The Couch Co-Op Thread

[Jupiter Jazz | 17]

Couch Co-Op. It brought family and friends together for decades, and was arguably the initial reason for the success of home video game consoles among families. Today, while this game format may be in decline due to online alternatives, there is still something to be said for playing with a buddy or significant other as a bonding activity.

Drop your couch co-op recommendations below! I will update the list in the post following this one. Also please share your stories of good times playing co-op games.

Criteria: Must be easily playable on a TV from a couch or recliner.

Must be playable without networking capabilities (LAN parties are a different, but very fun beast!)

 

Edited April 4 by Jupiter Jazz
added details

[Jupiter Jazz | 17]

Games will be listed by main genre and alphabetically, with initial releases listed. Be advised that there may be additional platforms and versions.

2D Hack and Slash

• Castle Crashers (Xbox 360)

2D Platformer

• Kirby Super Star (SNES)
• Kirby’s Return to Dreamland (Wii)
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
• Spelunky (Windows)
• Super Mario Wonder (Nintendo Switch)

3D Platformer

• Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)

Action

• Toejam & Earl (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Action Adventure 

• The Adventures of Cookie & Cream (PS2)
• Full Metal Furies (Multiplatform)
• It Takes Two (Multiplatform)
• The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES)
• Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (Multiplatform)
• Trine 1 (PC/PS3)
• Trine 2 (PC/PS3)
• Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power (PC/PS4)
• Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince (Multiplatform)

Action RPG

• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (PS2/Xbox)
• Diablo III (PS3/Xbox 360)
• Diablo IV (Multiplatform)
• Divinity: Original Sin (Windows)

Beat-Em-Up

• Battletoads (NES) - for masochists
• Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons (Multiplatform)
• Final Fight CD (Sega CD/Mega-CD)
• Final Fight 2 (SNES)
• Final Fight 3 (SNES)
• Golden Axe (Genesis/Mega Drive)
• Golden Axe II (Genesis/Mega Drive)
• Golden Axe III (Genesis/Mega Drive)
• Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (Astro City Mini)
• River City Girls (Multiplatform)
• River City Girls Zero (Super Famicom)
• River City Girls 2 (Multiplatform)
• Streets of Rage 4 (Multiplatform)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Multiplatform)

Fighting

• Gigabash
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl/for Wii U/Ultimate (Wii/Wii U/Switch) - Event Match Mode

FPS

• Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (Multiplatform)

Interactive Drama

• The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Platformer

• Bubble Bobble (Famicom Disc System/NES)
• Shovel Knight (Multiplatform)
• Super Mario Bros. (NES)
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
• Super Mario World (SNES)
• Sonic Superstars (Multiplatform)
• Unravel Two (Multiplatform)

Puzzle 

• Death Squared (Multiplatform)
• Goof Troop (SNES)
• Snipperclips (Switch)

Run and Gun

• Contra (NES)
• Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)
• Contra Hard Corps (Genesis/Mega Drive)
• Gunstar Heroes (Genesis/Mega Drive)
• Super Contra (NES)

Shooter

• Guardian Force (Sega Saturn)
• Jamestown/Jamestown+ (Multiplatform

• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (Multiplatform)

Shooting Gallery 

• Wild Guns (SNES) / Wild Guns Reloaded (PS4)

Simulation

• Heavenly Bodies (Multiplatform)
• Overcooked 
• Overcooked 2
• Stardew Valley (Multiplatform)

Stealth

• Untitled Goose Game (Multiplatform)

Survival

• Project Zomboid (Windows)

Turn-Based RPG

• Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Windows)
• Baldur's Gate 3 (Multiplatform)

Edited April 7 by Jupiter Jazz

[Gloves | 11,801]

I love shmups and a lot of them have co-op capabilities, but sadly I have nobody to actually be my player 2 (wife refuses to touch shmups lol).

