My SO and I have been having a lot of fun playing co-op games on the Steam Deck connected to the TV. We recently finished Split Fiction and I’m looking for the next cool experience to try out. We enjoy casual co-op games, nothing too hard or violent. EDIT: pixel art is apparently a big turnoff for her so that’s out as well.
Games We Enjoyed:
- Split Fiction
- It takes two
- Untitled Goose Game
Games that flopped:
- Stardew Valley - She is open to “farming” games but doesn’t enjoy the energy management aspect of the game. It also gave her motion sickness, somehow
- Overcooked / Moving out - We enjoy these games but as they start to get more chaotic and hard, the enjoyment goes way down
- Ibb & Obb - A bit dull and samey
- Portal - Gives me serious motion sickness, completely unplayable
- Lego Lord of the Rings - I’m a lord of the rings fan but I hated the gameplay for this game, I found it to be so boring. We quit after an hour or so.
Unravel 2 :) It’s a beautiful little co-op game with lots of puzzle-y problems to solve and some dynamic ones as well
It went on sale yesterday so I ended up buying it!
Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time
Manage your malfunctioning space ship together while fending off waves of enemies.
Very fun.
My gf is pretty new to video games but these are a few she enjoyed
Trine 2/3
Snippets
Castle crashers
Unravelled
Diablo 3
Children of morta - my gf also doesn’t really like pixel art but this turned out to be one of her favourite games
Spelunky 1 & 2
Monster Prom, Monster Camp, Monster Roadtrip
Also seconding Kingdom: Two Crowns
OP asks for “nothing too hard” and you recommend spelunky, you absolute monster.
Fortunately I already made that mistake once, a friend recommended me Spelunky 2 as a casual mining game…
😈
We just started the spiritfarer. Absolutely worth it
I already played and loved SpiritFarer, it was an amazing journey. I don’t want to say too much but I just can’t repeat it any time soon.
Broaden your horizons, start using emulators.
Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Super Mario Wonder
Any of the Warriors games (just don’t buy it, don’t reward them for releasing the same damn game 20+ times)
Legend of Mana (highly recommended, please don’t sleep on this)
Destroy All Humans 2
Ratchet: Deadlocked
Divinity: Original Sin
Resident Evil 6
Halo: Master Chief Collection
Lego Star Wars
The Tales games are long and go up to 4 players. I’d recommend them if you have more people to join.
Be prepared for a few roadbumps while you acclimate yourself to using emulators. It won’t be smooth at first, but it gets easier the more familiar you become with it.
Broaden your horizons, start using emulators.
I get what you’re saying. I do have RetroDeck fully set up but I only use for old games that I do physically own. Most of them haven’t aged very well and aren’t of any interest to my SO.
I have enough disposable money that I’d rather support “new” games/developers rather than emulating titles for other consoles.
One of my favorite games to play with my SO is Out of Space the vibe is very similar to Overcooked but it’s procedurally generated and a lot more chilled out, i.e. less chaos.
If you enjoy escape rooms try out Escape Academy, haven’t seen anyone mention it but it’s really a blast!
I’m not even a huge platformer guy, but Rayman Legends is absolute peak and a fantastic, chill co-op game. The music levels in particular - where the already great soundtrack is synced in time to your jumps and hits - are incredibly satisfying and so well made.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t suggest Blue Prince. It’s not co-op per se as it’d only be one person at a time “driving”, but the game is about puzzle solving so who holds the controller doesn’t really matter. It’s a fantastic game if you enjoy puzzles and escape rooms. My sister isn’t even a gamer at all but I recommended it to her fiancé and they’ve been playing together and even she’s been enjoying it a lot. From my own experience playing it on my own I also think it would be much more fun if playing alongside someone else. I’ve often missed having someone to bounce ideas off when stuck.
On the notion of “one person at a time driving,” I played Outer Wilds with my partner. 10/10. Just make sure that when there is text, both people can read it before you move on.
The cult of the lamb
Death Squared. Puzzle solving, each player controls two blocks on the map used to solve the puzzle.
Degrees of Seperation - 2D puzzler with wonderful scenes and visuals
Heavenly Bodies - 2D puzzler about astronauts and 0 gravity environments
Unrailed - isometric 3D. A train starts driving and you need to gather resources and build tracks etc.
Wobbly Life - 3D fun game, no real objective, just many quests and activities throughout the world
A few options me and my partner have enjoyed:
Bunhouse - a non-management-heavy farming simulator but you are bunnies growing plants. Cute as hell. There is a sequel where you run a bakery too but we haven’t got round to that just yet.
Unrailed - might fall into the overcooked catagory, but when it gets hard and goes wrong it tends to be a looming inevitablity, not a frantic panic
Nidhogg - a 1v1 fighter, but is quick fire frantic sword fights you can button bash through which is wildly entertaining in 5 min bursts.
The
Cinnabunnysequel looks so adorable. Lots of animal crossing vibes. Definitely wishlisting that!
If you’re open to doing emulation, there’s a multitude of Nintendo games that are amazing couch co-op.
I have RetroDeck set up but I’m honestly not into emulation. I do own a Nintendo Switch and we’ve played a couple of those. They’re fun but I’m not looking into supporting Nintendo for the time being.
That’s fair. But since you do have a Switch, I’d still recommend finding a used copy of Yoshi’s Crafted World if you haven’t played it.
Any suggestions?
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Super Mario Wonder
… Genital Jousting.
