The Switch 2 can obviously play original Switch cartridges, but for this list, I’m only counting games that have official Switch 2 ports. These are my picks for the top 20 couch co-op games you can play right now on Switch 2.

#20 HEAVE HO 2

Heave Ho 2 is the newest game on this list. It just came out, so I haven’t had as much time with it, which is why it’s ranked lower here. I loved the original Heave Ho, and this one is basically more of the same. The core gameplay is the same, but there are some new environments that help shake things up. It’s a great four-player co-op game, and pretty much anyone at any skill level can jump in and figure it out pretty quickly.

#19 BANG BANG BANDITS

Bang Bang Bandits originally came out on the first Switch, but only in Japan. This year it finally got a US release along with a Switch 2 version. It’s a light gun shooter, and we just don’t have enough of those. You use Joy-Cons and point them at the screen to shoot enemies, and you’re not limited to the Switch 2 Joy-Cons, the original ones work too. You can play with up to four players. The gameplay is simple: you aim, you move the cursor, you shoot enemies. There are 12 stages and boss fights, and the Switch 2 version improves the performance and resolution.

Now for the negatives: visually, it looks pretty generic, kind of like one of those modern arcade games you’d play at Chuck E. Cheese. Not a lot of depth, but that’s fine, I can look past that. The real downside is the Switch 2 version costs $40, and this feels like a game that should be more in the $10 to $15 range. I have no idea where that price came from, but if you can look past it, it’s a really fun game to play with anybody.

#18 STAR FOX

Star Fox is another new one on this list, and it’s a great remake. If you liked Star Fox 64, this is a great way to play it. I love the visuals, the gameplay feels solid, and even the co-op is fun. It’s a co-pilot mode where one player flies the ship and the other shoots enemies.

My main issue is that you’re stuck using Joy-Con controls. Player one has to hold the Joy-Con horizontally to pilot the ship, and player two has to use theirs in mouse mode to aim a cursor. I love having options, and I love that this mode exists. What I don’t love is that it’s the only way to play this co-op, which makes no sense. Just give us the option to use Pro Controllers and I’d have no complaints. I still had a lot of fun playing through the whole thing in co-op, but our hands were hurting by the end of it, because Joy-Cons just aren’t made for adult hands.

#17 BROTATO

Brotato is basically Vampire Survivors, but your characters are little potatoes. It has some roguelike elements: you move your character around, you don’t even push any attack buttons, they just happen automatically. You pick up randomly generated items and level up. It’s a wave-based survival game, and you can play it with up to four players in local co-op. Even though it seems incredibly simple, it’s addictive, just like Vampire Survivors. Honestly, it feels like the same game.

#16 HUMAN: FALL FLAT

Human: Fall Flat got a Switch 2 version, and I’ve loved this game since it came out. This is a really good port. It has five brand new levels, mouse control support that’s optional rather than mandatory, and 4K 60fps performance on Switch 2, which is a big step up from the original Switch version.

This is one of the games I played with my daughter when she was younger, and we’d just mess around, grabbing each other, trying to jump off ledges, stuff like that. It’s the perfect game to play with pretty much any skill level. The puzzles do get more complicated later on, but if you just want a casual experience of messing around in this world, it’s really good for that.

#15 DESTROY ALL HUMANS! 2: REPROBED

Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed is a remake of a game that originally came out in 2006 on PS2 and the original Xbox. You can play through the entire thing in split-screen co-op, and this updated version adds some new weapons plus a feature where your flying saucer can suck up humans and use their DNA to upgrade your abilities. It was a really great game back in 2006, and it still is now.

#14 BLOOD: reFRESH SUPPLY

Blood: Fresh Supply is another old game that got a remaster. This one’s a boomer shooter, an old-school first-person shooter heavily influenced by Doom. It originally came out on MS-DOS in 1997, and that version had no split-screen at all. The original Switch version of this remaster let you play four-player split-screen local co-op, but the Switch 2 version bumps that up to six-player split-screen. I haven’t tried that yet, but it sounds like a wild experience. The PS5 and Xbox versions actually support up to eight players split-screen local co-op, and one of these days I need to try that out.

