Want to test your ability to cooperate with your friends, or bond over challenges and grow together as a team? Well, we’ve compiled a list of four player cooperative games that should jump start any house party. While some are more complex and others are a little simpler to get into, there’s bound to be something that suits everyones tastes in these fantastic cooperative affairs.
Overcooked 2
Starting out with a much-loved party game, Overcooked 2 provides couch cooperative gameplay that has players band together as struggling chefs to save the world! Four of you will work together to prepare meals and serve customers in frenetic environments, with tons of challenging levels to tackle together!
Don’t be fooled by the cartoony art style and chipper music. Beneath the surface, Overcooked 2 is all about creating systems, assigning roles and really working together. If you’re going in with a competitive spirit, be prepared for frantic discussions as everyone works to earn points in a limited timeframe!
Moving Out
Another couch cooperative game from the developers of Overcooked, this one leans into the aspect of pure, physics-based chaos! This time, you’re a team of house movers coming up in the world. In getting all the furniture into a house, you’ll argue over the best way to move a couch, smash a few windows and break plenty of doors!
Moving Out is a race against time, trying to successfully move all the furniture in the shortest time possible. So pool your most creative (and destructive) friends and blast through the levels to become the best movers in the town of Packmore!
Catastronauts
In the spirit of the last two games, Catastronauts takes you from the mundane into the depths of space. Your spaceship is under attack, and you and your crew have to not only keep it intact, but manage the weapons and fight back!
As a team, you’ll frantically run around your spaceship putting out fires, managing repairs and priming your weapon systems to return fire. Catastronauts is another game that will challenge your ability to work together and create systems to solve puzzles and defeat the timer! Can you keep your ship intact long enough to win out against your enemy?
LOVERS in a Dangerous Spacetime
More space-based couch co-op for your pleasure! Yet again, you’re a spacefaring crew in a neon battleship, traversing a dangerous galaxy together! LOVERS gives you more autonomy over your ship, having the players work together to navigate hostile environments while coordinating repairs and firing off weapons!
It’s a frantic game of managing battlestations, shields and engines! Can you and your friends manage a spaceship, fight off dozens of alien monsters and save all the space-bunnies together?
Castle Crashers
An oldie, but a goodie! It’s a classic side scrolling Beat ‘Em Up game, but with plenty of surprises and a sense of humour to boot! You’re a group of knights rampaging across the countryside, desperately trying to rescue the four kidnapped princesses from the evil sorcerer—classic stuff.
Along the way you’ll learn new skills, acquire new tools, pick up dozens of unique pets and defeat a ton of enemies. While the cooperative aspect will be somewhat challenged at times (you’re not so much working together as competing to beat up as many enemies as possible), it’s definitely a journey worth seeing through to the end!
Left 4 Dead 2
We’re moving away from couch specific titles and more into games that are considered Online Co-op. These are a little more of a time commitment and require four separate copies to play, but should have you and your friends working together nonetheless!
Another timeless classic that has to be mentioned; Left 4 Dead 2 is more than a decade old now, and there’s a good reason for its legendary status as the inspiration for many cooperative games today. As a team of survivors, you’ll fight through waves of zombies through unique locations, all sticking and working together to stay alive in the face of an apocalypse…
Left 4 Dead 2 is an action horror First Person Shooter, so it’s best to dim the lights, crank the brightness, and enjoy the ride through an absolute classic of a cooperative game.
Deep Rock Galactic
Danger. Darkness. Dwarves. Deep Rock Galactic is another action FPS that draws inspiration from the aforementioned L4D2. This time, you’re a team of professional Dwarven (don’t ask why) mercenaries in space, venturing into the deep underground of a hostile alien planet to mine resources and fight off swarms of alien bugs.
Don’t take this game lightly! Procedurally generated caves, tons of enemies and challenging terrain means you and your friends will be forced to work together in hostile xeno environments. Dive deep, stick together and try not to be afraid of the dark, or what might be lurking within it...
