Couch co-op horror games are kind of a rarity. The argument is maybe horror games aren't as scary when you have someone right next to you. But recently, we've had a handful of releases and some news about some upcoming couch co-op horror games. So, are they actually scary? Let's take a look.
KINGDOM OF NIGHT
this game actually came out at the end of last year, 2025, and I probably would have included it in my top 20 couch co-op horror games if I had more of a chance to actually play it. But it's an action RPG that you can play in two-player local co-op. There's a huge story here. There's lots of choices that you can make. You get to choose between a magic user or melee user, and it kind of feels like a old-school PC point-and-click adventure, but it actually has action RPG style gameplay.
The whole game has an 80s horror movie vibe. Anyways, if you were late to this game like me, this Halloween's the perfect time to pick it up and play it. It's actually one of my favorite action RPGs I played in a while.
Kingdom of Night
BAIL OR JAIL 2
Bail or Jail 2 came out exclusively on the Switch 2. So, this game it actually came out in Japan last year, but it just recently came out into the US. The best way to describe this game is it's kind of like Dead by Daylight or the Friday the 13th game, but for kids. It's kind of a game of hide-and-seek. So, there's basically three humans that are all trying to hide, and then one monster who is the seeker. The goal of the humans is to just try to survive until the time limit runs out.
Then you win the match. But if the monster catches you, you get thrown into jail. And if they catch all three players, then they win the match. Unfortunately, you can't play the story mode in local co-op, but there are multiplayer stages you can do. And you can do three human players on one team against an AI as a monster. Or, of course, you can do it with four players and then one player plays as the monster. This is a game that's perfect to play with kids.
Anyone can pick it up and play it. My daughter loves this game. We played the first one quite a bit as well.
Bail or Jail 2 (Switch 2)
OZARK
In the beginning of October, we had Ozark release. This one is pretty unique. It's essentially a run and gun shooter that's narrative-driven with a lot of horror elements. This one's made by a really small team. It has 2.5D visuals. You're mostly just moving side to side, but you can move up and down in depth as well. Visually, I think this game looks really great. And you're mostly going to be exploring these abandoned facilities. So, as far as the concept, the horror elements, and the visuals, I think they nailed all of that.
But, unfortunately, some of the controls are a little bit wonky. The aiming doesn't always feel very good. And there's a lot of item management that feels a little bit out of place. But, that being said, I still really enjoyed this game. And if you want to play something that's different, I do think this one's worth a try.
Ozark
THE CRIMSON HUNT
And Crimson Hunt was just released. These are games that are clearly inspired by Resident Evil games, specifically Resident Evil 4 with the third-person view. And they're all kind of rough around the edges. I've always liked what he's trying to do here, but I've always felt like the execution was a little bit lacking. Just from a technical standpoint, the games are just pretty janky. But, I will say that Crimson Hunt is the best game they've made so far. And it even has a positive rating on Steam currently.
It still has some of that low-budget feel, but graphically it looks a lot better. And the overall controls and the camera and gameplay, for the most part, feel pretty solid. This one has a lot of that traditional survival horror gameplay. You have limited resources. There's some puzzles. And then there's monsters that you're going to be fighting. But, instead of zombies, you fight vampires. There were a couple of parts when I played this and the game broke. For some reason, when you start combat, that kind of broke things in two-player.
One time it made it where player two just took over both sides of the split screen. So, I couldn't see where player one was anymore. And then there were a couple of instances where after a cutscene, one of the players was just stuck and couldn't move anymore. So, it is a little rough around the edges, but I actually really like what it's trying to do here. And hopefully some of those little glitches get worked out in a future patch.
The Crimson Hunt
SMS RETURNS
SMS Returns. So, this is a remake of a 2013 game called Slender Man's Shadow. I never played that, but this one has updated visuals and the ability to play it in split-screen co-op. I played a couple of levels here and I really liked it. It definitely is creepy. They did a good job with the sound design. However, when I was playing this, there were some performance issues, mostly just with the frame rate. To me, that's not that big of a deal. So, you and your partner, you basically you're just going around collecting items.
