The 10 best couch co-op video games you can play today

Split Fiction – new this month but there are many other great co-op games available (EA)

As Split Fiction proves to be just as good as It Takes Two, GameCentral recommends the best co-op games to play at home with friends and family.

When we interviewed It Takes Two and Split Fiction director Joseph Fares a few weeks ago we asked why, given the huge success of the former, nobody else was copying him. Not only are there no clones of his particular brand of split screen action but there’s never been much attempt to copy the Lego movie games either, despite multiple different entries proving to be massively successful.

Instead, couch co-op games in general are becoming increasingly rare and while co-op itself is still relatively common, particularly in online shooters, the number of new games which you can sit and play with a friend (or enemy) on the same couch decreases every year.

That’s why you’ll find most of the games on this list, which is in no particular order, are relatively old; although we’ve made a point to ensure all are playable natively on at least one console from the PlayStation 4 era. Not all of them are built purely around the idea of couch co-op (Fares’ games can be played online, without the other person having to own a copy, and most of these games have a single-player mode) but in each case playing together is the prime appeal.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Starting all the way back in 2005 on the PlayStation 2, the original Lego Star Wars game spawned a series of over 20 different titles, based on everything from Batman to Marvel to The Lord Of The Rings. At one point, new games were being released every single year but the output has slowed to a crawl since then, with 2022’s The Skywalker Saga being the only recent entry (although a new Harry Potter title is rumoured).

That’s okay though, because this is one of the best entries in the series and so stuffed full of content it manages to adapt all nine mainline films into one game. It takes its couch co-op seriously, with no online options, but that’s fine because the simple gameplay is far better with someone else sitting by your side and it’s accessible enough that almost anyone can play it, no matter their age or gaming experience.

Resident Evil: Revelations 2

Resident Evil 5 is more famous as the series’ big experiment with co-op gameplay (Resident Evil 6 has even more options but it’s a considerably less entertaining game) but 2015’s Resident Evil: Revelations 2 gets unfairly overlooked – in large part because it was originally sold episodically. It’s a genuinely good game, with no caveats, and the co-op puzzle and combat design is excellent.

The story campaign is split up into two teams: Claire Redfield and Barry Burton’s daughter Moira, and Barry himself and mysterious new character Natalia. Moria and Natalia can’t use guns, and only have limited combat abilities, but between the four they all have different skills that leads to some clever teamwork-based puzzles. Unlike Resident Evil 5 and 6 the game’s even relatively scary at times, if you and your co-op partner are talking it seriously – or amusingly camp if you’re not.

Overcooked 2

A lot of the best couch co-op games are also party games, which ever since the end of the Wii era have also become increasingly rare. Many bigger publishers and developers tend to look down on the concept but Overcooked, by indie team Ghost Town Games, is just about as much fun as two (or three or four) people can have together, while playing a video game.

All you’re doing is making recipes in a restaurant – collecting ingredients, preparing meals, washing dishes, and the like – but this takes place in increasingly fantastical locations, so that you’re having to throw dishes at each other across lava flows or between moving vehicles. Overclocked was so popular it spawned a whole line of copycats, of which Moving Out 2 is easily the best, but the All You Can Eat edition of Overcooked is the best place to start, as it includes both the original games and some extra content.

Diablo 4

Even more so than Overcooked, Diablo is practically a genre in its own right. Technically, it’s an action role-player, but while it’s always had some co-op features they weren’t really brought to the fore, and didn’t become offline options, until Diablo 3 and the series’ push onto consoles. Although there’s enough loot, weapons, armour, and magic abilities to fill out a dozen other role-players the core gameplay of Diablo is very simple, as you grind your way through dungeons, fighting and looting everything in your path.

Since the basic gameplay is so easy to copy the franchise is a favourite source of inspiration for indie developers, but 2012’s Torchlight 2 is still probably the best alternative, especially as it’s more family friendly and not encumbered by developer Blizzard’s po-faced storytelling. It’s considerably more popular than Torchlight 3, to the point where it got new Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch versions in 2019.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Nintendo has plenty of co-op games to its name but its approach to the concept tends to be on a case-by-case basis, with no one franchise specialising in it. Most of the modern 2D Super Mario games have it though, with the superb Super Mario Bros. Wonder allowing up to four people to play at once and cleverly accommodating many people of different skill levels, with various special abilities and options.

