saw it before, but it has now, wishlisted, thanks, but I’m playing through baldurs gate 3 and that is gonna take over 200h before I move on :p
I’m going to second human fall flat, it’s a lot of fun. I’ll also add any of the Lego games to the list but the star wars one are definitely the best.
My list of coop games
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Broforce
- Castle Crashers
- Children of Morta
- Divinity Original Sin 2
- For the King
- “FORCED: Slightly Better Edition”
- Helldivers 1
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
- Rocket League
^ All of these are on Steam.
I absolutely love Children of Morta. I’ve got 3 saves at this point.
All of the Baldur’s Gates are good for couch co-op; the original series are all 3D isometric.
Bard’s Tale was pretty good for this, too, although the second player seems at times like an afterthought.
Idk if this is your speed, but my kid and wife and I love playing the Lego games that are based on movies - Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Avengers, etc.
Very couchable and can be challenging if you try to get 100% on each level.
Apologies if I misread the ask!
Lovers in a dangerous space time: pilot a space ship with a friend and fight rogue constellations.
Ship of Fools:
Man the decks in a rogue-lite game where you fight sea monsters and find treasure
Dont starve together
Vampire survivor
Castle crashers
And if you are into emulation most of ps2 era and before is designed for couch co op so hit the archives (top x lists on you tube makes it easy), depending on your cousins tastes
On xbox there’s a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game that’s fun for co-op
