Hey Fediverse, what split-screen games do you guys play? There’s a ton of “100 best couch-sloth co-op split-screen Nintendo Switch games in 2023 that will make your head explode!” articles/blogspam out there in the Googleverse, but it’s more helpful to me if I can get feedback from people who actually play these games. Like, all the Switch gamers out there with similar preferences, what do you guys play?
For me and my wife, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the gold standard. I dunno if anything can top it. I think we’re looking for a game that is split-screen, easy to pick up, has easy controls, and leans towards the casual gaming side. It doesn’t necessarily have to be co-op, so PVE is definitely welcome (think Grand Prix mode in Mario Kart). And I guess I should mention split-screen isn’t a requirement either if it’s co-op and super fun. I remember liking some of the old Lego Star Wars games back in the day, but over the years my wife’s opinion on the franchise has gone from “Meh” to “Ugh” (thanks a lot, TLJ!), so any game with a “long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” setting is not gonna do it.
I made a post similar to this several years ago on a platform whose name starts with “R” and ends with “eddit” but didn’t get too many good suggestions, so I’m hoping time, a different platform, and an overall friendlier posting environment will aid in my quest to find a Mario Kart equivalent for our household. What do y’all play? I’m all ears.
To get you started this is my co-op list:
- Kirby Forgotten Land
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Super Mario Bowsers Fury
- Child of Light
- Spiritfarer
- Treasure Tracker
- Luigis Mansion 3
- Moving Out
- Overcooked
- LEGO Games
Super Smah Bros Ultimate comes to mind, though it’s not really aimed at co-op. It’s the big splitscreen one though. Cuphead could be fun, but depending on your tolerance for “this game is trying to be hard” type stuff it may take years off your life. I think I recall having a good time with Rayman Legends.
I think based off of about 3 minutes of research you should look into Diablo 3. That game is great co-op and you’ll have all kinds of content to play through
If you’re recommending Diablo, I’d recommend Nine Parchments over that. They’re kinda similar gameplay wise, but Nine Parchments is far far far easier to get into and pick up and play. The skill trees are fairly straight forward and you don’t have to worry about equipment stats. We played it a ton a few years ago. Even after playing it for a while and then having the same group try Diablo 3 on the Switch, we went right back to Nine Parchments.
I had played Diablo 3 on the pc previously online with others, which worked. But I don’t feel like it was really as enjoyable with multiple people sharing the same screen on the Switch trying to mess with their load outs, go to shops, etc.
Nine Parchments was far easier to pick up and play. You had certain powers. Skill trees you upgraded. And that was it.
Going to agree here. My partner and I played Nine Parchments just after it released on Switch, and we had a lot of fun with it. It was shorter than we ultimately wanted - we weren’t quite ready to be done with it when we reached the end - but better to be left wanting more than feeling it overstayed its welcome.
Thanks! I remember hearing about Cuphead’s difficulty somewhere, dunno if that would be fun for us. Diablo looks awesome, but not so casual friendly. Sheeit, I just might play it myself.
I cannot recommend Luigi’s Mansion 3 enough. Probably the most fun me and my ex had playing anything together. Well made puzzles and really fun co-op mechanics. Its my favorite entry in the series by a good margin.
I also enjoyed both Mario Party games on the Switch, Superstars is the better one for sure though.IDK if released as a “cloud edition” or native, but https://www.nintendo.de/Spiele/Nintendo-Switch-Spiele/It-Takes-Two-2265759.html is probably the best co-op game we ever played with my wife.
Other than that, some of our favourites (tried to sort by relevancy to your question):
- Children of Morta
- Overcooked 2
- Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2
- River City Girls
- Death Squared (not PvE, puzzle game but a great one)
- Snipperclips (ditto)
- Super Mario Bros U Deluxe
- Luigi’s Mansion 3
- Pico Park (better with 4 players)
- Unrailed (maybe not very casual/easy though)
Other games that may not be your cup of tea but still:
- Mario Party games
- Warioware Get it Together
- Crawl
- TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge
- Super One More Jump
- Out of Space
- Enter the Gungeon
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
- Urban Flow
- Catherine Full Body (has a co-op mode)
I highly recommend catquest 2. It is an rpg adventure type game, or catventure, as they call it themselves. The game is exactly the right kind of difficult for a couch coop game (reminiscent of the legp games), controls aren’t to challenging and the main characters are a cat and a dog saving the world. Additionally the game has some great puns/dadjokes like the afore-mentioned catventure, purrrfect and other stuff like that. Also you get to fight dragons, need i say more?
It takes two is best thing out there for couch co-op!
One I haven’t seen listed you might want to check out is Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos. It’s a co-op, roguelite dungeon crawler. It’s surprisingly deep for a game we picked for about $3 on sale.
