10. Yoshi’s Crafted World
Yoshi’s Crafted World is a simple and cute 2D platformer that’s perfect for a cozy evening of gaming with your partner. It’s an especially great game if they aren’t much of a gamer as it’s one of Nintendo’s easier titles. In co-op, each of you takes control of a Yoshi and makes your way through the levels just as you would in single-player.
It is an adorable and vibrant game where you take Yoshi through worlds made of arts and crafts materials like wool, string, and cardboard. It’s simple but it has a wide enough variety of levels and boss fights to keep things interesting throughout. It’s especially great if your partner isn’t great at games. Co-op allows one player to hop on the back of their partner’s Yoshi to help them get across sections they might have trouble with. If you’re both seasoned gamers then it might be a breeze to get through but it will provide a nice cozy gaming date.
9. Gears of War
What better way to spend the day of love with your partner than by cutting Locust in half with a chainsaw? The entire Gears of War series is playable in local co-op allowing you and your partner to load any one of them up and start popping off headshots.
The games have a suitably 80s action-esque story but there’s a lot of heart in them as well. Whether you’re playing through the original trilogy or the newer ones, you’ll grow to love the characters. The real draw of course is the gameplay and the Gears of War games offer some of the tightest cover-based shooting you’ll play. If you don’t want to play through the campaigns you could try to survive together in horde mode or even go online and team up against other players. No matter what you do, you’re bound to have a good time.
8. Halo
What better way to spend the day of love with your partner than by mowing down the Covenant army? Minus Halo Infinite, the entire Halo series is playable in local co-op and it is an absolute blast. The story of the series is epic sci-fi and the gameplay is fast-paced first-person shooting at its finest.
While the games are fun solo, co-op is where they really shine. Jumping around the large open battlefields together and taking down the wide variety of enemies absolutely never gets old. The ragdoll physics of defeated enemies provides endless laughs and entertainment. They’re also great for Valentine’s Day as the anchor of the series is the love that Master Chief and Cortana share for one another. Once you’re done with the campaigns you can hop online to team up and tackle Halo’s famous online multiplayer together.
7. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Kirby is not only the most powerful video game character ever created but he’s also one of the cutest. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the best Kirby game yet, with large vibrant levels, tons of abilities, mouthful mode, and some absolutely terrific boss fights. The only thing that would make it better is playing with a partner.
The local drop-in/drop-out co-op allows anyone to partner up with Kirby as Bandana Waddle Dee. Like Yoshi, Kirby has always been one of Nintendo’s easier so this will provide a laid-back adventure for you and your partner to take together. If you want a real challenge you can take on the hardest difficulty arena to defeat every boss and an Eldritch God in one go. Either way, this is an adorable, charming, and fun game. Just like Yoshi, it’s perfect for a cozy date night.
6. Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
One of the best licensed games of all time, Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game is a retro style beat em’up that’s one of the very best of the genre. Featuring seven playing characters each with a unique playstyle, an incredible chiptune soundtrack, and seven varied levels, it’s hard to have a bad time playing this.
It’s a classic beat em’up with modern sensibilities. It has different levels of difficulty, and an upgrade system that makes the game easier the more you play. New enemies are introduced at a steady pace so it never gets repetitive and the boss fights are all creative. The beat em’up genre is a co-op staple for a reason and this is a prime example. Button-mashing away at enemies is always more fun when you have someone else to do it with.
5. Diablo 3
Diablo 3 is an endlessly addicting game with its seven character classes all offering completely different playstyles and loot, hordes of enemies, and boss fights, you could play Diablo 3 forever and never stop having fun. Why not double that fun by playing it in co-op with your partner? You can play all of Diablo 3 in co-op. Nothing about the game changes except now you’re playing with someone else.
It’s one of the best games to play together because you can go through the story together or just go around killing demons and getting loot. You can make builds that complement each other, or go wild and have fun experimenting. There are tons of difficulty levels so you can tailor it based on how skilled your partner is. The real beauty of Diablo 3 is that you can make your playtime as involved or casual as you want.
4. TMNT Shredder’s Revenge
Like Scott Pilgrim before it, TMNT Shredder’s Revenge is a retro-inspired beat em’up. It’s inspired by the 1987 animated series and the spiritual successor to the all-time classic game Turtles in Time. With beautifully animated pixel graphics brimming with personality, an energetic soundtrack, and seven distinct playable characters, Shredder’s Revenge is nothing short of a blast.
As I said about Scott Pilgrim, the beat em’up is one of the ultimate co-op game genres. Shredder’s Revenge takes this beyond just the joy of beating up enemies together as it even has team-up moves that you can execute and the ability to share health by high-fiving. It has different difficulties and a leveling system that makes you stronger and unlocks more moves to help take down enemies. With a retro-inspired arcade mode and a story mode to get through, Shredder’s Revenge is totally tubular.
2. Overcooked
Overcooked is the best game to play if you really want to test the strength of your relationship. A cutesy cooking game on the surface things can get very intense, very quickly. You both need to be quick and coordinated and your communication with each other must be on point throughout. Even the slightest error can cause everything to come crumbling down.
Getting orders right and completing the levels on time and with a high star rating will be a challenge for even the strongest of gaming couples. Things can go from fun couples activity to fighting about who screwed up pretty quickly. But if you feel you’re up to it then there aren’t many better co-op experiences for a couple to play together. You can opt for either Overcooked or Overcooked 2 and if you have a PS5 or Xbox Series X you can get both in the Overcooked: All You Can Eat Collection which also includes all DLC.
1. It Takes Two
It Takes Two is for my money the ultimate co-op game. It’s only available to play in co-op for starters so you must have a partner to play. It’s great no matter how good your partner may be at video games since it’s simple enough while still having some challenge. It Takes Two isn’t just a game that you play together, it requires you to work together to progress. Each level introduces a new gameplay mechanic that you’ll use to progress. All of these mechanics require cooperation.
There’s a level where you each have the opposite end of a magnet, a level where one player has a hammer, the other a nail gun, a level where one player has a gun that shoots sap, and the other player has a gun that detonates sap. Those are just a few examples of how each level takes proper collaboration and communication to complete. There are also mini-games in each level that let you get a bit competitive with each other. With a sweet story of a married couple being turned into dolls and forced to work on their relationship, beautiful graphics, and extremely varied levels, seriously you will never do the same thing twice in this game, It Takes Two is the co-op game that everyone should play.
Rongo 