The Forgotten Era of Multitap Co-op Gaming

Most retro consoles only supported two players, unless you had a multitap. You plug it in, then it can expand the player count from two to four to five or sometimes even more. And there's a different version for every single console.

But most games didn't use it for co-op. A lot of times it was used for competitive games. But of course, here we're going to talk about the co-op games.

NES AND FAMICOM

So, the NES has the Four Score as well as the Satellite. And like I said, there were not a ton of co-op games that supported this, but there are some. The first one is A Nightmare on Elm Street. This one is very unique because it's a four-player co-op platformer, and this was pretty much unheard of for the time in any context really.

Of course, nowadays we have New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Wonder as well as Rayman Legends and Sonic Superstars. So, we've seen the four-player platformer exist for a while at this point, but this is actually one of the earliest examples of a four-player platformer. And seeing that on a home console was definitely a unique experience.

This isn't one of the best games on the system, but I think it's definitely worth playing if you can do it with four players.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (NES)

And Gauntlet 2. I think everybody knows the Gauntlet series, but how many of you actually played Gauntlet 2 four-player on the NES? I think this was just another really novel experience back in the day.

Of course, you could play the original Gauntlet as well as Gauntlet 2 in the arcades as four-player, but again, seeing this on a home console was really cool. The original Gauntlet on NES was only two players, so this was definitely a huge step up. Swords and Serpents is a little bit different from these other games as this was a four-player first-person dungeon crawler. This one it does support the four-player adapter and you each get your own controller, but you still kind of just take turns, so it's not quite as exciting as the other games.

And another really unique implementation was with Smash TV. Now, this game is actually only two players, but it's meant to be played as a twin stick shooter. And in order to accomplish this and to be able to play it with two players, we use one of these four-player adapters and you hand two controllers to each player. So now you hold the controllers vertically.

One hand controls the movement on the D-pad and then on the other D-pad in the right hand you control the aiming. I've always just thought that this was a really cool and creative way to be able to play this game.

Smash TV (NES)

And then years later, we got the homebrew Micro Mages. And this is by far the best four-player co-op game on the system.

It's a four-player platformer that just feels like a modern indie game. You can wall jump, you can get upgrades, and you're going to have these big boss fights. And this can all be done with up to four players on one console. And the performance here is pretty solid.

So, that's very impressive to see on the NES. But this is definitely one of my favorite four-player platformers of all time. And it's honestly one of the best co-op games to ever be made on the NES. It's also on some modern platforms as well, but that's less impressive.

Micro Mages (NES)

And over in Japan on the Famicom, there were a couple examples as well. I wanted to mention Moero TwinBee because you can actually play this with up to three players co-op. However, this one's a little bit different. You're not using any kind of multitap.

In fact, you use the standard Famicom controllers that are attached to the system. And then you get a third controller and you plug it into the expansion port. And then you can play this game in three-player co-op, which is pretty cool. It's not a multitap, but I still wanted to mention it.

Gauntlet II (NES)

SEGA GENESIS AND SEGA CD

How about the Sega Genesis? So, the Genesis had a couple of multitaps. Most of these games are competitive, and a lot of them are sports games, but there are a few standout titles as well. Just like the NES, we had Gauntlet 4, and it's very similar.

You can play this with four players. The name is a little bit misleading because it's not really a sequel. It's more of like a remake of the original Gauntlet arcade game, but I believe this is the first time you could actually play four-player co-op on a home console. But the more interesting title here is Lost Vikings.

So, this game was on other platforms as well, but the Sega Genesis version, you can actually play it in three-player co-op. That was not included on the Super Nintendo version. So, whenever I talk about Lost Vikings, I always recommend the Genesis version over the Super Nintendo one. And it works really great as a three-player game because there are actually three playable characters.

And now you no longer have to switch between characters. Each character is assigned to their own player and you can actually work through and solve these puzzles simultaneously. You don't have to jump around between characters anymore. And this just works as a really great co-op experience.

And then on the Sega CD, they had Dungeon Explorer. And this is a unique version. So, this game originally came out on the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx, but the Sega CD version was unique to the Sega CD. If you're not familiar, this game actually plays very similar to Gauntlet.

It's basically a dungeon crawler that you can play with up to four players. And there's a number of different classes. There's a knight, a ninja, a beast, an elf, a monk, and a wizard. But this one has a little bit more RPG depth.

You go into towns and you're able to talk to NPCs. You have the character classes that I just mentioned and you're able to gain experience and level up. So, there is a little bit more depth here than Gauntlet. I really love this game even though it's really hard and I suck at it.

The Lost Vikings (Sega Genesis)

SUPER NINTENDO

Now, let's talk about the Super Nintendo. So, there's actually a few choices here, but the main one was called the Super Multitap and it was developed by Hudson Soft. And this one was made specifically for Super Bomberman. There's also a Super Multitap 2 where it actually looks like Bomberman's face.

And then there's one called the Performance Super 5 Play. I have the Super Multitap. And the way you use this one is you actually plug it into controller port number two. And then player one plugs into port number one.

And this allows for up to five players. The standout title here is definitely Secret of Mana. This game you can play with up to three players. And yeah, it's still considered to be one of the best co-op RPGs ever made.

And really back in the day, there was not a lot of co-op RPGs with this much depth. And then Pocky & Rocky 2 was only two-player, but the retro community has since modified it, so you can play it three-player on original hardware now as well. But yeah, there's a lot of competitive games, mostly sports games. Of course, Super Bomberman, but the co-op aspect of that only goes up to two players, and NBA Jam, which is probably the main game people know of when they think of multiplayer Super Nintendo games, but that's just two on two matches.

But one of the lesser-known titles is Lord of the Rings. And this is a game that's not necessarily known to be a good game. But if you do want to take the time, you can actually play this game with up to five players co-op. But it starts out as a one-player game.

You play as Frodo and you have to slowly go through do some side quests, crap fetch-quest stuff, and then you eventually slowly start building up the fellowship and slowly as you add them players can take control of them. Once you get up to five then you can finally play it up to five players. I don't know if it's actually worth that much effort but it is very cool that it exists. And if you don't want to spend that much time on this game and you just want to play it five-player co-op, you can do what we did and just put in a password.

So then you can actually just experience it and then realize you never want to play this game again. And another new one is a homebrew and it's New Super Mario Land. This is a remake of the original Game Boy Mario Land, but they made it look like New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii.

It has the same visual style. You can also do wall jumps like that game as well as the four-player co-op aspect. So being able to do this on Super Nintendo is pretty cool.

Secret of Mana (Super Nintendo)

PC ENGINE AND TURBOGRAFX-16

Let’s talk about the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx 16. They have the Turbo Tap. I already mentioned Dungeon Explorer on the Sega CD, but this is where it originated. We had Dungeon Explorer as well as Dungeon Explorer 2, which came out on the PC Engine CD and Turbo CD.

And much like Lord of the Rings, you can actually play these games with up to five players co-op. And both of these are some of the strongest co-op titles on the entire platform.

Dungeon Explorer II (PC Engine CD)

ATARI 2600 HOMEBREW

And another one that I briefly wanted to mention is the Atari 2600. The multitap for this did not exist back in the day, but again, the retro community saw a problem and they fixed it. They created a multitap called the QuadTari. None of the original Atari 2600 games actually support this, but the homebrew community continues to be really active.

Similar to Smash TV, there's a version of Robotron on the 2600 that was made by Champ Games. And just like Smash TV, this is a twin stick shooter. So, they solved that problem in the exact same way. When you use the QuadTari, you plug in four joysticks and each player gets two joysticks each and now you have twin stick controls.

This is a really impressive game and very fun to play co-op. That same developer, Champ Games, has another game coming out. This is a port of the arcade game ripoff and you could play this game with up to four players. And this one's not out yet, but I am really looking forward to it.

QuadTari-supported co-op gameplay (Atari 2600)

PLAYSTATION

And the PS1 had a multitap. And again, most of these games are competitive. I'm going to be saying that a lot. But here are some of the co-op games.

We had Fantastic 4. This is pretty much a side-scrolling beat 'em up that you can play up to four players. It's pretty slow and it's pretty clunky and the music is pretty bad. It sounds like a porno.

But it's still kind of cool that there's a Fantastic 4 game that came out in the '90s that you can actually play four-player co-op. Rampage had a version on the PS1, but that version was only two-player co-op. But when Rampage 2 came out, they fixed that and made it three-player co-op. And there was an exclusive Rampage title that only came out on the PS1 called Rampage Through Time, and that one is also three-player co-op.

There was a port of Captain Commando that only came out in Japan on the PS1. So, officially, this game can be played with up to three players co-op, but there supposedly is a hidden mode that allows you to play with up to four players. And this is a really solid port of Captain Commando. But one of the most interesting games on the PS1 is Blaze and Blade: Eternal Quest.

This game never came out in the US, but it came out in Europe and Japan. And it's basically an action RPG that you can play with up to four players co-op. And there was a sequel called Blaze and Blade Busters. And that one only came out in Japan, but yeah, you can play this one with up to four players as well.

Rampage: Through Time (PlayStation)

SEGA SATURN

And then there's the Sega Saturn. The only multitap supported co-op game that I know of is Three Dirty Dwarves. And like the name implies, you can play this game with up to three players co-op. I really love the hand-drawn art style here, as well as the cartoon cutscenes.

This is actually a really fun game. It kind of plays like a beat 'em up, but you can only get hit one time, and each character has their own unique abilities, and kind of similar to Lost Vikings. It's nice to have three players, so you don't have to switch between the characters. I think that this is a really underrated game that's definitely made better when you can play it three-player.

Three Dirty Dwarves (Sega Saturn)

PLAYSTATION 2

And then in the next generation, most consoles had four controller ports. So the multitap was basically extinct except for on the PS2. For some reason, they still only had two controller ports. And there was a lot of four-player co-op games on the PS2.

Gauntlet Dark Legacy. This is a sequel to Gauntlet Legends, and it might be the best Gauntlet game ever made. We had X-Men Legends 1 and 2. Champions of Norrath and Champions Return to Arms are both action RPGs with a ton of depth, and you can play these ones in four-player co-op as well.

And Digimon World 4 is basically a Digimon themed action RPG. And then Mystic Heroes is pretty much like Dynasty Warriors, but you could actually play it in four-player split screen co-op. And to this day, I think it might be the only musou game that supported four-player co-op. And there's a bunch of other games as well, but most of them were ported to the GameCube and the original Xbox.

So, they weren't exclusive to the PS2, but there was one exclusive that I found to be really interesting, and that's Project Eden. You can play this game in four-player split screen, and this is a pretty huge game. It's another action RPG, and it's basically a sci-fi squad-based action adventure game. It came out on the PC as well, but that version did not have the local co-op.

This game is a little bit dated by today's standards, and even back in the day, it didn't get the best reviews, but I do think it's a pretty unique game that's definitely worth revisiting.

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (PlayStation 2)

FINAL THOUGHTS

So, there's a look at most of the co-op focused multitap games over the years. I think multitaps made some of the best co-op experiences possible, but I think that it was definitely underutilized. I just wish that we got more four-player and five-player and even more player supported co-op games on these old consoles. But it is cool to see homebrew and modern developers trying to support multiplayer co-op gaming on these old consoles now.

I would love to see more games like Micro Mages show up or maybe a new four-player beat 'em up for the Sega Saturn. If you got two of those multitaps, that thing could actually support up to 12 players. We've never seen any game actually support that. The most we ever saw was 10 players with Saturn Bomberman.

So yeah, let's see some 12-player co-op games come out on the Sega Saturn. That'd be cool.

For more games to play together, explore the Classic Co-op database, my 20 PS1 co-op games, and the best PS2 co-op games.

