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Best recommendations for PC couch multiplayer games?
Looking for some games to play with my 11-year-old and wife together (2 player games are OK too!). It's so hard to sift through hundreds of thousands of games on Steam, so thought I'd poll folks!
Portal and Portal 2. They are classics for a reason and perfect for couch play solving the puzzles together.
It takes two is one of the best 2 players games I ever played
Playing through that this week with my 9.5yo!
(Portal 2 is great too, but we've already solved all the co-op puzzles multiple times.)
Just a note here, from what I played the gameplay is great but the story is about a couple that's divorcing. Might be awkward.
I haven't finished the game yet but over several hours I have not enjoyed any of the cutscenes or bickering dialogue. I'd recommend skipping all the cutscenes you can. Both players have to hold a button for a few seconds to do so.
Maybe someone who played with their SO or children can weigh in whether they agree with that or not.
No it's definitely a bad story. I also haven't finished the game yet, but it's such a weak and cliche setup that the whole story is then built upon.
It definitely leads to some humorously dark moments like the elephant. But other than that the premise sucks. I feel like it wouldn't be that hard to have had a slightly better setup to build the story on.
It's really weird that the game is supposed to be about working together and being a team but youre never rooting for the characters to do so despite thats what your playing it as. it's a weird disconnect where what you do doesn't match what the characters say and do.
While playing with my 9.5yo this past week, I found many of the cut-scenes pretty cringey myself. (Amusingly, at one point it led to him asking when my spouse and I were going to get a divorce. Um, probably never, kiddo.) For his part, I think he kind of finds them boring - he's started taking the longer cut-scenes as an excuse to go get a cookie, or brush his teeth, or use the bathroom when we're playing together just before his bed time.
I would recommend Split Fiction instead, gameplay is great and very diverse, story might be just ok, but I don't think people playing couch multiplayers will care that much about the story
The Overcooked series was a hit with my wife who doesn't game much. I'd highly recommend them!
Cheaper than couple's therapy!
I only played with 4 people, seems like it'd be a lot harder with only 2
We only ever played with 2 people. Some of the maps were challenging, but we 3 starred all of them eventually. They added 4 stars in Overcooked 2 but we didn't go back to do those, maybe one day
Plate Up! by far the best couch coop game I own. Everyone loves it.
I found this Cozy Couch Co-Op Bundle while checking through my games, all these are hits.
Lovers in a dangerous space time, y'all pilot a spaceship together, cute aesthetic theme of spreading love.
Battle block theater is a whacky platformer. I haven't actually played this one, though it's been well received.
Moon hunters is a neat multiplayer roguelite. This vibes are what make this distinct from others in the genre
Keep talking and nobody explodes, y'all talk out defusing a bomb with different pieces of information.
Overcooked, y'all run a kitchen together -- it can get pretty hectic!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/2679/Cozy_Couch_CoOp_Bundle/
Nidhogg is 1v1 sword fight, it is quite fun and goes quick enough y'all can trade off.
Towerfall Ascension is a fun arena archery platformer, this supports all y'all.
Pico Park is a platformer where y'all gotta cooperate to succeed.
Castle Crashers is a 'classic' side scrolled beat em up. Classic in that it was big for couch co-op when it came out.
Sunderfolk is like a DnD with woodland animals run by the game and y'all play your characters on your phone/browser capable device.
The Trine series is a lovely side scrolling puzzle game through a fairytale world.
Nine Parchments y'all are wizards trying to retrieve pages of a spellbook scattered to the wind, also through a fairytale world like Trine.
Pizza Possum is a cute lil arcade-y game trying to steal pizzas and escape the cops while you do it.
Seconding Towerfall. That’s one of my favorite games.
I feel Towerfall is often overlooked because it's kind of older, but it's an excellent game. There are many modifiers to help younger or less handy players (regen shields, flight, more arrows, ghosts, ...). We sometimes play together with the wife and kids, and it's not unusual for my 6 years old daughter to win games.
There is also a cheat code to unlock all maps and characters, instead of spending hours slowly unlocking everything.