The isometric Super Mario 3D World is another good one, while most of the Kirby and Donkey Kong Country games also have couch co-op options. It’s not just platform games though, as the co-op in Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a lot of fun too, for a more puzzle-based game, while the Super Mario Party series owes its long-running success to people both competing and co-operating in teams, while playing dozens of different mini-games.

Portal 2

One of the oldest games on this list, many people seem to forget that Portal 2 has a whole separate co-op campaign made for two players. It’s not just a bunch of new levels either, as it has its own characters (the robots Atlas and P-Body) and story, set after the events of the single-player mode; there’s also the Peer Review DLC that continues on beyond even that.

Although the gameplay is essentially the same as the single-player, with the use of both portals and gels, all the maps and puzzles are completely different. Despite the game’s fame the only native version on a current console is the Portal: Companion Collection on Nintendo Switch, which includes both Portal 1 and 2. The Xbox 360 version works via backwards compatibility on modern Xbox consoles but, sadly, there’s no easy way to get it on PlayStation 4 or 5.

Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime

Not the most famous game on this list but definitely one of the best and certainly the only one whose name is inspired by a Bruce Cockburn song. The game puts you and up to three friends in charge of a large, spherical spaceship that takes up most of the middle of the screen. You each control a crewmember but there are always more control stations and jobs to do than there are people, so you all have to run around the ship to take command of the engines, weapons, shields, and other equipment.

The gleeful chaos of running around in a panic, trying to get things done while yelling instructions to your fellow players, is reminiscent of Overcooked et al. but it’s all presented in a completely different context, as you explore the galaxy trying to save cute fluffy animals. Strangely, developer Asteroid Base has never made anything else, despite the original game coming out in 2015 and them still seeming to be in business… which is a shame.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

There are many reasons why Halo Infinite never managed to fully resurrect the fortunes of the series but prime amongst them is the fact that, despite early promises to do so, it never got around to adding a campaign co-op mode – which for many was one of the big appeals of the original Halo games. In fact, the option was so popular that many other shooters started to add campaign co-op as well, most obviously Gears Of War (which is rumoured to be getting a multiformat remaster collection soon).

It now seems only a matter of time before Halo turns up on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 and it’s already rumoured that it will do so via a new remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. That’s bound to have local co-op, but for now Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One and PC already does, in what is the definitive co-op experience in a first person shooter.

Snipperclips Plus

Another lesser known title but this Nintendo Switch launch game is both a great couch co-op game and an excellent illustration of why the Switch’s tabletop mode is such a useful gimmick, especially when you’ve got instant access to two fully-featured controllers.

There are a few different modes in Snipperclips but the main one has you controlling two weirdly shaped characters who can snip bits off the other player by rotating their body, so that when its shape is removed from the other character it helps solve the on-screen puzzle.

The simplest of these is merely fitting into an outlined shape but other times you have to make bowl-like shapes to catch a ball or a sharp point to pop a bunch of balloons. Like any good puzzle game it all makes instant sense when you’re playing it, even if it sounds impenetrably odd when you explain it.

Split Fiction

As we’ve shown, there are lots of different types of couch co-op games, but none are quite the same as those made by Joseph Fares’ Hazelight Studios. Their first game, A Way Out, was a bit of a mixed bag but It Takes Two is a fantastic co-op game.

Split Fiction is not a sequel, but it does work in a similar way, with a proper story campaign, just like a normal game, but where you’re competing in a dizzying array of different game types across both sci-fi and fantasy worlds.

The mixture of genres in Split Fiction is even more impressive than its predecessor, as it switches from platform game to dual stick shooter to puzzle game to racer and everything else in-between. And yet, somehow, it’s never confusing and all the different gameplay styles have at least a certain amount of depth. Since it can’t be played on your own this is one game you absolutely need to play with someone else.

Split Fiction – two can play at once (EA)

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