The Best Co-op Games That Never Left Japan

Sometimes I wish I grew up in Japan. Primarily because I was obsessed with Dragon Ball Z as a kid, and also because I wish I could have played these co-op games.

THE GREAT BATTLE SERIES (SUPER FAMICOM)

Let’s start with the Great Battle series. Ever since I found out about these games, I have been really fascinated by them. Basically, it’s a series that unites heroes from three massive Japanese pop culture universes: Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Mobile Suit Gundam. Pretty much every game in the series is a totally different genre, and most of them have co-op. The first one, which came out in 1990, did not have co-op, but The Great Battle 2: Last Fighter Twin, in 1992, included co-op gameplay.

The first game was a top-down shooter, and this second one is a 2D sidescrolling beat ‘em up. The third game, The Great Battle 3, came out in 1993, another sidescrolling beat ‘em up, but with a fantasy theme, so it feels more like Golden Axe or a hack-and-slash type of game. The graphics here are awesome.

The Great Battle 5 (Super Famicom)

Then we had The Great Battle 4, which came out in 1994, kind of a run-and-gun shooter platformer with a modern futuristic setting, actually kind of similar to a Mega Man game. And The Great Battle 5 came out in 1995, and this one’s really cool, with a couple different styles of gameplay: some levels are a Cabal shooter with an Old West theme, definitely inspired by Wild Guns, and other levels are just more of a run-and-gun shooter. Later on the PS1 there was another game in the series, but that one did not have co-op.

If you’re a fan of the Super Famicom and want to play some games that never came out in the US, I highly recommend all of these. Two through five are all co-op, and there’s just a lot of variety here, and these are all games you can play without any knowledge of the Japanese language. They’re all very approachable.

FORTIFIED ZONE 2 (GAME BOY)

Fortified Zone 2 is a co-op game that only came out in Japan on the Game Boy. This is a sequel, and the first game came out on the original Game Boy. It’s kind of more of the same, but with better visuals and I think better gameplay too. The best way to describe this game is it’s kind of a mix between an old school Zelda game and a run-and-gun shooter. You basically go from room to room and shoot all the enemies. The benefit of playing this on Game Boy is you each have your own screen, though of course you have to have your own copy of the game as well as your own Game Boy and a link cable.

You’re not stuck to the same screen, so it’s a pretty good strategy to split up and take out the enemies separately, or double up your firepower and explore these dungeons together. This is a game I never really hear anybody talk about, same with the first one, but they’re both really good games.

Fortified Zone 2 (Game Boy)

SHINREI JUSATSUSHI TAROMARU (SEGA SATURN)

This game only came out in Japan on the Sega Saturn. I think it’s mostly known for being an incredibly expensive game if you buy the physical copy, complete in box going anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000. But this is a rare instance where one of these really rare, expensive games is actually incredibly good. Ultimately it’s a run-and-gun shooter, but a little more unique than that. There’s a little target cursor that moves around and automatically locks onto the closest enemy on screen, so rather than aiming manually, you rapidly mash the attack button to fire different energy blasts at the enemy.

You’re not able to run or move while firing, so it takes a little getting used to as far as coordinating the attack and moving back and forth, getting used to that rhythm. If you hold the attack button, it charges a powerful blast. Alisia Dragoon is the closest game I’ve seen to this exact type of gameplay, which came out on the Sega Genesis. Another cool feature is that it’s pretty much non-stop action, as soon as you clear a level you just keep moving to the next one, no cut in between, just seamless transitions from area to area.

It also has a nice blend of 2D and 3D assets. So if you have a couple thousand dollars lying around, I definitely recommend you buy this game, or play it through lesser official means, if you know what I mean.

Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru (Sega Saturn)

SEGASONIC THE HEDGEHOG (ARCADE)

SegaSonic the Hedgehog is an arcade game that only came out in Japan, and to this day it’s one of the only Sonic games I’m aware of that never got a worldwide release. What’s really cool about this game is, first, it’s a three-player co-op game, and second, the hardware itself: you play it with three separate trackballs, and that’s how you move your characters. You play as Sonic, Mighty, and Ray the Flying Squirrel. This one is very different from the traditional Sonic game, instead of a 2D platformer you’re playing from an isometric view, and the goal is just to run through these levels as fast as you can, trying to avoid as many obstacles as possible.

You use the trackball to move your character around, and there’s one button to jump, and instead of rings, each character has their own health bar. Like a lot of arcade games from the time, this isn’t that long, only seven levels, so you should be able to run through it pretty quick. I think due to that unique hardware with the trackball, they were never able to successfully port this to any console. There was talk of it going to the 32X, but that never happened, and years later in 2005 there were rumors of it being ported to the Sonic Gems Collection, but none of that ever happened either.

So still to this day, the only way to play this is if you go all the way to Japan, find an arcade, and happen to come across this specific cabinet out in the wild. That’s the only way, or a less official means, if that’s something you’re into.

SegaSonic the Hedgehog (Arcade)

THE FIREMEN 2: PETE & DANNY (PS1)

The Firemen 2: Pete & Danny is a top-down action game that came out exclusively on the PS1 in Japan, and as the name implies, it’s a sequel. The original came out on the Super Famicom, and that was only a single player game, even though there were two characters. This game is pretty interesting, since instead of traditional shooting mechanics, you play as two firefighters with asymmetrical gameplay. Player one is long range, using a hose to suppress tall fires as well as ground flames close by, while player two has an axe and is able to chop through debris and clear fires at close range.

You also have screen-clearing water bombs you can use, and outside of clearing out fire, you have to rescue trapped civilians. I think this one is pretty unique, with really nice pixel art, which was always refreshing to see in the 32-bit era. This game eventually got a re-release as a PS1 Classic, so you could play it digitally on the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita, and this actually was available in the US, but it was left as is with no translation, so all the text and voice acting was still in Japanese.

The Firemen 2: Pete & Danny (PlayStation)

YU YU HAKUSHO: MAKYO TOITSUSEN (MEGA DRIVE)

This is a fighting game made by Treasure that came out on the Mega Drive in Japan, and it’s one of those rare instances where you can actually play a fighting game in co-op. If you have a four-player adapter, you can actually do two-on-two battles with four players, which was also very unique for its time. The main story mode is single player, but there’s a tournament mode you can do co-op, where you and a human partner team up against the AI, two-on-two battles on teams.

The gameplay revolves around a dual plane system, foreground and background, and you’re able to jump back and forth between them, which is kind of nice when you have four players on screen at once, since you can split up and the chaos isn’t condensed to one area. I’m a huge fan of the Yu Yu Hakusho series, and I just recently rewatched the entire thing with my daughter, and I’ve got to say it’s probably my favorite anime of all time. So it was really nice to find a game based off one of my favorite series and have it actually be really good.

This is probably one of my favorite co-op fighting games ever. This game technically wasn’t stuck in Japan, as it came out in 1999 in Brazil, and then years later on the Mega Drive Mini in 2019 it got an official re-release, though only on the Japanese version of the Mega Drive. One interesting thing about that, though, is if you change the console’s language to English, you get an official English localization of this game, so it does exist, and the title is Yu Yu Hakusho: Battle to Unite the Demon Plane.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen (Mega Drive)

GANBARE GOEMON 2 (SUPER FAMICOM)

Ganbare Goemon 2 came out exclusively in 1993 in Japan on Super Famicom. This is a sidescrolling action platformer set in feudal Japan, with a Super Mario World style overworld map, and you can choose from three different players: Goemon, who’s kind of the more balanced player, Ebisumaru, who’s the stronger character, and the faster robotic ninja Sasuke. This game has a nice variety, with some really fun platforming sections, probably some of the best platforming of any 16-bit era game. One fun thing about these games is when the platforming gets a little more difficult in two player, you can just jump on your partner’s back, so the more skilled player can get through those parts.

Like a lot of the other games in the series, you can go into towns, buy equipment, and level your stats up, and all of that gameplay is broken up by big boss fights where you’re in the giant robot named Impact, which goes into a first-person mode kind of reminiscent of Punch-Out. I love all of the Goemon games, and this one might be the best one of the era. It got a port later to the Game Boy Advance in 2005 as part of a Japan-only compilation, and later a re-release on the Wii, the Wii U, and the 3DS on the Nintendo eShop, and at some point this year it’s supposed to get another re-release in a Goemon collection on modern platforms.

That said, all of those re-releases and ports were only in Japan, so it still hasn’t been released in the US. However, there are some fan translations of the original Super Famicom game if you want to go that route, and I’m not going to tell you how you do that.

Ganbare Goemon 2 (Super Famicom)

WAI WAI WORLD 2 (FAMICOM)

Wai Wai World 2 came out in 1991. This is another game by Konami, primarily a platformer, but the gameplay changes up a bit. It’s a crossover between a bunch of different Konami franchises, and you can transform into different characters based on those franchises: Simon Belmont from Castlevania, Bill Rizer from Contra, and Goemon from Mystical Ninja, and you’re able to use their signature weapons. The gameplay is constantly shifting across different styles, with branching paths. A lot of it is sidescrolling platforming, but there’s a Gradius style shoot ‘em up level, driving segments, and puzzle mini games, so there’s a lot of variety here, and the difficulty is not that bad.

When it comes to NES and Famicom games, this is definitely one of the easier games to recommend for less skilled players. The only port this game ever got was on the Wii U Virtual Console, but only in Japan, and unfortunately that has since been shut down, so there really is no legal way to play this game outside of playing it on the Famicom.

Wai Wai World 2 (Famicom)

KISHIN DOUJI ZENKI FX (PC-FX)

Kishin Douji Zenki FX came out exclusively on the PC-FX in Japan. If you don’t know what the PC-FX is, it’s a console that only came out in Japan, the follow-up to the PC Engine, or the TurboGrafx-16 in the US. This game came out in 1995, and it’s basically a sidescrolling beat ‘em up action game. It doesn’t have multiple planes, you can’t move up and down, only left to right, but it does pretty much play like a beat ‘em up otherwise. The gameplay primarily involves fighting a bunch of different bosses, with some platforming in between, but the main focus is the boss fights.

One of the cool things about this game is that the two playable characters are very different. Player one controls Zenki, who focuses on close-range physical attacks and can transform into a massive demon god, while player two controls the shrine maiden, who does long range projectiles so she can stand from a safe distance and shoot the bosses that way. Combining both styles of attack is really effective. But since this game was only released on the PC-FX, a lot of people never found it, because, well, nobody ever even played the PC-FX.

If you do have one of those consoles and can track down this game, it’s going to cost you a few hundred bucks. This is one of those games that’s just completely lost in the past, never ported anywhere else, only on this rare, obscure console, and that’s pretty unfortunate, because this is a really fun game, and that console was mostly known for text adventures and dating sim type games. This is one of the few action-based games on the whole system, so it’s definitely one of the best games on the PC-FX.

But not just that, it’s just a really good game that really should have been ported to other consoles, because it definitely deserves to be played.

Kishin Douji Zenki FX (PC-FX)

SEVEN MANSIONS (DREAMCAST)

I have talked about this game numerous times, but if you haven’t heard about it, Seven Mansions is a survival horror game built around two-player co-op that only came out in Japan on the Sega Dreamcast. It was never ported anywhere else, but it did get a fan translation a few years ago, and that’s how I was able to play it. If you’re a fan of games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, and wish you could play them two-player co-op, this really is the closest thing to that.

From all my research, I think this is the first ever local co-op survival horror game ever made. It’s pretty clunky here and there, and some of the puzzles are very obtuse, but it’s a really unique game, and I still think it’s definitely worth giving a shot, specifically if you can play it with a friend in local co-op.

Seven Mansions (Dreamcast)

FINAL THOUGHTS

So there are some co-op games that only came out in Japan, and there are plenty more where that came from. I will probably do more on this topic, but let me know what your favorite co-op Japan-only games are.