So, there's a set amount of items. When you pick up the first one, that triggers Slender Man to start hunting you. When it gets closer, your screen starts to get all sorts of interference. So, you want to just keep your distance and try to continue to search for the items. Other than that, you can't fight, you're just running away. There probably should have been more objectives here. It felt slightly tedious just looking for these items. But that being said, it still is very creepy and there were a handful of jump scares that definitely got me.
I'm just curious, did anyone play this original version? I totally missed it, so I want to know what you guys think of that one. Ultimately, I did really like this and I found it to be genuinely scary. So, I will play some of these other levels and explore the game some more.
SMS Returns
TWO SIDES OF HELL
And for a retro style game, Two Sides of Hell came out last month. This is pretty much just like a run and gun shooter. So, think about games like Contra or Metal Slug. It's pretty light on the horror, but all of the enemies are demons and various monsters. So, I still wanted to include it. Pretty much like a 2D Doom, I would say, with some roguelite elements. There's also a demo for this if you just want to try it out.
Two Sides of Hell
LIVING DEAD HOUSE
For another retro style game, we have Living Dead House. So, if you want to play something a little bit more light-hearted, this might be up your alley. It's not scary, but it's horror themed. It's pretty much like a single-screen platformer. It kind of reminds me of Elevator Action mixed with the Zombies mode in Call of Duty. You have waves of enemies and you and your partner just shoot down all the zombies and you board up the windows. That's basically it. It's just like an old school arcade-y type of game.
Living Dead House
BEYOND THE DARK: NIGHTWATCH
And some upcoming couch co-op games. Beyond the Dark: Nightwatch is the one that I'm most excited for. This one comes out this October and has this really cool asymmetrical approach. So, it's an exclusive on the Switch 2, and that's for a reason. This one's going to be utilizing GameShare. So, it's not a traditional local co-op experience. I will say that part, but it is meant to be played in the same space. So, if you have GameShare and you have an original Switch, you only need one copy of the game and you can connect it to a secondary Switch.
So, one player's on the TV in first-person mode and then the other player is on handheld mode. And the person on the handheld is going to be watching various screens and stuff like that. So, you have to work together to solve all the puzzles. I'm not exactly sure how it plays out, but I really like the concept and this feels like something that could have been on the Wii U. So, I would love to see more stuff like this. It seems pretty unique.
Beyond the Dark: Nightwatch (Switch 2)
STAGE FRIGHT
Stage Fright is one that I've been really excited for. It's made by the same team as Overcooked, but this one seems a lot more story driven. I believe this one comes out next year.
Stage Fright
HAUNTED PAWS
Haunted Paws is another one. This one's described as a cozy horror game. You play as these two dogs in split-screen co-op and you're looking for your owner and you have to explore this haunted mansion.
Haunted Paws
BEGONE BEAST
And Begone Beast is another one. This one is more of a top-down dungeon crawler type of game. So, this one kind of reminds me of games like Diablo or maybe Hunter the Reckoning, but a little bit more kid-friendly. There's no release date for this one yet, but it's one that I've been looking forward to.
Begone Beast
UMBILICAL
Umbilical is a game that's been on my wish list for years. It looks pretty unique. It's described as a Metroidvania that's inspired by top-down shooters. There's no release date for this one, so hopefully it comes out sometime relatively soon. Don't see co-op currently listed on the Steam listing anymore, but I did hear the developers actually talk about it at one point where players are tethered together by this umbilical cord. I don't know exactly how that's going to work. Hopefully that is still included in the full release whenever that happens.
Umbilical
EMISSARY ONE
Emissary One is the first demo that I played here. This is a sequel to Emissary Zero, which is an indie horror game that I really loved. And it feels pretty much exactly the same gameplay-wise. It's very weird. It's a first-person game that you can play in split-screen co-op as well as online. And you're basically just exploring these dark environments trying to avoid scary monsters. You don't really know what's going on. And there's some light puzzle solving involved. I finished this demo and I really enjoyed that as well.
There's definitely some jump scares that happen pretty much anytime you get killed by monster, there's a loud sound, and it always made me jump. But this is one I'm definitely looking forward to the full release.