Nidhogg is fun! Might get stale quicker than usual if there's a bigger skill gap though.
Here are the ones I've enjoyed with my 6 year olds, but I think would still be fun for an 11 year old:
Lego Voyagers is a good one. My son and I played for a little while and it was a lot of fun. Very co-op oriented, great vibes, and just challenging enough to keep adults and kids alike entertained. It's a 2 player game.
Castle Crashers is a solid co-op (I think up to 4 players) beat 'em up. Has some potty humor and obviously violence, but it's a lot of fun.
And I second @DeaconBlue's suggestion of the Portal series. Portal 2 in particular has some of the best co-op play I've ever seen!
Human Fall Flat is a really fun one - for some reason, it's the only game my wife has ever been willing to play with me.
Ultimate chicken horse is fun
I consider recommending UCH but I would add that it's best if you can get even more players (the chaos is maximum with all 4 players)!
+1 agreed this is a fantastic time! Probably more fun with more, but I'm sure it is still great with two players
I'll say that while it's a fantastic game and I love it, small caveat is I've found that it can be a rough one to play casually if there's a dramatic difference in platforming game skill level / experience between participants.
Because of the way you as a group build up the levels you're also building your own difficulty and it can be easy to end up with something too challenging for someone less comfortable with the fundamentals.
Check out Untitled Goose Game. Wholesome, mischievous, puzzle solving, calm, and fun.
Only downside is that it isn't 1000 times bigger (when it ended I wanted it to keep going)
Regular Human Basketball is a lot of fun if everyone playing has some basic platformer experience.
Unrailed was also kinda fun but like Overcooked it can get hectic pretty fast.
It’s a single player game, but playing Blue Prince on the couch with others to help puzzle solve is a great experience.
Otherwise Ember Knights or Wizard of Legend are good fun roguelikes for casual players.
On a similar note of puzzle games "fun to play with others":
Easy to play together (no time pressure)-
Someone will "drive" although you can trade off and there's still puzzle stuff to do
No "puzzles" but I drove and the wife made all the moral choices, much to our mutual humor and enjoyment (both probably not for the 11 year old)-
I am SURE i'm forgetting quite a few but these are the ones that pop into my head at the moment. Mileage may vary with the last group as reading speed can be an issue for some since it's a timed thing, but we've had fun with it.
Adding to the list of easy to play together. I played through The Witness with a partner and we both enjoyed it.
I'll add Outer Wilds to the list as well. You end up bouncing a lot of ideas and theories off eachother that way. The only issue is you'll only be able to play when both of you are available, but it does beat having only one of you playing and being unable to talk to the other person about it!
I've been playing certain puzzle games in small teams for years and would like to second this recommendation. It depends on the kid's tastes, but if they have any interest in this sort of thing there are vast quantities of game hours to get through out there.
If you like hockey, Tape to Tape rules.
Duck Game - Chaotic action. You spawn into an arena and scramble to pick up a weapon. Gets better with more players. Press B to quack.
Guacamelee 1 & 2 - Metroidvania-ish action platformer. Mexican luchador theme, some good humour.
LEGO Star Wars - Action game where you play through the story of the SW movies.
Seconding suggestions from other comments:
Portal 2
It Takes Two (skip the cutscenes)
Nidhogg
And if you're savvy, you can set up an emulator and play all your favourite console games on your PC.
A few my family and I enjoy:
TMNT: Shredders Revenge
Beat em up
Hypercharge: Unboxed
Co-Op FPS tower defense
Toybox Turbos
Casual, goofy racing. Ever play the old Micro Machines games? This is that, but you can add weapon pickups and such. This has been a regular tournament game for years when extended family comes over.
In addition to the other great recommendations being made I want to suggest Pitfall Planet as a lovely little co-op puzzler that almost never gets a mention.
Sunderfolk (from Mike Morhaime, ex CEO of Blizzard during their pinnacle) has been pretty enjoyable.
It lets one person host (on a tv!) and the other players control their character via their phone. Sort of like a Jackbox game.
However, it's a DND style game. Pretty fun.