For more games to play together, explore the Classic Co-op database and my 20 PS1 co-op games. For more unusual hardware, read The Strangest Co-op Setups in Gaming History.

The Strangest Co-op Setups in Gaming History

I love weird video game hardware, and I obviously love co-op games. So in this video, I’m mashing together those two great passions and talking about some of the strangest co-op setups in gaming history.

THE TYPING OF THE DEAD (DREAMCAST KEYBOARD)

The Typing of the Dead for the Sega Dreamcast is one of the weirdest setups out there, and it requires two Sega Dreamcast keyboards. The game plays like House of the Dead, but instead of shooting zombies, you’re typing out the words that show up on screen, and somehow typing kills them. The best part is that in-game, the characters literally have a Dreamcast strapped to their back with a keyboard right in front of them, which might be one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a video game. Every time I play it I feel like I suck at typing, but I still have a ton of fun playing it with a friend. Going out and buying two keyboards just for the Dreamcast, basically just to play this one game, is pretty dumb, and I did exactly that. I don’t regret it.

The Typing of the Dead (Dreamcast)

SAMBA DE AMIGO

Samba de Amigo is another one on the Sega Dreamcast. It’s a rhythm game played with motion-sensitive maracas, which feels ahead of its time — it’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see on the Wii years later. There’s a co-op mode where each player gets a maraca and shakes it to the rhythm of the song.s.

Guitar Hero / Rock Band

GUITAR HERO / ROCK BAND

Then there’s Guitar Hero and Rock Band. At one point it felt like everybody I knew had the full setup with the drums, the guitar, and the microphone. Even non-gamers would get together to play these. It was a ton of fun getting a group of friends together and playing through classic rock songs, and it introduced a younger audience to some old-school rock and metal. My main memory of Rock Band is my friend Danny actually learning how to play real drums just from playing it. He kept playing until he could clear every song on the hardest difficulty, and then one day he sat down at an actual drum set and just knew how to play. That’s a true story, and he and I used to jam together. I taught myself guitar over the years, though I never got that good, and unfortunately Rock Band guitar skills don’t translate to a real guitar. Still, we had a lot of fun jamming on Rock Band, and in a much worse way, on real instruments. If you want to know where all this hardware ended up once people stopped playing, it’s at every single Goodwill in the country.

Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS Grip)

GUITAR HERO: ON TOUR (DS GRIP)

Guitar Hero even got a Nintendo DS version called Guitar Hero: On Tour. There’s a little grip that plugs into the GBA slot on the DS, giving you tiny fret buttons in one hand while you use the stylus as a guitar pick. With two of these and two DS systems, you could actually play co-op. It’s pretty cool that they managed to translate the Guitar Hero concept down to a handheld.

DONKEY KONGA

Another piece of old Goodwill-shelf hardware: the Nintendo bongos for the GameCube, made for Donkey Konga. It’s a rhythm game played entirely through the bongos, and with multiple sets you can play it in co-op.

Donkey Konga

TAIKO NO TATSUJIN

Similarly, Taiko no Tatsujin is another drum game, one that was especially popular in Japanese arcades. Unlike Donkey Konga, you actually use drumsticks here. I’ve run into this one out in the wild in a few different arcades, and it’s a lot of fun.

Taiko no Tatsujin

STARSKY & HUTCH

Back on home consoles, Starsky & Hutch mostly plays like a run-of-the-mill licensed title, and for the most part it is. But the standout feature is that you can play it with a steering wheel and a light gun, so one person drives while the other handles all the shooting. It’s gimmicky, but it elevates the experience quite a bit, and honestly that gimmick is the only thing that makes this game worth playing.

Starsky & Hutch

FIRE TRUCK

Now for some arcade games with unique hardware. Going back to the very beginning of arcade co-op, there’s Fire Truck by Atari, often considered the first co-op game ever made. I’ve never found one out in the wild, but I’ve played it through emulation and it’s surprisingly ahead of its time. The cabinet has two steering wheels: one player sits and controls the front half of the fire truck, while the other stands behind them and controls the back half. You drive through a maze trying not to crash into the walls and go for a high score. The whole game is black and white and very basic, but it still looks pretty good even without color.

Fire Truck

SEGASONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Another arcade-only game is SegaSonic the Hedgehog. I’ve only been able to play it through emulation, but it’s a fun one — three-player co-op where each player uses a trackball to move their character, with one button to jump. It’s a genuinely unique concept, and there aren’t many other games like it.

SegaSonic the Hedgehog

CABAL

Also in the arcades, there’s Cabal, a game that basically created its own genre of shooters. It’s like a predecessor to the third-person shooter, except you move your character left and right while independently aiming a cursor to shoot enemies. In this version, a trackball moves your character and the cursor, with two buttons for shooting and throwing grenades. I haven’t played the arcade version myself, but I played the NES version a lot and I love it.

Cabal

LUCKY & WILD

Another unique arcade game, kind of like an earlier version of Starsky & Hutch, is Lucky & Wild. It’s a sit-down cabinet with a steering wheel and two guns: one player drives with one hand and holds a gun in the other, while the second player just handles their own gun. It mixes racing with light-gun shooting, and I played it once at an arcade in Portland and had a great time..

Lucky & Wild

LAMBORGHINI AMERICAN CHALLENGE

Back to consoles that need unique hardware: Lamborghini American Challenge on the Super Nintendo looks like a standard racing game on the surface, but it has a hidden mode. Plug in the Super Scope, pull the trigger at the title screen, and you unlock a secret menu where you can select two-player mode. One player drives with a controller while the second uses the Super Scope to shoot the other racers — you’re the only one on the road with a gun. It’s a game I never would have paid attention to otherwise, but that mode makes it genuinely fun.

Lamborghini American Challenge

BODY COUNT

Body Count came out on the Mega Drive in Europe, but in the US it was only available through the Sega Channel with no physical release, so a lot of people never got the chance to try it. It’s a light-gun shooter, but for some reason you can’t use two light guns together. Instead, co-op means pairing one Sega Menacer light gun with a gamepad for the second player’s cursor, or — the better way to play it — pairing the light gun with the Sega Mega Mouse, a rare peripheral now. Combining a mouse and a light gun for two-player co-op on a home console isn’t a combination I can think of existing anywhere else.

Body Count

TEMPEST 2000

Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar is technically meant to be played with the Jaguar’s D-pad, and honestly, that controller isn’t great — the D-pad is pretty rough. That’s still the main way I’ve played this game, and it isn’t terrible, and it’s probably the best co-op game on the Atari Jaguar. But there’s another way to play it: the retro gaming community actually made a modified version of the Jaguar controller with a rotary knob. I’ve seen it installed two different ways, one where it’s on the front and replaces the D-pad, and another where it’s installed on the back so the controller still works normally otherwise. And I guess this works because there’s hidden code for rotary support that was still left inside Tempest 2000 — we just never had the controller to use it. I don’t own one of these myself, but they had it set up at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo a few years ago, so I was able to try it, and it works great. It elevates an already excellent game even more, and I’d imagine having two of these and playing this one co-op would be a really fun experience.

G.I. JOE: COBRA STRIKE

Back in the day, before controllers were really standardized, home consoles were experimenting with all sorts of ideas — the Intellivision had that little dial instead of a D-pad, the ColecoVision had a weird joystick, and the Atari 2600 had its standard joystick with one button, but it also had paddle controllers. It didn’t feel weird back then, but now it definitely feels like a novel thing. A ton of games supported the paddles, but the only co-op game I’m aware of that uses them is G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike, and this might be my favorite co-op game on the 2600. It supports two paddle controllers, and it kind of plays like Breakout — missiles get dropped onto little stick-figure humans walking across the screen, and each player uses their paddle to move left and right to block the missiles, then moves their platform over to their own cannon to fire at the Cobra in the middle of the screen. Do that enough times and you kill the Cobra and move to the next level. Unlike most Atari 2600 games, this one is truly cooperative — you actually share a score. Playing it with two paddle controllers really makes this stand out from other games of the era, and I think that’s what helps it hold up.

SMASH TV

In the arcades, if you wanted to play a twin-stick shooter, you just had two arcade sticks right there for you — one for movement, one for shooting. That didn’t translate the same way to home consoles, but sometimes people found interesting workarounds. For Smash TV on the NES, if you get a four-player adapter, you can plug in four controllers, and then each player holds two controllers vertically, using the D-pad in one hand to move and the D-pad in the other hand to do all the shooting. Now it feels like a full-fledged twin-stick shooter on your home console, and it’s just another cool example of finding unique hardware to elevate a co-op experience.

ROBOT WAR 2684

The Atari 2600 actually does something very similar to Smash TV, but this one wasn’t available back in the day — it’s a homebrew. The retro community once again made some really cool hardware: a four-player adapter for the Atari 2600 called the QuadTari. There are a handful of games that support it, but the coolest example is a homebrew called Robot War 2684, made by Champ Games. If you have the QuadTari, you can plug in four joysticks, and just like Smash TV, each player gets two joysticks so you can play a co-op twin-stick shooter. Playing it this way makes this one of the best co-op Atari 2600 games ever made. If you can get all the hardware together, I highly recommend it.

HYRULE WARRIORS

Some other really unique hardware is the Wii U. I actually feel like this system was totally underrated, and the GamePad was such a unique concept that I just feel like it was underutilized. There were a handful of games, though, that really took advantage of its unique features and implemented them in cool ways for co-op games. One of the most straightforward ways is Hyrule Warriors — it’s pretty simple, one player plays on the TV screen and one player plays on the GamePad. I like this kind of support because you no longer need split-screen, you each get your own screen. That was just a very simple option that should have been used a lot more.

AFFORDABLE SPACE ADVENTURES

One of the most unique implementations of the Wii U GamePad in a co-op game was found in Affordable Space Adventures. This is an asymmetrical co-op experience where you have to fly a ship around, but all the tasks are split up between different players, and each player is responsible for a different function of the ship. There’s the engineer, who actually uses the GamePad — this player controls the ship’s internal systems using the GamePad’s touchscreen, monitoring the heat and electric levels and managing the power output. Then there’s the pilot, who just uses a Pro Controller or a Classic Controller and is responsible for steering the ship around and navigating through the levels. And then there’s the science officer, who uses a Wii Remote and Nunchuk, and whose main job is using the Wii Remote pointer to aim the ship’s scanner, flashlight, and flares. Every character has a different role, and every player is using completely different hardware and controllers to do it. This game is still exclusive to the Wii U, and I think it’s one of the best games on the system, and the best use of the GamePad. I just wish more games actually tried to do things like this.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

A few honorable mentions here — these aren’t really co-op games so much as just some unique hardware. The 3DO itself had a handful of decent co-op games, but to play them, you actually had to plug controllers into each other, since there’s only one controller port on the console. Player one plugs into the console, and every other controller plugs into the controller next to it. Theoretically you could have unlimited players daisy-chained together, but there weren’t many games that actually supported more than two players anyway. Similar to that, the TurboGrafx-16 and PC Engine only had one controller port, so to play any multiplayer games you needed the Turbo Tap, which plugs into the console and gives you five controller ports. This console actually did support five-player games — Dungeon Explorer and Dungeon Explorer 2 are both five-player co-op games. The Atari 5200 was the first home console with four built-in controller ports, and that came out all the way back in 1982, way before the N64, way before the Dreamcast, way before any other console did it. But ironically, Real Sports Tennis was the only official retail game that let four players compete simultaneously. Super Breakout did have four-player support, but it was alternating, so there wasn’t really a reason to have four ports for that. And then there’s the Sega Saturn, a console that could technically support up to twelve players if you had two six-player multitaps — which sounds incredible, except there’s literally no commercial game that used all twelve. Even Saturn Bomberman only supported ten players.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Now that controllers have been mostly standardized and arcades barely even exist, weird multiplayer hardware has pretty much just disappeared. But for a couple of decades, developers were constantly experimenting with really weird ways to get people playing together. Sometimes you were spinning a trackball or a rotary knob. Or maybe your passenger was shooting at oncoming traffic while you drove. Or maybe you were typing, and it killed zombies for no apparent reason whatsoever. Some of the most memorable co-op experiences are when the dumbest and most gimmicky hardware gets involved, and I honestly just wish developers these days would take some notes and try getting weird again.