#13 MARVEL COSMIC INVASION

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a beat ‘em up that came out last year, and it’s kind of like Marvel vs. Capcom if it were a beat ‘em up. It doesn’t have the Capcom characters, obviously, but it does have that mashup of Marvel characters and a tag-team ability. At the start you each pick two characters and can switch between them on the fly, and you can pull off team attacks, which is cool. I really enjoyed this game and beat it in one sitting when it first came out, but it does get a little repetitive, so it’s not one of my favorite modern beat ‘em ups, but I still really recommend it.

#12 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SPLINTERED FATE

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate takes TMNT and throws it into a roguelike, and you can play it in four-player local co-op. A lot of people call this ‘Hades, but with TMNT.’ I’m not sure how accurate that is, but I like the description. Each character has their own abilities, so with four players it’s nice to be able to work together, and the game encourages teamwork. Out of the four-player roguelikes out there, this is definitely one of the better ones.

#11 GOAT SIMULATOR 3

Goat Simulator 3 might be a surprise on this list, but I love this game. We don’t get enough open-world games that can be played in split-screen co-op, so that alone is cool. But this is also just a really fun, light-hearted, silly game I’ve had a ton of fun with playing alongside my daughter.

Most of the time she’s just screwing around the open world, blowing things up, headbutting enemies, and dragging them around with the tongue while I’m actually trying to do the objectives. But there were a few times we really worked together and teamed up to get things done. This might be the game I’ve had the most fun playing with my daughter in a while. She got really into it, we were laughing the whole time. It’s incredibly chaotic and overwhelmingly stupid, but in the best way possible.

#10 ROTWOOD

Rotwood is another beat ‘em up with roguelike elements. It plays like a beat ‘em up but also feels kind of like a Zelda dungeon crawler, since the levels are broken up screen by screen. You fight through randomly generated enemies, move to the next area, and eventually hit a boss fight. Between runs you have a home base where you do all your leveling up: buying new equipment, buying new skins, customizing your character, talking to villagers, even a little bit of farming. This is a game I ended up liking way more than I expected, and right now the Switch 2 is the only home console it’s on. The only other place to play it is PC.

#9 OVERCOOKED! 2

Overcooked! 2 is a game you can play basically everywhere, including on Switch. I feel like this is a game you either love or hate. It’s known for destroying friendships. If you don’t have the right team, it’s not fun at all, you’re just yelling at each other. But if you have a good team where everyone knows their task, communicates, and gets meals out fast and efficiently, that’s where this game really shines. It really depends on who you’re playing with. I’ve had plenty of runs that went nowhere and weren’t fun. But everybody knows this game, and it shows up on every co-op list for a reason. It’s just a great co-op party game.

#8 SCOTT PILGRIM EX

Scott Pilgrim EX is probably my favorite beat ‘em up of the year so far, and I think it improves on the original Scott Pilgrim game in a lot of ways. Mainly the progression system feels a lot more natural. We beat this game in one sitting, only about four hours, and we didn’t have to grind much at all. We just took out the enemies in front of us and moved from objective to objective without really stopping. The combat feels a lot better than the original Scott Pilgrim, I think. The juggling is still there, all the same characters you know and love are back, the art style is great, the music is awesome. Definitely a highly recommended co-op beat ‘em up.

#7 LEGO VOYAGERS

LEGO Voyagers is one of my favorite LEGO games ever made. It’s built entirely around two-player co-op, but unlike the other LEGO games that are based on a specific franchise, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Batman, this one is a standalone, totally original game just built around these little Lego characters. It plays differently too. It’s not really an action game, it’s a puzzle platformer. There are parts where you have to build things, but for the most part you’re solving basic puzzles that get harder as you go, like you’d expect. This is a great Lego game, one of my favorites ever.

#6 HYRULE WARRIORS: AGE OF IMPRISONMENT

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is the third Hyrule Warriors game, and this one is exclusive to Switch 2. It improves on the previous entries mainly because the performance is a lot better. Age of Calamity was kind of a prequel to Breath of the Wild with a lot of story, but this one is set more in the Tears of the Kingdom world. So if you love Zelda and want more Zelda lore, these games are great for that. If you like Musou games, Dynasty Warriors-style games, it feels like that: tons of waves of enemies, you hack and slash, you do specials. There’s nothing really new here, but that’s okay. It’s just fun if you’re into that type of game. This one might be my favorite in the series so far.

