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!
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.
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
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
Cinnabunny
sequel looks so adorable. Lots of animal crossing vibes. Definitely wishlisting that!
Check out Kingdom Two Crowns. Absolutely brilliant
I second this. I’ve played it with three mates now and they all loved it
This one looks for me, actually :P
The whole series is great. But two Crowns is multi player. But, thinking, might only be split screen on one device?
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?
A way out. Two criminals escaping prison, made by the Same studio as it takes two and split fiction. Full of mini games along the way like the other two and my god the story made me laugh with it’s ridiculousness. it’s definitely not as good as it takes two or split fiction but well worth a go imo
The steam deck status is unfortunately unsupported. Otherwise it would be a great fit.
A bunch of retro games have good couch co-op support & the steam deck can emulate pretty much all of them
Zombies ate my neighbors, smash TV, 2-d brawlers like TMNT turtles in time, double dragon, and streets of rage, Goldeneye, toejam and Earl, bubble bobble
Ballers gate 3? Pretty sure that runs on. Steam deck.
If you don’t want something too serious, you can try
- Fling to the Finish
- Keywe.
Both are cute and kind of funny, doesn’t get too difficult as long as you don’t chase highscores.
Unrailed is less chaotic than overcooked, but can still get a little stressful as tasks pile up.
Oh yeah KeyWe is great fun! Some levels took me and my partner two tries but it’s nothing too punishing. Highly recommended
Me and the wife played a few coop games.
- DERU - The Art of Cooperation is a pretty puzzle game that is satisfying, not too difficult nor does it overstay its welcome.
- We also enjoyed the snake-esque puzzler OmoTomO. Only on itch, not Steam, so you have to install it via the desktop mode. When you’re willing to dig a bit itch grants you some shiny gold nuggets for cheap.
- In Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime you have to run around a spaceship to operate the different parts (engine, guns, shield). More straightforward than it sounds, and the pacing is such that you’re not rushed but do get some tense moments.
- Almost forgot Pode which is a very cute 3rd person puzzle adventure game.
Some games recommended by other people in the thread that we can corroborate
- Trine series is good platforming fun with pretty graphics and dialog that is a little on the nose sometimes.
- Kingdom: Two Crowns is good for a few hours at least, can’t say I cared about beating it because the levels just keep coming with only minor variations. Definitely a unique blend of tower defense and base building.
Personally I agree on Overcooked, once the novelty wears off it gets a bit frustrating because of the difficulty. Its still fun in groups though.
My wife and I were having fun doing co-op on the Trine games. Coordinating your character switches to cross obstacles can be pretty fun. The Lego Star Wars games were also fun for us both to just mess around and cause chaos.
Trine sounds like a great idea, I already have the first two. Gonna give it a go.
We tried the lego lord of the rings game but it fell flat for us.
We enjoyed A Way Out. Gonna try Sea of stars soon.
Ship of Fools is -60% on steam right now and I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s a rogue lite where you both need to protect a ship from monsters maning the cannons and it’s an absolute blast! It has good progression and it’s intense but not in annoying sort of way.
It looks sick, definitely something I’d enjoy playing. Unfortunately I feel like it would fall under the same umbrella as Overcooked or Moving Out. Too chaotic, I think.
Its much more approachable and not nearly as frustrating or difficult as those. We finished the game while being stoned if that tells you anything lol