Top 10 Couch Co-op PS5 Games

Let’s talk about some of the best local co-op games on the PS5. This is a list of games that feel like next gen consoles… mostly. But you can play all of them in local co-op on the PlayStation 5, so let’s just get into it.

BROTHERS: A TALE OF TWO SONS REMAKE

This one’s interesting because the original game was intended to be singleplayer. you were supposed to control both brothers with one controller, each assigned to a separate analog stick. There’s an argument that adding co-op kind of changes that original intent, but as a couch co-op game, the remake gives you an entirely new way to experience it. I’m a huge fan of Hazelight Studios, and I feel like Brothers is the one game of theirs that gets overlooked these days. It’s a really emotional story that you can play through pretty quickly. I’ve probably played through it four times now. and I personally think the co-op gameplay actually improves on the original. If you like their later games like It Takes Two or Split Fiction, I highly recommend trying this one, especially this remake.

TOWERBORNE

Towerborne came to PlayStation this year along with a couch co-op update, and it’s essentially an action RPG with a beat ‘em up structure that you can play with up to four players locally. There are different classes, and the gear and build progression give it more depth than a traditional beat ‘em up. We’re still seeing a lot of new beat ‘em ups come out these days, and Towerborne seems to be one that not as many people are talking about. I still think it’s definitely worth trying.

SACKBOY: A BIG ADVENTURE

This is a 3D platformer that is built for co-op. It definitely feels like Mario 3D World, but with the LittleBigPlanet characters. However, when it comes to co-op gameplay, this might actually do it better than Mario 3D World. They even have levels specifically designed for co-op gameplay where you have to work together and solve puzzles in order to move forward.

This is the first time that the Sackboy characters were thrown into a 3D environment, and it works really well. When it comes to co-op 3D platformers, this is definitely one of the best ever made.

REANIMAL

One of my favorite games to come out this year is Reanimal. This is another one that was built to be a couch co-op experience. After the disappointment of Little Nightmares 3, which only had online co-op, it was really refreshing to play Reanimal. This game was made by the original developers of Little Nightmares, and it does have local co-op.

Sometimes co-op can make horror games feel less scary, but I think they solved that here because you have that shared cinematic camera. It is constantly controlling what both players see. This game has some really creepy and unique creatures and environments. When it comes to horror-themed co-op games, this is one of my favorites to ever come out. It is one of my favorite couch co-op games of the year as well.

LEGO BATMAN: LEGACY OF THE DARK KNIGHT

This is another game built to be a couch co-op experience. There is actually no online co-op whatsoever, which I was kind of surprised to learn. The LEGO games have consistently been really great sources for local co-op gameplay, but they are not always my favorite. So when I played LEGO Batman, I was pleasantly surprised.

First of all, it is an open-world game, and we do not see a lot of open-world games with split-screen co-op. This game covers Batman’s entire history rather than adapting one specific movie, but it does get inspiration from comics, movies, TV and previous games as well. I found it really fun to just explore the environment. You can split up and take on different enemies and tasks, get in vehicles and drive around. I just love that in 2026, we got a $70 AAA LEGO game where the only multiplayer option is sitting next to somebody. I do not know if it is worth that price, but I am just glad that it exists.

BORDERLANDS 4

The Borderlands series has always been a consistent place to find local co-op gameplay. You can play through this entire campaign in split-screen co-op. I think this is a really great game in the series. I love how they updated the movement. You can double jump, climb, use hook shots, and get a glider and glide. It just makes moving around in this environment really satisfying.

All of the characters have very different builds and abilities. And for those who care, it does have vertical and horizontal split-screen options. Borderlands has always been one of the few AAA franchises that still carry the torch for split-screen shooters. I am just glad that the latest entry continues to do that.

BALDUR’S GATE 3

This is just a massive RPG, and it is another rare AAA experience that you can play entirely in split-screen co-op. This game is based heavily on Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition rules. At the beginning of the game, you each can spend as long as you want creating your character. You can pick their gender, looks and class. Because you get that much customization, it makes the co-op experience feel even more fleshed out. Player two is not just a companion that follows you around. It is very equal.

The combat is turn-based, so if that is not your thing, maybe you are not going to be into this one, but I think they handled it really well here. This is definitely the biggest game on this list. You are basically getting an entire D&D campaign that two people can play from the couch.

GEARS OF WAR: RELOADED

You can play through this entire campaign in split-screen co-op, just like the original. This one is not a full remake. It is a remaster, with better performance, higher resolution, some remastered textures, lighting and shadows, and HDR. This was a game that was only on Xbox consoles, so seeing it on PlayStation still does not quite feel right. Even though they are giving us even less of a reason to own an Xbox, I am still glad that they did this.

I have a lot of memories playing the original Gears of War with my friend back in high school, and I think I have played through every single entry in the series in split-screen co-op. When the original came out, it really felt like the next evolution of the shooter genre. Because you have Marcus and Dom in the story, it feels natural to play it as a two-player game. If you missed the Gears of War series, or maybe you only have a PlayStation 5, this is a great way to try it out now.

HALO: CAMPAIGN EVOLVED

Much like Gears of War, we also got Halo now on the PlayStation. However, Halo: Campaign Evolved is not just a remaster. This is a full remake from the ground up of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, which came out on the original Xbox. I think they did a great job here. This is the first Halo game to ever be released on PlayStation. Again, it just feels kind of weird. The original Halo was one of the games that helped define console first-person shooters. This version also adds three completely new missions and a bunch of the weapons from the later entries in the series.

I have a lot of memories with Halo. We did a lot of LAN parties with my friends in high school, and I still have groups of friends that get together every once in a while for Halo 1, 2 and even 3. Some of my favorite memories were actually playing through these campaigns in split-screen co-op. I think they did a great job with this remake, but Halo being one of the best couch co-op games on PlayStation still feels wrong to say out loud.

SPLIT FICTION

Split Fiction is Hazelight’s follow-up to It Takes Two, and it’s built entirely around two player co-op again, with each player experiencing the story from a different genre perspective at the same time. It’s constantly throwing new mechanics at you, which is kind of the studio’s whole thing at this point, and it’s one of the most purely inventive co-op games to come out on PS5. If you liked It Takes Two, this is an easy recommendation.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Those are ten couch co-op games that you can play on the PS5. Those are just some of my favorites. Of course, we could dig deeper into some indie games. There are tons of those, but I wanted to mostly focus on games that felt like next generation. Of course, Towerborne does not exactly fit that, but disregard that, I guess. What are your favorite couch co-op games on the PS5?

MORE COUCH CO-OP GAMES

Playing with the family? Try these family-friendly couch co-op games. For another console, see the Switch 2 co-op guide.

The Best PS2 Co-op Games of All Time

The PlayStation 2 was a lot of people's first DVD player, but did you know the PS2 could also play video games?

But before we talk about the games, I want you to know that this list is in no particular order. So if there's any games that you are wondering, hey, how come that one wasn't ranked higher than that one? The answer is because none of them are ranked. They are not supposed to be ranked. They're just games that I'm talking about. And if there is a specific game that you're wondering why it didn't make it into this list of the best co-op PS2 games, well, that's because you have bad taste.

Gladius

All right, let's talk about the PlayStation 2 Gladius. So, this is a turn-based tactical RPG. You can play in two-player co-op. Each player takes control of their own character. There's a lot of goofy voice acting and story here. But the combat itself is pretty solid. So, both players just take turns moving their character around and then they're able to choose an attack. If you attack from the side or behind an enemy, you do more damage. You can do elemental attacks. And whenever you do an attack, it has this little meter and you want to try to get it right into the red zone to do the most damage. So, that really forces you to pay attention. And it’s a rare RPG where you actually have to have some quick reflexes.

This is one that nobody's talking about these days. And if you're looking for a co-op RPG, I would definitely recommend it.

Gradius V

Gradius 5 still has that classic Gradius shoot 'em up gameplay where you collect these power-ups and the more you get it changes your abilities. This one was developed by Treasure. It's an exclusive to the PlayStation 2 and I think for that reason it probably went under a number of people's radar. I think everyone knows the arcade games and the 16-bit era games, but this was an era where old school shoot 'em ups just weren't that popular. But this one's excellent, even though it's incredibly difficult. But if you're a fan of the series, that really shouldn't be a surprise to you.

The Adventures of Cookie & Cream

Adventures of Cookies and Cream. This is an asymmetrical co-op game. You play it in split-screen and both players have their own path. Whenever there's an obstacle, you have to work together in order to solve them. Sometimes one player just jumps on a switch and then that will give a platform for the other player on the other side and sometimes you have to move a lever or push an object over to the other side. So sometimes that clears a path for the other player or gives them something to jump on. This is an excellent co-op game that was built from the ground up to be a co-op game. And it's another one not many people are talking about it these days. And I just love asymmetrical co-op. They did it really well here.

This actually feels like it could be a modern indie game.

Contra: Shattered Soldier

Contra Shattered Soldier. So, this is the one Contra game that I don't hear anybody ever talk about, and I think it's the most underrated game in the series. It kind of feels like a continuation of Contra 3 just because of how fast-paced the action is. It pretty much just never stops. Of course, you have the running and gunning and platforming like classic Contra games. You can climb on walls as well, but then sometimes the gameplay breaks up. Like early on there's a whole section where you're on a snowboard, but this version of Contra has a much darker tone to it and some of the enemies are pretty grotesque. Like there's this boss that's just vomiting on you and then it has this massive disgusting face, which, you know, that's not a problem to me.

I actually kind of like that style. I think it's kind of cool. The other standout feature here is this game has a really cool metal soundtrack. If you like the old school Contra games, you should definitely play Contra Shattered Soldier. It's an exclusive to the PS2 and it's one that I don't hear many people talk about today.

Darkwatch

Let's talk about Dark Watch. This is a first-person shooter with a western horror theme. PS2 version is the only one that had co-op gameplay. This game came out on the original Xbox as well, but it didn't have co-op. Of course, the visuals here look very dated, but gameplay-wise, it holds up really well. It moves pretty fast. The controls are responsive and just feel pretty good overall, which is good because you never really know what you're going to get when you're playing any kind of 3D game from this era. This is a great first-person shooter and you can play through the entire campaign in co-op.

Obscure

Obscure is a survival horror game that you can play in co-op. That's definitely a rarity. There are very few survival horror games that you can play locally with a friend. So, this is definitely one of the best in the genre. I remember playing the demo of this on PC when it first came out, but then I didn't really play it for years. But then years later, me and my friend Casey, we played through this entire game start to finish in just a few sittings. And of course, some of the gameplay does feel a little bit dated. Some of the controls and some of the puzzles aren't exactly intuitive, but once you get the hang of it, overall I think it's a really great experience. One of my favorite co-op horror games ever made.

TimeSplitters 2

TimeSplitters 2. I love all of the TimeSplitters games, but I think two is my favorite. So, this has some of the original members that worked on Perfect Dark and GoldenEye. And when they left Rare, they went on to make the TimeSplitters games. And you definitely feel GoldenEye and Perfect Dark in the DNA here. The music definitely sounds familiar. A lot of the sound effects and voice acting sound familiar. But the most important thing is you can play through the campaign in split-screen co-op, just like Perfect Dark. One of my favorite first-person shooters ever made.