That said, I've been playing Guardian Force on the Sega Saturn lately. It's pretty okay overall, the interesting bit is that Player 1 and 2 actually have different weapons to each other. You can pick up different weapon types, but even if you pick up the same color weapon, you'll both have something different to bring to the table. Player 2 is a bit more defensive but weaker than P1. It's pretty interesting.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

My boys and I do a lot of 4 player.  Big hits over the last year or two:

1. Super Mario 3D World
2. Super Mario Wonder
3. Jamestown+
4. Streets of Rage 4
5. TMNT Shredder's Revenge
6. Castle Crashers
7. Wild Guns Reloaded

[Jupiter Jazz | 17]

For me, Kirby Super Star is one of my most nostalgic co-op games, going back to trying to 100% The Great Cave Offensive with my hometown friend. Many nail-biting moments, but nothing that is too frustrating.

Kirby games are pretty chill, so it’s pretty easy to get someone to play, and the Helper function can be swapped back to CPU control if Player 2 loses interest or needs to take a break. It’s divided into multiple smaller stand-alone games that start simple for new or young gamers and scales up to tougher collect-a-thons for more skilled players. It’s very flexible like that.

[Jupiter Jazz | 17]

21 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

My boys and I do a lot of 4 player.  Big hits over the last year or two:

1. Super Mario 3D World
2. Super Mario Wonder
3. Jamestown+
4. Streets of Rage 4
5. TMNT Shredder's Revenge
6. Castle Crashers
7. Wild Guns Reloaded

Oh yeah I had forgotten all about Jamestown. I remember getting a bluetooth controller set up for Steam specifically for that one.

[Ankos | 452]

As far as co-op is concerned I mostly stuck to Nintendo/Nintendo adjacent stuff growing up. I played a lot more on handhelds than on home consoles though, and while though you can play GBA games on the TV with the right stuff, I did not

Off the dome I'd say that New Super Mario Bros, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, and the event matches in the Smash Bros titles were some stand out co-op stuff.

Spelunky is also real fun, as far as non-Nintendo goes, I'd give it a strong recommendation. You sort of have to watch out for other players when doing co-op, but it isn't like Battletoads where its considered a big part of the experience

[DefaultGen | 5,415]

Me and my wife dumped a ton of hours into these:

Divinity: Original Sin 2
Baldur's Gate 3
Stardew Valley
Project Zomboid

Other favorites:

Snipperclips
Untitled Goose Game
Death Squared
Toejam & Earl

Other good games:

Overcooked 1/2
Heavenly Bodies
Goof Troop
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 1 and 2
Diablo 3 and 4 (IIRC D3 local co-op inventory management is brutal. It pauses the game for everyone)
Lego Star Wars
It Takes Two (A little difficult for her)
Divinity: Original Sin (just play 2, it's completely unrelated)
Trine 1-4

[GPX | 1,371]

Megadrive:

- Golden Axe franchise 

- Gunstar Heroes

- Contra Hard Corps

SNES

- Contra 3

- Mystical Ninja

- Final Fight 2 and 3

Multiplatform

- Bubble Bobble 

[goathouse774 | 3]

I haven’t posted in a forum like this in…. over a decade?  But, I saw this and was compelled to start my awareness campaign for what I feel is the strongest video game hidden gem I’ve come across in a long while.  Full Metal Furies is an astonishingly good game for how little it gets discussed, and that’s without ever getting to the much-vaunted, semi-hidden puzzle half of the game, which we haven’t even touched.  As a straight-up, 4-player brawler, it’s already one of the best games I’ve ever played, and certainly among the top 5 4-player couch-op games in history.

[G-type | 2,486]

13 hours ago, Jupiter Jazz said:

Battletoads (NES)

I don't recommend this in co-op mode at all.

• The ability to hurt your buddy
• not letting the other player keep going if one dies
• and level 11 just flat out not working.

The game is already hard enough in single player mode. Co-op is basically unplayable.

[G-type | 2,486]

My son really loves Overcooked and always trying to get me to play it with him... but its just so hard!

