The Best Couch Co-op Games

Hazelight shipped a co-op-only design with no solo mode and no AI partner, then took Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021; Steam dates the release 25 March, Wikipedia the 26th. The chapter where Cody rewinds time while May clones herself made us negotiate out loud about who moved first, and the permanent split screen lets you watch your partner fail live.

Valve's cooperative campaign is a second game hiding inside the first, starring the robots Atlas and P-Body, and two people can run it on one machine with a split screen. Source engine, 18 April 2011. The ping tool is the entire vocabulary you get, which is why the gel rooms that need one of you to leap into the other's portal produce so much shouting.

Four players share one camera, and reviewers were right that it strains: Nintendo EAD Tokyo wanted it to serve all four without anyone feeling left out, and it doesn't quite manage. Not on Steam, since the November 2013 Wii U release is a hardware exclusive and Nintendo publishes nothing to PC storefronts. The Super Bell's Cat Suit turns every wall climb into a shoving match.

Nothing has ended more evenings than the hot-air-balloon kitchen that crash-lands into a sushi restaurant halfway through an order. Team17 and Ghost Town Games added online play for this sequel, which the 2016 original never had, but four-player shared screen on one sofa remains the correct configuration, because throwing ingredients exists so you can blame somebody by name. Out 7 August 2018.

Dotemu, Lizardcube and Guard Crush seat four players on one screen locally while capping online play at two, which tells you where the priority sat when it launched on 30 April 2020. Collecting a Star to bank a Star Move turns pickups into a negotiation, and reviving a downed friend costs you health, the most honest co-op tax anybody has written.

Studio MDHR hand-inked every frame with deliberate imperfections and cut the score with a full big band, then shipped on 29 September 2017 with two-player local play and no online mode whatsoever, which Steam's category list still confirms. Parrying your partner's rising soul to revive them is the only thing that makes the King Dice fight survivable, and the reason we restarted it forty times.

Nintendo's first Mario with simultaneous cooperative play arrived in November 2009 and had sold 30.32 million copies by 31 March 2022. Not sold on Steam, being a Wii exclusive from a publisher that ships to no PC storefront. Dying encases you in a bubble somebody else has to pop, which sounds generous until you discover you can bubble yourself on purpose and let the better player clear the level.

Larian's tactical RPG runs local split screen for two while supporting four online, and the only base SKU on Steam is titled Definitive Edition: same app, same 14 September 2017 date, handed free to existing PC owners in August 2018, so it is the original rather than a remaster. Pouring water across an electrified surface to chain-stun a fight is funnier when nobody beside you agreed to it.

The Behemoth launched on Xbox Live Arcade on 27 August 2008 and took until 26 September 2012 to reach Steam. Four-player shared screen, and the animal orbs are why the fourth controller matters, because whoever grabs the useful companion quietly carries everyone else. Arena mode settles arguments and Insane Mode starts new ones, which is a fair description of the whole afternoon.

Six players on one screen is an absurd figure, and Tribute Games shipped it anyway on 16 June 2022 under Dotemu, though the PS4 build caps local play at four while other platforms take all six. Reviving a downed turtle draws from the shared life pool, so somebody has to decide out loud whether you are worth it. Story mode strings its stages along an overworld.

Ubisoft Montpellier's UbiArt Framework platformer landed on 3 September 2013 with four-player local play and, notoriously, no online cooperative mode on PC at all, which Steam's categories still reflect. The rhythm stages built on a cover of Black Betty are the finest four-player platforming anybody has made, and Kung Foot is why nobody agrees to stop after one round.

Two controllers, one sofa: Larian's 3 August 2023 release does run split screen for two, but Steam's own category list omits shared-screen co-op and advertises only online and LAN, so store and game disagree, and keyboard players cannot join locally at all. Splitting the party so one of you talks while the other picks a pocket is the strongest argument for playing it beside somebody.

Media Molecule's debut, published by Sony on 27 October 2008, took Overall Game of the Year at the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards. Not on Steam, and never going to be, as a PlayStation 3 exclusive from Sony's own studio. Certain prize bubbles cannot be reached alone, which turns the grab button into a two-person crane where one player hangs, the other swings, and somebody gets dropped.

Blizzard rebuilt its 2012 action RPG for consoles with four players on a shared screen, an Evade dodge roll the PC build never received, and local loot on a first-come basis. Not on Steam, because Blizzard sells only through Battle.net. Wikipedia's article never mentions couch play while Blizzard's own console FAQ does, and nobody can leave the frame, so the camera drags whoever stopped to loot.

ConcernedApe added split-screen play in the 1.5 update on 21 December 2020, nearly five years after the February 2016 launch, and it remains the least-discussed reason to own the thing. Build a cabin from Robin for each of up to three extra farmers and the screen divides. Sharing one money pot with somebody who keeps buying seeds you did not authorise is a genuine relationship test.

Atari Games distributed 7,848 arcade cabinets from 1985, and the four-player upright was built physically wider than a standard machine to fit four bodies at once. Not on Steam: the original is arcade-only, and the Gauntlet sold there now is Arrowhead's 2014 remake, a different product. "Warrior needs food, badly" is the announcer line that taught a generation Thor's health drains whether or not anything is attacking.