Half-Life: Decay

And Half-Life Decay is another really great first-person shooter, but this one's different from the other ones. Instead of just going around destroying every enemy in sight, this one's a little bit slower. There's puzzles, and it was built from the ground up to be a co-op experience, and that's exclusive to the PS2 version of this game. There's a lot of story here. There's some horror elements. And even though there is definitely some action here, it just feels a little bit slower and more methodical than other first-person shooters of the era. If you like the Half-Life games and you haven't played Decay yet, you definitely got to get a friend and give it a try.

We Love Katamari

The Katamari games are just incredibly insane. They feel like a fever dream. And we love Katamari on the PS2 is no different. But this one, you can actually play the entire story mode in two-player co-op. And this is truly a co-op experience. You actually have to both move your characters in sync, and you're both working together to push the Katamari and build it up by running over various items. I actually really enjoyed this game. Previously, my only experience with a Katamari game was one of the newer ones on the Nintendo Switch, but I do think this works incredibly well as a co-op game, and I just love the visuals here. I love the humor. I love the music. Everything about this game. It just feels way ahead of its time.

This actually just feels like a new weird indie game. But that kind of makes sense because Katamari probably influenced a lot of those weird indie games.

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. So, this game plays a lot like Gauntlet or Diablo, but with a lot more story and choices that you get to make. You get to pick your class in the beginning, but there's only a few. There's an archer, a sorceress, and a dwarven fighter. But this is a pretty standard hack-and-slash dungeon crawler where you're just going around destroying enemies, leveling up, and upgrading your gear. This game originally came out on the PS2, but then was later ported to the Xbox and the GameCube as well. So, it's not an exclusive, but when it comes to dungeon crawlers, this is definitely one of the best from the era.

Champions of Norrath

Okay, so while we're talking about Dark Alliance, I wanted to talk about Champions of Norrath. This one came out a few years later, but it's actually developed by the same team, Snowblind Studios. They're both action RPGs with some hack-and-slash dungeon crawling. The combat feels very similar and graphically they look similar and the map is very similar, but Champions of Norrath added a few things as well. Now you can play it with up to four players co-op. You can create and customize your character. Now there's five classes over those three in Dark Alliance. And there's a larger skill tree and overall the game is just much bigger. But yeah, if you like Dark Alliance, you're definitely going to like this one too.

It's just more of the same, plus a bunch of other stuff as well.

Dynasty Warriors 5

When I was putting this list together, I knew I had to include a Dynasty Warriors game. My personal introduction was Dynasty Warriors 3, and that's the one that I played the most back when it first came out. Me and my friend who lived down the street, we would play it together in split-screen and then we'd go play it independently in our own homes and try to unlock all the characters and then we would call each other and then talk about what we learned. So 3 was the one that I was really obsessed with. And then I went on and played Samurai Warriors and Hyrule Warriors years later, but I didn't really keep up with the series. But recently I've gone back and I played four a bit and I played five.

And I think five is widely considered to be the best when it comes to the classic Dynasty Warriors games from that era. The combat's a lot more refined and it's a lot smoother. The performance is better. There's even more characters. This one actually has 48 characters total and there's more moves. There's more enemies and there's more of a complex weapon progression. So, Dynasty Warriors 3 basically established the foundation of what a co-op Musou game felt like. And then four expanded on that and then five basically perfected it. You can't go wrong with any of them, but this is the one that I think is the best.

Ratchet: Deadlocked

Ratchet Deadlocked. So, this is one of the few games in the Ratchet and Clank series that you can actually play in co-op, and it's basically a third-person shooter mixed with a 3D platformer. I don't really have a lot of experience with this series. The most I've really done is just pick up and test out a few of the titles here and there. So, I'm no expert on Ratchet and Clank, but this one you can play through the entire campaign in split-screen co-op. For me, the main downside is there are a lot of cutscenes. I played this for a couple of hours, and probably half of that time was just sitting there watching cutscenes. But, of course, you can skip it if you want. And honestly, for the time, the voice acting is not too bad.

It feels kind of like a Saturday morning cartoon from the '90s or early 2000s. But the gameplay itself is solid, and the controls feel like a modern game. And that's the main thing going for it.

Project Eden

And let's talk about Project Eden. So, this is a game that a lot of people seem to not like. So, when I went into playing this for the first time, I had zero expectations, but I have to say I think this is an incredibly underrated game. On its surface, it looks like it's just going to be a third-person shooter, but it's actually a lot deeper than that. There is definitely some action. You're going to run around and shoot here and there. At its core, this actually feels more like a mystery adventure type of game, and it's built from the ground up to be a co-op game. If you have a multi-tap, you can actually play it with up to four players, which is definitely the best way to do it. So, each character has their own abilities.

And if you're playing it with one or two players, you're going to have to switch between characters based on the obstacles in front of you. So, of course, if you have four players, it's really fun to just communicate and work together to use each character's abilities accordingly. The graphics are incredibly dated. The voice acting is not very good, and the overall story and vibe of the game is just cheesy. This game just looks bad. Even by PS2 standards, this looks barely better than PS1, honestly. But if you can get past all of that, I think the core gameplay here is really solid. I think that maybe the negative reputation of this game is because people had the wrong expectations for it.

Maybe people thought this was going to be a more fast-paced third-person shooter, but it's just not that. This is meant to be a slow-paced co-op mystery where you and your friends all work together trying to accomplish all the various objectives and trying to solve these murders. So, if you dismissed Project Eden, I definitely think you should give it another try, especially with a few friends. I think this is a really underrated game.

Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward

So, on the PS2, we had Hunter the Reckoning and Hunter the Reckoning Wayward. The original Hunter the Reckoning is probably the better game, but Wayward was a PS2 exclusive, so I wanted to talk about that one. Ultimately, the game play feels about the same with some differences here and there. So, if you don't know Hunter the Reckoning, it's basically like a hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, but with a horror theme. So, you're going to fight zombies and ghosts and werewolves and stuff like that. The main negative addition to this game, though, is it starts out with this really annoying tutorial. You can't really skip it and they just overexplain things way too much. It didn't feel like that in the first game.

And then also in this version, your main weapon has limited ammo, but in the first game, your ammo was unlimited. At least for your main weapon, not the secondary weapons that you pick up. But other than that, the gameplay feels the same. It plays like a twin stick shooter, but you also have a close-range weapon as well. You can't go wrong with any of the Hunter the Reckoning games. But if you have a PS2, you should definitely try this one out.

Time Crisis 3

Time Crisis 3. So, you can actually play Time Crisis 2 and 3 in split-screen co-op on PS2. You can play it with two controllers where you just move a cursor around and shoot, or you can actually use a light gun, which of course is the preferred way to play it, and it works really well. The GunCon on PS2 is one of the best light guns I've ever used. It just has really great accuracy, and as you move it around, you can move a cursor. It's kind of similar to using a Wii remote, but it works really well for this game specifically because there's buttons on the sides and you're able to push that button to take cover and then to jump out and shoot the enemies.

And that's just a simple mechanic that you wouldn't think adds that much, but having that extra little gameplay mechanic in a light gun shooter, it does really break things up and it makes it feel much more interactive. Time Crisis 2 is excellent and Time Crisis 3 is pretty much just more of the same. I think they just leaned into the action and it's just really fun and over the top. So, that's the one that I'm picking, but I love both of them.

The Red Star

The Red Star. This is a console exclusive to the PlayStation 2. Although there is a version that also came out on the PSP and there was a version that was supposed to come out on the original Xbox, but it got cancelled. However, there is a pretty much finished version of it that's leaked, so you can play it on original Xbox still. So, that's a long way of saying officially this is the only way to play this game on a home console. If you haven't played this game, it basically plays like a 3D beat 'em up mixed with a run-and-gun shooter and then there's some bullet hell shooting as well. This is a great game. It's another one that's just really fast-paced. You have a lot of moves. You can strafe and shoot.

You have all of your close combat moves as well, and you have a special move. The best way to describe this game is a mix between Contra and maybe Diehard Arcade. But there's a lot of bosses here, and I think the bosses are some of the most interesting parts of this game. So each boss basically has a set pattern of attacks that they do. And this is where it looks like a bullet hell shooter cuz they shoot out these waves of bullets and you got to watch the patterns and try to dodge them. And then you're mostly going to be trying to shoot their weak point. Some levels have multiple bosses. Some bosses have multiple forms and then there's some levels that are just a boss fight and then after that you move on to the next level.

I think this is a totally underrated game. I love the variety of gameplay and just meshing together all these styles feels really unique for its time.

Twisted Metal: Black

And a PlayStation staple, we got to talk about Twisted Metal Black. This is kind of like a reboot of the series coming out onto the PS2. Personally, I think Twisted Metal 2 is my favorite in the series, but this one's pretty close as well. However, this one moves really fast, and it took me a while to get the hang of it again. I beat this game probably like 10 years ago with my friend Will, and I got together with him again to play it. And yeah, this just feels a lot faster than I remember. But of course, this is a really great vehicle combat game. You pick your character, you go around, you get upgrades, you destroy all the enemies in sight. That's basically it. It's very simple, and that's what I love about it.

You just jump in and you start driving, and you start shooting.

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

Gauntlet Dark Legacy. So, Gauntlet Dark Legacy is kind of the sequel to Gauntlet Legends, but it's a little bit more complicated than that. I think it probably should have just been titled Gauntlet Legends Definitive Edition or something like that. So, it basically has the original four worlds of Gauntlet Legends, but four new worlds as well. So, it kind of just feels like Gauntlet Legends with a bunch of DLC. So, ultimately, if you want to play a Gauntlet game from this era, Gauntlet Dark Legacy is probably the best way to play it as it's pretty much like the definitive version of Gauntlet Legends. I played Gauntlet Legends a ton on Nintendo 64, so that's where most of my nostalgia is.

But like I said, Dark Legacy is just like that, but with a lot of extra stuff as well. Some of my favorite co-op memories with my friends, especially four player sessions, are playing these Gauntlet games. So, even though I appreciate dungeon crawlers with more depth, like Diablo or Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath, I kind of just prefer the more simplistic style of Gauntlet. It's a dungeon crawler that still has some RPG elements, but it doesn't have the complicated skill trees or anything like that. You pretty much just pick your class, pick the color of your class, and then you just start going through the levels one by one. You destroy enemies, you level up, you gather loot, you gather keys, and then you fight a boss.

And that's pretty much it. And to me, that simple pick up and play gameplay style is definitely more of what I like.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks. So, this game came out when I was in high school, and I remember picking it up at launch and playing through it with my friend. I don't think we actually ever finished it, but we got pretty close. So, that was actually the last time that I played this game until recently, and that was over 20 years ago. So, my memory of this game was that it was a pretty fun beat 'em up. And that's pretty much it. I didn't think it was anything special, but now I have a lot of experience playing all sorts of beat 'em ups, 3D beat 'em ups, 2D ones, modern ones, retro ones. And I got to say, playing it now, this game kind of blew me away. It's just really fast-paced. You have tons of moves. You have special moves.

You can even do fatalities on any enemy. I think this is without a doubt the best 3D beat 'em up ever made. It's just so good. And in my opinion, I think this is the best Mortal Kombat game as well. But of course, you know, I'm biased because this is one of the only Mortal Kombat games that actually has co-op and it's not just a one-on-one fighter. But that really doesn't change the fact that this is an excellent beat 'em up and it's one of the only beat 'em up I've ever played that has platforming sections that aren't terrible. In fact, I like the platforming sections and I look forward to them, especially once you get the long jump. It just feels really satisfying to run and jump across a huge gap.