#5 REANIMAL

Reanimal is one of my favorite games of the year so far. I really enjoyed it start to finish. It gets very creepy, and I love the enemies; they feel unique, like nothing else I’ve really seen. It’s kind of a puzzle platformer at its core, but the puzzles are all pretty simple. We don’t get a lot of local co-op horror games, and I think they nailed the horror elements here. It’s one of my favorite co-op horror games I’ve ever played, and it’s a great one to play through in one or two sittings. It’s not very long.

#4 SEA OF STARS

Sea of Stars originally came out as a single-player game, but they later added local co-op for up to three players, and to me, that’s kind of a dream come true. We don’t get a lot of local co-op RPGs, especially turn-based ones, and they did a really great job implementing the co-op here. It feels like this was meant to be a co-op game from the start. I absolutely love the art style. Some of the best pixel art I’ve ever seen, and I’m a sucker for that 16-bit look. When it comes to local co-op RPGs, and I’m not just talking about modern ones, I’m talking about all of them, this is right at the top of the list. It’s one of the best ever made, so if you haven’t played this in co-op yet, I highly recommend it.

#3 SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER

Super Mario Bros. Wonder originally came out on the original Switch, but there’s a Switch 2 port that adds some extra content. They added new characters. You can play as Rosalina and Luma, and if a player wants to control Luma, you move a cursor around that can collect coins and stun enemies. There’s also a new assist mode you can toggle on and off, which makes you immune to damage and adds fall protection. The resolution and performance are better too, and they added Bellabel Park, a social multiplayer zone with mini-games and stuff like that.

Those are just the new features, though. The main game itself is incredible. It’s probably the best co-op Mario game ever made. I really loved New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but I think this improves on it pretty much every way. You’re no longer bumping into each other and killing each other constantly, it just feels like a much better co-op experience. This really feels like a masterpiece to me, one of my favorite Mario games ever. It was already on the original Switch, but this is the definitive version of it.

#2 SPLIT FICTION

Split Fiction is Hazelight’s follow-up to It Takes Two, and it’s every bit as ambitious. You and a partner jump between two writers’ clashing sci-fi and fantasy story worlds, and almost every chapter throws a completely new gameplay mechanic at you that only exists for that one section. If you know Hazelight, this is what they’re known for: A Way Out, It Takes Two, and now Split Fiction, and they’re all incredible co-op games.

I don’t know if this one’s my favorite of the three, it might still be It Takes Two, but it’s still a great game, and they throw a ton at you. Pretty much every genre you can think of, and you’re jumping in and out of different styles of gameplay constantly. This is one of those games that really makes it feel like it belongs on Switch 2. Outside of Hyrule Warriors, this is probably the best example on this list of a game that couldn’t have existed on the original Switch. Everyone knows Split Fiction at this point, and that’s why it’s number two.

#1 ABSOLUM

Absolum is another beat ‘em up with roguelike elements, but it’s easily the best version of that combination I’ve played. It’s made by the same team behind Streets of Rage 4, and if you know my channel, you know I’ve talked about that game endlessly. This one takes a lot of those core mechanics from Streets of Rage 4 and adds roguelike elements plus some fantasy elements on top. It’s kind of like Streets of Rage meets Golden Axe.

The art design is beautiful, the soundtrack is incredible, and the gameplay is excellent. The fighting mechanics are just perfection. I can’t say enough good things about this game. It’s right up there with Streets of Rage 4 as one of the best beat ‘em ups ever made. Highly recommended. It doesn’t get much better than this.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So there you go. Those are my top 20 couch co-op Switch 2 games. We’re definitely going to be getting a bunch more this year, and there are some upcoming ones I’m really excited for. Lego Batman is finally getting ported to Switch 2, and Orbitals is at the top of my most-anticipated list. That one’s exclusive to Switch 2. When I do an updated list, that’ll definitely be included. The Outer Worlds, whenever it eventually comes to Switch 2, and Ninjala 2 coming out sometime next year are also worth watching for.

What’s your favorite co-op Switch 2 game? Let me know.