Adventures of Cookie and Cream is a great way to get into a fight with your wife.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is an interesting teamwork game

[fox | 1,668]

It Takes Two - 3D Platformer
Tiny Tina's Wonderland - FPS
Double Dragon Gaiden - Beat em up
River City Girls 2 - Beat em up
TMNT Shreddr's Revenge - Beat em up
Streets of Rage 4 - Beat em up
Dark Pictures: House of Ash - Interactive Drama
Gigabash - Fighter
Sonic Superstars - 2D Platformer
Shovel Knight - 2D Platformer
Super Mario Wonder - 2D Platformer
Unravel 2 - 2D Platformer

Edited April 4 by fox

[Jupiter Jazz | 17]

On 4/4/2024 at 10:24 AM, G-type said:

I don't recommend this in co-op mode at all.

• The ability to hurt your buddy
• not letting the other player keep going if one dies
• and level 11 just flat out not working.

The game is already hard enough in single player mode. Co-op is basically unplayable.

I toadilly get it. In my case sometimes a brutal challenge is what I am looking for, but it's definitely not for all, or even most, audiences!

[TDIRunner | 2,746]

I talked about this in another thread.  I hadn't played Rock Band or Guitar Hero in about 15 years, but I've kept all of my stuff all of this time.  About a week ago, I got the urge to get all of my old guitars, drums and microphones out of storage and try them out again.  I had forgotten how much fun those games could be.  As we all know, the market got saturated with new GH and RB releases, and everyone seems to burn out right about the same time and that style of game seemed to disappear overnight.  

With all of that said, my kids saw the guitars and drums and sure enough they wanted to try it out.  Despite owning some of this stuff for about 17 years, for the first time in my entire life, I had the chance to play Rock Band with three players at the same time.  We took turns playing guitar, drums and signing and it was a ton of fun.  My kids are pretty young.  My 10 year old was ok with the guitar if it was set to easy, but my 7 year old just doesn't have the coordination yet.  It was still a lot of fun, and if you have the equipment and the people, I highly recommend trying these games out again.  Unfortunately, the RB and GH instruments are fairly expensive today, which is a shame because there was a time when you could find a dozen guitars at Goodwill for $2 each.  

All versions of Rock Band can play up to 4 players.  Early versions of Guitar Hero were only two players with guitar only and later versions added drum and microphones for 4 player action.  However, all home console versions offer couch co-op playability.  

 

Side note:  The kick pedal on my PS3 Rock Band drum doesn't work and I'm looking for a replacement.  

Edited April 8 by TDIRunner

[T-Pac | 7,572]

On 4/3/2024 at 7:23 PM, Gloves said:

I love shmups and a lot of them have co-op capabilities, but sadly I have nobody to actually be my player 2 (wife refuses to touch shmups lol).

Same here. The only time I've ever played a Co-Op shoot-em-up was Life Force [NES] with my college roommate once, but I'd love to try 2-player stuff like Raiden or Twinbee someday.

[T-Pac]

On 4/4/2024 at 3:57 AM, GPX said:

- Bubble Bobble 

Good call - this is my "go-to" co-op game. It's fun and forgiving and approachable for almost anyone. (Well, at least the NES port is until the later levels).

[T-Pac]

[Gloves | 11,801]

4 hours ago, T-Pac said:

Same here. The only time I've ever played a Co-Op shoot-em-up was Life Force [NES] with my college roommate once, but I'd love to try 2-player stuff like Raiden or Twinbee someday.

[T-Pac]

Good call - this is my "go-to" co-op game. It's fun and forgiving and approachable for almost anyone. (Well, at least the NES port is until the later levels).

[T-Pac]

If you wanna try out netplay sometime lemme know, maybe we can get it working without it being too laggy. 

[T-Pac | 7,572]

18 hours ago, Gloves said:

If you wanna try out netplay sometime lemme know, maybe we can get it working without it being too laggy. 

That sounds like a cool idea, but I'm not so sure the skill level discrepancy between the two of us would be ... uh ... tolerable haha.

[T-Pac]

[Gloves | 11,801]

23 minutes ago, T-Pac said:

That sounds like a cool idea, but I'm not so sure the skill level discrepancy between the two of us would be ... uh ... tolerable haha.

[T-Pac]

I'm pretty chill with stuff like that lol.