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks is one of those rare examples of a game that I played when I was younger and then revisited it and it's actually much better than my memories of the game. And when it comes to the current conversation about beat 'em ups, I feel like this is one that is often overlooked. Definitely one of the best co-op games on the PlayStation 2.

Final Thoughts

Okay, so there are my top 20 co-op games on the PlayStation 2. I know that there are a ton of games that I could have included, but I didn't because they're not good games. But actually, the PlayStation 2 has one of the biggest libraries of any console ever made. And I know there's a bunch of great games that I haven't even played yet or even heard of. So instead of just talking about co-op games that I missed, why don't you just tell me, "Yeah, these are great games that you already talked about. Here's some other great games. I like that. That would be cool."

More PS2 Co-op

Looking for more? Check out PS2 Co-op Games You Probably Missed, or browse the PS2 co-op database.

For the cables, scaler and recording equipment I use with my retro consoles, see my gear page. Some links there are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

20 PS1 Co-op Games You NEED To Play With A Friend

The original PlayStation had so many games, and a lot of them are co-op. So, here we are.

These are not going to be be ranked. I am going to group them together by genre, loosely. But before we do that, let's talk about some honorable mentions. So, I guess instead of this being a top 20, it kind of turns it into a top 25. I don't know. It really doesn't matter.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Loaded is a game that I have a lot of nostalgia for. I remember playing it at my cousin's house when I was a kid, and it felt very edgy. It felt like PlayStation was for grown-ups, and that's why I wasn't allowed to have one. But going back to it, it just doesn't hold up as well as I thought it would. It's very slow, you spend way too much time on the levels, and there's a ton of slowdown. Um Jammer Lammy is a really great rhythm game. The only reason I'm not putting it on this list is because the co-op mode isn't available from the start. You have to complete missions, and then you can replay the levels in co-op. There are three Rampage games on the system. I like Rampage, but I don't think it's a PS1-defining series. Fighting Force is another one that I played a lot when I was a kid, especially on the N64. I think it's okay, but ultimately most 3D beat 'em ups don't hold up that well. Assault: Retribution is a game that feels pretty unique for the time. It's ultimately a run-and-gun shooter, but the angles change. Sometimes it goes into third person, but a lot of the time it's side-scrolling and you can move up and down in depth as well. The main downside is that the platforming sections suck. Those games are all definitely worth playing, but they're not my favorites. These ones are my favorites, so let's get into it.

METAL SLUG X

I love all of the Metal Slug games. Metal Slug X is one that maybe isn't the best, but it's a really great version. It's essentially an enhanced, remixed version of Metal Slug 2, which originally had a lot of slowdown and performance issues. This version on the PS1 is a really great port. They even added some extra content, but pretty much all the old-school Metal Slug games are great. This one specifically I have a lot of memories with. I remember renting it as a kid on the PS1, and then me and my friend Danny played through it over a weekend at his place. Truly, this is one of the best run-and-gun shooters of all time.

Metal Slug X

FUTURE COP: LAPD

This is sort of like a run-and-gun shooter from a top-down perspective, but also a mech and vehicle combat game mixed in. You can play the campaign in split-screen co-op, which works really well. You can split up and try to accomplish the objectives separately, or you can double up your firepower and try to stay together. This game feels pretty ambitious for the PlayStation 1. There's a lot of voice acting, and it's pretty good. If you can get over some of the dated visuals and controls, this one holds up really well.

WARGAMES: DEFCON 1

This is another vehicle combat game that's loosely based on WarGames. What I like about this game is the variety. You can take control of tanks, jeeps, and helicopters, and you have a set amount at the beginning of each mission. If one of your vehicles explodes, you're able to take over another one. You can play this in split-screen co-op. This is one that I never hear people talk about. I feel like it's one of those games you probably saw on a shelf somewhere and didn't really think twice about it. If you did, you probably didn't know that it had co-op. WarGames: Defcon 1 is actually a really good co-op game.

MACHINE HUNTER

I mentioned Loaded earlier, and I think this is very similar to Loaded, but actually a lot better. First of all, the performance is a lot better. It still has some slowdown when there's a lot of action on the screen, but there are a few things that make this game feel better. It has twin-stick controls, and there's more variety in the levels. There are objectives where you have to save hostages, and in the second level you have to get bombs, set them at a specific place, and then run to the exit. It also has this really unique feature where you destroy certain enemy machines and then take them over. When it comes to top-down run-and-gun shooters, this is one of the better ones. I think it's definitely a hidden gem, and I highly recommend it.

TWISTED METAL 2

Outside of the first Twisted Metal, most of these games have local co-op and you can play them in split-screen. I think most of you know this game. It's one of the most popular games on the system, and for good reason. I still think it's probably my favorite vehicle combat game ever made. It's very fast-paced, you get a lot of variety in weapons, and all the characters have their unique personalities, styles, and special abilities. You can't go wrong with any Twisted Metal game, honestly, but this one has always been my favorite.

ROAD RASH: JAILBREAK

I grew up playing the Sega Genesis Road Rash games, specifically two and three. For a long time, I dismissed the other ones because they didn't really have co-op elements. But Jailbreak actually has a mode that's built specifically for co-op. Player one drives, and player two is in a sidecar and can fight. They're not just stuck there fighting and unable to do anything else. The second player also needs to help player one lean into the turns. This is a big part of where the cooperation comes in. You always have to be in sync, and of course you can punch and kick the other racers as they drive by. I really like this approach. It kind of reminds me of Mario Kart: Double Dash, but way before that game came out. This is one of those rare racing games that actually feels like it was made to be a co-op experience.

Road Rash: Jailbreak

GEKIDO: URBAN FIGHTERS

This is that other 3D beat 'em up I was talking about. I'm not always the biggest fan of 3D beat 'em ups. I just think that they don't work very well. But this is one that I think is really solid, primarily because it still feels like a 2D beat 'em up. It just has 3D assets. I think this game works a lot better than Fighting Force does. It has all this licensed music with that early-2000s butt-rock vibe, which I think is hilarious. But this is a fun 3D beat 'em up, and I highly recommend it.

BUGS BUNNY & TAZ: TIME BUSTERS

This is a 3D platformer, and it does feel a little bit dated. The controls and the visuals obviously show their age, but there are certain things about this game that I really love. First of all, it's built to be a co-op game. You have to work together in certain areas. Sometimes Bugs has to bounce on Taz to get to a higher platform, and sometimes Taz has to dig a hole for Bugs to jump through. The main issue is the camera. Playing this in co-op, you are both stuck to one camera. If this were a split-screen game, that would have completely fixed the problem, but it's not. Sometimes the camera doesn't really know what to do or who to follow. If you can get over that, this is a really fun co-op game that feels like it was designed around two characters working together to solve various puzzles.

Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters

HERC’S ADVENTURES

This is made by LucasArts, and I've heard a lot of people say that it feels like a spiritual successor to Zombies Ate My Neighbors. I can kind of see that. It has this really nice cartoon art style, and it's all in a large interconnected world rather than short arcade stages. I mostly played the Sega Saturn version of this game, but the PlayStation one seems to be the same. You can let me know if there are any differences between the two, but this is a really great co-op game that's pretty different from anything else on this list.

CRASH BASH

This is kind of like Mario Party, but with Crash Bandicoot characters. The best part about this game is that you can actually play through the story mode in two-player co-op. It'll be you and a partner against two AI opponents. You play these various minigames in a set world. Whenever you complete a minigame, you earn trophies. Once you get enough trophies, you're able to fight the boss, and then you go on to the next world. I really like that progression element inside of a party game. That definitely felt unique.

G-DARIUS

This is an excellent horizontal shoot 'em up. When it comes to home consoles of the time, the PlayStation was the only console that got this game ported to it. It has this really unique feature where you have a capture ball. You throw that onto certain enemies, and then they become part of your ship and give you some extra firepower. This is just a cool idea, and it adds a lot of variety to your gameplay style because you can switch to other captures anytime you want. I really love the visuals here. It has that PS1 look of early polygonal graphics, but it's not trying to be hyper-realistic. It has a cartoony look, and I think it works really well, especially with the bosses. There are a lot of great shoot 'em ups on the PS1, and this is definitely one of the best.

RAYSTORM

This is another one of my favorite shoot 'em ups on the PS1. It's a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up with a really great 2.5D presentation. This is another one where I really like the visuals. Even though it's technically just a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up, the background always has a lot going on. It's constantly moving around while you're still scrolling vertically, and it makes it feel like you're moving more than you actually are. You're going to be switching between your lasers and your lock-on attack constantly. With all that going on, sometimes it feels like a mix between a shoot 'em up and an on-rails shooter at the same time, if that makes sense.

N2O: NITROUS OXIDE

I guess this is what you would call a tunnel shooter, but it has a lot of psychedelic elements. Visually, there's a lot going on. The enemies are mostly bugs and insects that you're going to be shooting. It kind of plays like Tempest, but you're in a tunnel and spinning around it in a full circle while moving through it. I really love the soundtrack. It's very upbeat techno, and playing this in co-op is a lot of fun. There are two ways you can do it. There's one where you're on the same screen and you're both circling around together, and then you can play it split-screen so you can separate from each other. But when you're playing in split-screen, it sometimes feels like you're not even playing together because a lot of the time you're not shooting the enemies at the same time. I actually prefer playing this on a single screen. This is definitely a hidden gem. I don't ever hear people talk about this game, and I highly recommend it.

ELEMENTAL GEARBOLT

This is a really unique light-gun shooter that mixes in some RPG elements. It also has these really beautiful anime-style cutscenes. The soundtrack really stood out to me as well. It actually sounds like a cinematic score for a movie. I did find this game to be very difficult, and I've never been able to beat it, but it's definitely one of my favorite co-op games on the PS1.

PROJECT: HORNED OWL

This is another light-gun shooter that's kind of similar. It also has some anime cutscenes, and they are great. That's all done by Masamune Shirow, who's mostly known for Ghost in the Shell. If you're familiar with that movie, the art style looks very similar. This is one of the light-gun shooters that I hear way fewer people talk about. It might not be as good as Elemental Gearbolt, and it doesn't have the RPG elements, but I do think this one is a lot easier to pick up and play. I think this one is excellent as well, and I highly recommend you play both of those games.

GAUNTLET LEGENDS

I primarily played Gauntlet Legends on the N64, and I never played the PS1 version until recently. It's kind of a weird experience because it feels similar but just slightly off. Visually, it looks more like a PS1 game. Some of the sound effects are different, some of the level layouts are different, and the specials are sometimes different colors. But ultimately, it's Gauntlet Legends. I love Gauntlet Legends. It's kind of fun to play a slightly different version than what I grew up with. Unfortunately, this version is only two-player. There is no four-player option.

Gauntlet Legends

DIABLO

The PlayStation version actually added local co-op, which was not in the PC version. This is the game that started it all, and it's probably the most influential dungeon crawler ever made. It's actually kind of impressive that a PC game like this translated so well to a couch co-op game on the PlayStation 1. Of course, it's not perfect. It's a little bit slow in parts, and it's incredibly hard, so there might be a bit of a learning curve. But it's definitely worth playing if you've never played this version of it.

CHOCOBO’S DUNGEON 2

The first game only came out in Japan on the PS1. This one came out in the United States and also added local co-op. This is actually a roguelite, and from the beginning you can play in co-op. Once you get through the cutscene, player two can immediately take control of the helper. All the dungeons are randomized, so whenever you go into them, they're going to be a little bit different. It has a lot of familiar Final Fantasy creatures and spells, but unlike traditional Final Fantasy games, Chocobo's Dungeon uses a simultaneous turn-based combat system. Time only moves when you move. It's a grid-based positional dungeon crawler where every single step counts as a turn. This is another one that a lot of people don't talk about.