Emissary One
PHASMONAUTS
Phasmonauts comes out October 29th, so just in time for Halloween. This is another one that looks like you'd be fine to play with the whole family. It's a top-down twin-stick run-and-gun shooter with some roguelite elements. I really like the pixel art here. And the gameplay itself looks similar to like Enter the Gungeon or Nuclear Throne or something like that. And you can play this one with up to four players locally.
Phasmonauts
PURGE PHALANX
And another one that's coming out next year is called Purge Phalanx. This one's a first-person shooter with some futuristic weapons and settings and monsters. You can play this one online or in split-screen co-op. I don't know too much about this one. All it says is it's coming out in 2027 sometime, and you have to exterminate the demonic horde. So, hopefully this one is solid.
Purge Phalanx
XGUN
Another upcoming game is called XGUN. This is one that I don't have a lot of information on. It's essentially a third-person shooter where you're going around and shooting down a bunch of zombies. I know that's been done a lot, but visually this one looks pretty solid, and the fact that you can play it in split-screen co-op, obviously that's a plus for me.
XGUN
REDEMPTION: THE SIN ETERNAL
Redemption: The Sin Eternal. So, there is a demo for this one available as well. Me and my daughter actually played through the entire demo start to finish. It's not very long, and this is one that I think has a lot of potential. I really like the concept here. There's not really any combat, you just are trying to avoid the enemies. This one has some pretty creepy sound design. Sometimes there's some jump scares. Sometimes they put some stuff that just jumps onto the screen to try to freak you out.
There's definitely some jank here, but it's a demo, so hopefully that gets fixed. One time I got just stuck in this door here, and I couldn't get out for a while. But, overall, I really love the vibe of this game, and you can play it in split-screen co-op. However, it was kind of weird to get started. I couldn't figure it out at first. There's no option in the menu, but eventually I just pushed back on my Xbox One controller, and then that added a second player.
But, you basically just walk around try to avoid these enemies much as you can. You could run, and then you want to pick up items. The only item we had to get was this book, and then we went back to the beginning of the level, and then we were able to leave the building. And then it took you to this like other dimension, and that's when things got really weird. So, I expect there's going to be a lot more of that kind of stuff. To be honest, if they can work out some of the kinks here, and just get this a little bit more polished, I think this could be a really good horror game.
Redemption: The Sin Eternal
LIMINAL DEPTHS
And another one that's supposed to be coming out in 2027 is Liminal Depths. So, this is a retro style horror game that's clearly inspired by the backrooms. It has a pretty nice but basic pixel art style that I like. And this is another one that has really great sound design. Sometimes there's a radio that's playing music or weird sound effects, and as you get closer to it, it gets louder. And as you explore, you're going to hear all sorts of different soundscapes. I think they did a really great job of just making it feel immersive.
But basically, you have this safe room, you go onto the computer, it gives you various objectives. The first one is you just have to go get a gas tank, and then you bring it back for the generator. And then there's other ones that just want you to go out and explore. And as you go out there, there's these shadowy monsters, and you kind of just want to avoid them. I imagine you'll get some weapons and other things as it goes along, but from what we played, all we did was kind of explore and die over and over.
There were a couple of bugs here. It's like once you die, the entire screen just stays black with some text on it, and we couldn't figure out if you could respawn that player or not, which is fine, but the main problem was from here on out, the other player that's still alive, their half of the screen, half of the text is getting cut off because of the other screen that's covered. So, we weren't able to continue to read the objectives. So, that's a small thing. Hopefully, they can figure that out.
This is actually one of the games that I think I'm most excited for, and it's one of those rare pixel art horror games that actually feels really creepy. They nailed the atmosphere here. And if you know anything about the backrooms, I expect there to be a lot more weird stuff here.
Liminal Depths
FINAL THOUGHTS
Which games are you most excited for? What couch co-op horror games are you playing this Halloween? Do any of these actually look scary to you? Let me know.
If you're looking for even more couch co-op horror games, I've got a bonus episode for channel members that covers some other games I couldn't fit into my main videos.
The 20 Best Couch Co-op Horror Games · The Strange History of Couch Co-op Horror · Co-op Database