LEGEND OF MANA

I love the Mana series. Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 are two of the greatest co-op games ever made and two of the greatest RPGs ever made. Then Legend of Mana came out on the PS1, and I think this is the best-looking PS1 game ever made. It's just beautiful. Unlike the other Seiken Densetsu games, player two doesn't take control of a main character. They're a companion, and while you're playing the game, you're going to get different companions throughout. But for most of the game, you will have a companion with you, so player two will be involved for at least most of the game. The combat works really well. Unlike the other games, where you just go up to enemies and immediately start fighting, you're going to be running around without your weapons. Then when you get into a fight, it looks like it's going to turn into a turn-based battle, but you pull out your weapons and it's still a real-time battle system. I love this game. It's not my favorite of the series, but it's still incredibly good.

Legend of Mana

TALES OF DESTINY II (TALES OF ETERNIA)

Finally, let's talk about Tales of Destiny II, also known as Tales of Eternia. They just called it Tales of Destiny II in the United States for some reason. The first game also has local co-op, but it takes way too long to unlock it. Ultimately, I think this one is better. Once you get past the initial cutscenes and the tutorial, player two can immediately jump into the action. Once you have four people in your party, you can actually play this with up to four players locally. Unfortunately, this is only in battles, so outside of that it's only going to be player one moving around. The battles are great. It's another real-time battle system, and it kind of feels like a side-scrolling action beat 'em up type of game. The Tales series is known for co-op gameplay, and this is another one that's just really great in the series.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So, there's a bunch of co-op PS1 games. Twenty-five of them, I guess. Which ones are your favorites, and what did I miss?

Every Couch Co-op Game Releasing In September 2026

Every month I try to round up all the couch co-op games worth knowing about, the ones I missed the month before, the best ones I actually played, and everything coming up next. September is no exception, and there’s a lot to get through: some games I missed in August, a few new favorites, some retro co-op news, and a big list of everything coming out this month.

CO-OP GAMES I MISSED IN AUGUST

Let’s start with a few games from August that I didn’t get a chance to cover last time. Quake: Dawn of the Machine is a new, free expansion for Quake, and it honestly feels like a whole new game. It keeps the original Quake visuals, but adds a new soundtrack, new weapons, and a ton of new levels. I played through it, and it’s really hard, but I loved every second of it.

The demo for Wild and Chill also came out, the sequel to Cast and Chill, and I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but there’s no official release date for the full game either. John Fox, an old-school beat ‘em up where you play as two foxes punching your way through enemies, got a demo too. It’s a little basic, but if you’re a big fan of the genre, it’s not bad. Reanimal also got new story DLC called The Prisoner, Reanimal is easily one of my favorite co-op games of the year, so I’m excited to check that out even though I haven’t played it yet.

Projection looks like a lot of fun, it’s got a lot of humor and that arcadey feel, kind of like NBA Jam but for Australian rules football. And Dodonpachi Resurrection Reignite came out on August 26th, an expanded re-release of the 2008 arcade bullet hell classic. It’s getting mixed reviews on Steam, mostly because it’s a re-release of a re-release at this point, but the Dodonpachi series overall is considered one of the best bullet hell franchises ever made, so hopefully it holds up.

Quake: Dawn of the Machine (PC)

BEST CO-OP GAMES I PLAYED IN AUGUST

Now for some of the best co-op games I actually played in August. Agent 64 came out, and it’s exactly the GoldenEye and Perfect Dark spiritual successor we’ve all been waiting for. I loved everything about it. You can play through the story in up to four-player local co-op, there’s a deathmatch mode, and you can even play online. Visually, they absolutely nail the N64 style while still feeling modern. This is already shaping up to be one of my favorite games of the year.

Box Knight is another beat ‘em up, this time with roguelike elements and a lot of humor, it clearly takes inspiration from Castle Crashers. I found it really tough, and while I’m not sure it’s my favorite in the genre, I really like the art style. Wild Ice also impressed me, it’s made by a really small team but has a surprising amount of polish. It’s story-driven with genuinely good voice acting, and it mixes hockey with third-person shooting, tower defense, and hack-and-slash combat. I enjoyed what I played and definitely plan on going back for more.

Agent 64 (PC)

WHAT I’VE BEEN PLAYING

Outside of new releases, I’ve been on a bit of an Xbox 360 kick lately, some Halo 3, Gears of War, and Left 4 Dead 2, all footage for an upcoming video. I also played through Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 in one sitting in splitscreen co-op, which was actually the first Call of Duty campaign I’ve ever played through, and I really enjoyed it. It’s a shame that ended up being the last Call of Duty game with splitscreen co-op in the campaign.

I’ve also been deep into PS2 co-op games lately, and the one I keep going back to is Contra: Shattered Soldier. I love everything about this game, it’s incredibly hard, but it’s an awesome time from start to finish.

Contra: Shattered Soldier (PS2)

RETRO CO-OP NEWS

There’s some fun retro co-op news this month too. The original Legend of Zelda on NES got a co-op ROM hack, and you can actually play it on original hardware if you throw it on a ROM cart. This is basically a dream come true for me, I have so much nostalgia for these games, and there aren’t many classic Zelda titles you can play in co-op, so this one is going straight to the top of my list. You can find the hack over at romhacking.net.

Ninja Baseball Batman is also getting an HD remake. If you’re not familiar, it’s a four-player arcade beat ‘em up from the ‘90s, similar to the TMNT and Simpsons arcade games. There’s not a lot of information out yet, but I’m happy to see it, since the original doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara is getting a Sega Genesis homebrew port too, it obviously won’t have the exact same visuals on that hardware, but it looks like they’re doing a great job capturing the feel of the original. On top of that, the Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection is coming to modern platforms, bundling the series’ co-op entries. If you grew up on consoles like I did, you might not be familiar with this series since it lived primarily on home computers like the Amiga, but they’re genuine classics. And the NES version of Bubble Bobble just landed on Switch 2 and PS5 in honor of Bub and Bob’s birthday on August 26th.

Legend of Zelda (NES)

COUCH CO-OP GAMES COMING IN SEPTEMBER

Now let’s get into everything coming out in September. Wheel Mates launches September 1st, I played the demo, and while the controls were rough at first, they’ve since patched a lot of that. People are calling it “It Takes Two, but with RC cars,” and honestly, that’s not too far off. Marsupilami 2, a 2D co-op platformer, comes out September 3rd, and that same day brings Orbitals, by far my most anticipated game of the year. It’s built from the ground up as a local or online co-op experience, it’s a Switch 2 exclusive, and it has a genuinely beautiful anime art style. We’ll absolutely be covering this one on the channel.

Also out September 3rd is Friendly Steps, which originally promised local co-op, though its current Steam listing only mentions online play, worth keeping an eye on in case that changes. Isle of Reveries arrives September 4th, an old-school Zelda-like with Game Boy-style visuals; based on its Steam description, co-op might be its own separate mode rather than the full campaign. Tiny Bomber, a fast-paced vertical bullet-hell roguelite with a cartoony art style, comes out September 22nd. Delvarium, a Stardew Valley-style farming sim with survival elements and up to four-player local co-op, lands September 21st, and Stella Supernova: The Astral Veil follows on September 23rd with support for up to eight local players, Smash Bros-style level design, and an emotional story. Blades and Battles doesn’t have a firm date yet beyond “sometime in September,” it’s a sidescrolling beat ‘em up with weapons that looks like it’s channeling Golden Axe, with a nice 2.5D art style and some 3D cutscenes mixed in. And if you don’t mind waiting a bit longer, Duo Quest, a co-op turn-based RPG with roguelike and deck-building elements, plus a fun trivia mechanic between partners, is set for December 16th.

Orbitals (Switch 2)

When AAA Games Had Local Co-op Campaigns

Not too long ago, big story-driven games actually let two people sit on the same couch and play through the entire campaign together. I’m talking specifically about the seventh generation of consoles here, so the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii. Some of these were full split-screen campaigns, some were separate co-op story modes, and a few were just weird experiments that could only exist during that era.

And what’s easy to forget now is just how many of these games there were. It wasn’t just Halo, and it wasn’t just Gears of War. For a while it felt like every single publisher wanted their own co-op campaign, and I think that’s really cool to look back on.

THE AAA COUCH CO-OP BOOM

Gears of War is probably the first game people think of from this era, and honestly it earned that spot. It defined what an HD co-op campaign could feel like: big, cinematic, over-the-top violence, built around huge action set pieces, and you could still play through the entire story with someone right next to you. If one player went down, the other could revive them, and the whole thing felt like a buddy action movie. Gears of War 2 made everything bigger, and Gears of War 3 felt like the peak of the whole formula. Looking back, campaign co-op wasn’t some special bonus feature for one of Microsoft’s biggest franchises, it was just part of the package.

Halo was doing the same thing over on the other side, with full split-screen co-op all the way through Halo 3, ODST, and Reach. Sony had their own answer too, with Resistance: Fall of Man, Killzone 3, and Lost Planet 2 all shipping with full co-op campaigns, and even Call of Duty: World at War let you play through the story together, which feels strange to think about now. Then you had the shooters built entirely around two-player teamwork, like Army of Two and its sequels, the grimy Kane & Lynch games, Rainbow Six Vegas, and smaller ones like Fuse and The Outfit that probably would have been forgotten if not for their co-op hook.

Gears of War (Xbox 360)

CO-OP HORROR

I’ve always thought horror worked really well as a co-op experience, which is kind of an underrated thing. Sure, there’s an argument that it’s scarier alone, but it’s a lot more fun to laugh at it and get scared together with somebody next to you. Resident Evil 5 might be the most important co-op horror game of the entire generation, built entirely around Chris and Sheva working together, sharing ammo, reviving each other, and covering different angles. Resident Evil 6 pushed even further into action, but Resident Evil Revelations 2 might be my favorite of the bunch, since it went with an asymmetrical setup between Claire and Moira instead of making both characters identical.

And of course, the Left 4 Dead games deserve a mention here too. They were built totally around co-op, and to this day I still think they’re some of the greatest co-op games ever made. F.E.A.R. 3 tried something different with its asymmetrical Point Man and Fettel setup, and Painkiller: Hell and Damnation leaned into fighting demons in gothic environments instead of the usual military shooter stuff. It’s wild how many different flavors of co-op horror we got in just a few years.

Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)

CO-OP WAS EVERYWHERE

This is where the generation got really interesting to me, because there wasn’t just one formula everybody was using. There were military shooters, sure, probably too many of them, but there were also horror games, RPGs, beat ‘em ups, and fantasy games all experimenting with co-op. Borderlands was one of the standout examples, mixing a first-person shooter with loot and RPG mechanics and then letting you play through the whole thing with a friend. Borderlands 2 improved on almost everything, and Handsome Jack became one of the most memorable villains of the generation.

There were plenty of other hidden gems too, like Hunted: The Demon’s Forge and the criminally underrated Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Fable 3 let you complete quests, buy property, and cause chaos together, and Watchmen: The End is Nigh was a straightforward but fun co-op beat ‘em up. But honestly, Portal 2 might be the smartest co-op game of the entire generation. Valve didn’t just bolt a second player onto the single-player campaign, they built an entirely separate one from the ground up, with new mechanics built around communication instead of just shooting things together.

Portal 2 (Xbox 360)

THE WII DID THINGS DIFFERENTLY

While the Xbox 360 and PS3 were chasing that big cinematic action-movie feeling, Nintendo was over in its own world doing its own weird thing, which led to some genuinely interesting co-op experiences you wouldn’t get otherwise. Of course they still had first-party games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, New Super Mario Bros., and Donkey Kong Country Returns, but the Wii also got its own versions of bigger licensed games with local co-op baked in. Ghostbusters: The Video Game is probably the best example. Most people remember the 360 and PS3 versions, but the Wii version was actually the only one you could play in local co-op, and honestly, that makes it my favorite version of the game.

Ghost Recon on the Wii got a similar treatment, an entirely different game sharing the same name, and it turns out these weren’t always direct ports at all, sometimes they were just completely separate games. Call of Duty: World at War and Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition even had an exclusive Squad mate mode on Wii, where a second player could drop in with a Wii Remote and help by aiming a cursor at enemies. It’s not traditional split-screen, but it’s exactly the kind of weird experiment that makes the Wii so interesting to talk about when it comes to local co-op.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Wii)

THE SHIFT AWAY FROM CO-OP CAMPAIGNS

But by the tail end of this generation, you could already feel things starting to shift. Resistance 2 cut its co-op campaign down into a separate mode instead of the full story, Splinter Cell: Conviction dropped its co-op campaign as a prequel side story rather than the main event, and Rage tried something completely different with Legends of the Wasteland, standalone co-op missions that had nothing to do with the single-player campaign at all. Even Modern Warfare 2 pointed in this direction with Spec Ops, a set of short two-player missions built from campaign set pieces instead of a real co-op story.

And then Call of Duty: Black Ops came along and basically proved you didn’t need a co-op campaign to keep people playing together. Zombies had technically existed before, but Black Ops was the game that turned it into the main attraction, a mode built from the ground up for four-player co-op that didn’t need a story to justify itself. Starhawk did something similar on the PS3 side with its Prospector mode, blending base-building and co-op survival into something that felt more like its own game than a campaign tacked on. Once these games showed that co-op could thrive without a traditional campaign wrapped around it, it’s not hard to see why publishers started moving away from the format.

Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox 360)

FINAL THOUGHTS

Looking back at all of this, it’s kind of wild how much changed in such a short window. For a few years there, local co-op campaigns weren’t a bonus feature, they were the main event, something publishers built entire marketing campaigns around. Now if you want that same experience, you’re mostly looking at indie games, because the big AAA studios largely moved on to live-service shooters and battle royales instead.

I don’t think that means co-op is dead, it’s obviously thriving in its own way. But there was something special about picking up a controller, handing the second one to a friend, and knowing you were about to experience an entire story together from start to finish. Do you miss that era of gaming, or do you think we’re better off with how co-op has evolved since then?

PS2 Co-op Games You Probably Missed

I’ve been playing a ton of PlayStation 2 lately, and I keep forgetting just how many co-op games are hiding in this library. It’s genuinely one of the biggest libraries in gaming, and no matter how many of these games I dig through, I always find a new one I’ve never touched.

This isn’t really a hidden gems video. Some of these games are just okay, but I think they’re all worth trying at least once with a second player. So here are 11 co-op PS2 games you’ve probably missed.

ONIMUSHA: DAWN OF DREAMS

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams isn’t obscure at all — it’s a Capcom game, and if you own a PS2, there’s a good chance you already know it. What you might not know is that it has a secret co-op mode. Both players hold L1, L2, R1, and R2 on their controllers, and once you hear a sound cue, you know the code worked.

You can’t co-op from the very start, though. You have to reach the third stage, where a new character joins your party, and that’s when player two can take control of her. For a game that was never built with co-op in mind, it works surprisingly well. The main issue is the camera — it’s stationary, so it’s easy to lose track of player two, and honestly, this would’ve been a much better fit as a splitscreen game. To be fair, the camera is bad in single player too, so don’t let that scare you off from trying it with a friend.

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams

GETBACKERS

GetBackers only came out in Japan, and it’s based on the anime and manga of the same name. It’s a 2D sidescrolling beat ‘em up with 3D backgrounds, which sometimes doesn’t work in games, but here I think they pull it off.

This isn’t the best beat ‘em up I’ve played, and the moveset is pretty simplistic, but the special abilities are a lot of fun — think Dragon Ball Z-style energy blasts. I really like the art style, and you can choose between different characters, unlocking more as you go. There’s a lot of dialogue and cutscenes in Japanese, so if you don’t understand the language, you’ll want to skip through those. You don’t need to understand any of it to enjoy the beat ‘em up gameplay, though. The PS2 had a massive amount of anime games that never made it to America, and this is one of them worth tracking down.

GetBackers (PS2)

G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is based on the 2009 movie — yes, the one with Channing Tatum that I’ve never actually seen. Most licensed games aren’t very good, so people tend to just skip past them, and this one came out pretty late in the PS2’s life, in 2009, well after the PS3 had already launched. By that point a lot of people had already moved on from the PS2.

But surprisingly, this game is pretty fun. It’s a straightforward run-and-gun shooter — not complex or deep, but it’s not really trying to be. It has drop-in, drop-out co-op, plenty of shooting, and destructible environments. It kind of scratches an old-school itch that wasn’t really common in the PS2 library. It’s not one of the best games ever made, but it’s better than you’d expect.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (PS2)

ARMY MEN: GREEN ROGUE

Sticking with the same idea, Army Men: Green Rogue is another licensed game — this time based on toys — turned into a run-and-gun shooter. Gameplay-wise, it’s very similar to the G.I. Joe game above. It also has drop-in co-op, and you’re mostly just running around shooting and picking up different weapons.

It’s actually even more simplistic than G.I. Joe — there’s no cover shooting or anything like that. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. There aren’t many games quite like this on the PS2. This isn’t secretly one of the best PS2 games nobody knows about, but it does prove a point I keep coming back to: giving even a mediocre game a two-player option elevates the whole experience.

Army Men: Green Rogue (PS2)

SPACE INVADERS: INVASION DAY

Space Invaders: Invasion Day never came out in the US on PS2 — it was exclusive to PAL regions and Japan, where it was called Space Raiders. It did eventually make its way to the US on GameCube. This one actually turned out to be pretty good. It takes the classic Space Invaders formula and gives it a fresh coat of paint, moving the action to a third-person perspective.

You control two humans moving left and right at the bottom of the screen, shooting down waves of enemies, with some boss fights mixed in. It's basically the classic formula with updated visuals, and I don't hear people talk about this one much. Teaming up with a friend to see how high a score you can get is honestly pretty addicting.

Space Invaders: Invasion Day

TWIN CALIBER

Twin Caliber only came out in Europe, and I'll be honest — it's not the highest quality game. The voice acting is terrible, the production values aren't great, and the gameplay is kind of weird. But I actually love this game, and I really didn't expect to.

It plays like a mix between an on-rails shooter and a third-person shooter, and it was clearly built to be a co-op experience from the ground up. There's a loose story about a cop breaking a prisoner out, and the two of you team up to shoot down zombies and other creatures attacking the prison. The dialogue and voice acting are over-the-top and pretty ridiculous. You each control two guns and can switch between two control modes — one where each stick controls an arm independently (which I found really hard to manage), or one where a single stick aims both guns while L1 and R1 fire them separately. You have zero control over your character's movement; they just walk forward automatically and plant in place once they hit a new area. Once you get the controls down, though, this turned out to be one of the biggest surprises in the whole PS2 co-op library for me. It's a legitimate hidden gem.

Twin Caliber (PS2)

ALIEN SYNDROME

There was a PS2 remake of Alien Syndrome, but it only came out in Japan. It's a pretty faithful remake as far as level structure and objectives go, but now it's a twin-stick shooter instead of the original format. My own history with Alien Syndrome comes from the NES version, which actually had co-op and was pretty fun, and the Sega Master System version, which only had alternating two-player and no co-op at all.

The gameplay here is the same as you'd expect — you run around rescuing hostages, then head to the exit for a big boss fight. Visually it's nothing impressive, but it did the job for its time. They did make the enemies noticeably grosser than the originals, with slimy sound effects to match. Maybe that makes me a little bit of a psycho, but I actually kind of love that addition. This is another one that ended up being a lot better than I expected.

Alien Syndrome (PS2)

I.Q. REMIX

I.Q. Remix is a Japan-exclusive sequel to Intelligent Cube on the original PlayStation, and it’s the one entry on this list that plays nothing like the rest. It’s really a puzzle game, and I had to Google how it worked before I could make sense of it. Cubes roll toward you across a floor, and your goal is to destroy as many gray cubes as possible before you get flattened. Wait too long and the edges of the stage start closing in, so there’s a constant pressure to keep moving.

The whole campaign is playable in two-player co-op, and it turns into a real strategy game once you get the hang of it. Destroying a black cube speeds up the floor collapsing behind you, while green cubes are the key: blow one up and it leaves a marker, then when cubes roll over that marker you can hit triangle to clear out a whole chunk of them. You and your partner have to actually talk through the best path together. It’s one of the most unique games I played for this list, and I don’t hear anyone in the US talk about it, total hidden gem.

I.Q. Remix (PS2)

SENGOKU BASARA 2 HEROES

Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes is a Japan-only release, and it’s basically Capcom’s answer to Dynasty Warriors. If you’ve played any musou game before, you already know what to expect: huge battlefields, one hero mowing down hundreds of enemy soldiers, flashy special attacks, the works. The whole story mode is playable in splitscreen co-op, so you and a friend can each pick a warrior and clear the campaign together.

There’s a ton of untranslated Japanese text and dialogue, but none of it gets in the way of the hack-and-slash gameplay, which is really the whole point. It never got much attention outside Japan, which is the main reason I wanted to include it here. If you’re already a fan of Dynasty Warriors, this scratches exactly the same itch.

Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes (PS2)

SENGOKU VS. GENDAI

Sengoku vs. Gendai is another Japan-exclusive 3D beat-em-up, part of Capcom’s old Simple 2000 line of low-budget titles. A lot of games in that series are pretty rough, kind of like Wii shovelware, but every once in a while there’s a genuine standout, and this one’s a lot cooler than I expected. It does get repetitive since you’ll lean on one main attack most of the time, but it also throws in guns as a fun wrinkle, limited by a meter under your health bar, and holding L1 locks onto an enemy so aiming isn’t a hassle.

Overall it still feels like a budget title, but nothing about it is egregiously bad, the biggest issue is just the repetitiveness and lack of variety in moves and enemies. I actually stumbled onto this one the same day I was researching for this video, which is exactly why I love digging through the PS2 library, there’s always something new to find.

Sengoku vs. Gendai (PS2)

RAGING BLADES

Raging Blades never made it to the US, but it did release in Europe and Japan. 3D beat-em-ups have a reputation for not working well, hit detection or camera problems tend to be the norm for the genre, but this one actually feels solid. It has classes and a roster of different playable characters, so there’s more variety here than in a lot of the other beat-em-ups on this list.

I don’t hear many people talk about this game, but I really like it, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s into beat-em-ups. It’s one of the better 3D entries in the genre, and another example of how deep the PS2’s co-op library really goes.

Raging Blades (PS2)

FINAL THOUGHTS

That’s 11 co-op PS2 games you’ve probably never heard of, and this is really just part one. The PS2 library is so massive that I’m always finding new co-op games I haven’t played, so there’s a good chance more lists like this one are coming.

If there’s a game you think I should track down for part two, let me know in the comments. And if you want even more recommendations right now, check out my Top 20 Co-op PS2 Games video. Thanks for watching.

Explore more games in the PS2 co-op database.

Top 20 Couch Co-op Nintendo Switch 2 Games

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.

Heave Ho 2

#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.

Bang! Bang! Bandits

#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.

Star Fox

#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.

Brotato

#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.

Human: Fall Flat

#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.

Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed

#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.

Blood: Fresh Supply

#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.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion

#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.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate

#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.

Goat Simulator 3

#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.

Rotwood

#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.

Overcooked! 2

#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.

Scott Pilgrim EX

#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.

LEGO Voyagers

#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.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

#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.

Reanimal

#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.

Sea of Stars

#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.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

#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.

Split Fiction

#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.

Absolum

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.