I’m looking for some nice local co-op games for 2-4 players. Please tell me your favourite ones that work well with controllers on a docked Steam Deck!
Edit: Massive thanks for the suggestions! I’ve wishlisted/bought most of the ones suggested here that I don’t already own.
A good one that hasn’t been mentioned here is Ship of Fools. Played it for the first time with my partner today and 4hrs flew by.
My daughter and I have played through quite a few games. Here are our favorites:
- ANY LEGO game, we have played through many of these
- The TRINE series. They are fun puzzle platforms
- portal 2 co-op. There is a campaign and other maps on the workshop
- brothers: a tale of two sons. Sit right next to each other and share the controller
- Unraveled 2, puzzle platform errors
- It takes two is an amazing game from EA.
- sackboy: a big adventure
- battle block theater is a fun romp
- bleep bloop
- degrees of separation, mostly fun there was a few annoying puzzles, but many can be skipped
- guacamole is a nice battle platformer
- ibb and obb is a very unique puzzle platformer
- octodad is pretty great fun
- pixel junk monsters is a tower defense style co op game
- putty pals is a fun if childish looking game
- spelunky is a rogue like
- toodee and topdee is a fun puzzler
Those are our favorites!
Seconding It Takes Two, a fantastic game. Played with GF who’s not gamer at all, enjoyed the hell out of it.
Ember Knights is a rogue lite heavily inspired by the gameplay of hades. Supports up to 4 players.
Plate Up is somewhat simmiliar to overcooked, but is more about process optimisation and not about dealing with the oddities of a stage.
Most lego games also offer local coop and are good fun.
30xx is a roguelite with gameplay simmiliar to MegaMan X that can be played by 2 players.
Towerfall Ascension is also worth a look.
Hell Divers is also a great game, but it had sound issues(strange echoes of some enemy sounds) last time i tried.
Plate up is free to play on steam over this weekend for its first anniversary
Gonna second tower fall. Easy to pick up and extremely fun
Seconding Plate Up! It’s like overcooked, except the difficulty comes from finding the best ways to run a restaurant, instead of lol-so-random kitchen mechanics. And it’s still getting regular content updates too!
Stardew Valley
Lovers In a Dangerous Space Time
OMG, this. If you enjoy coop, you must play this game.
A lot of great games have already been mentioned. Here are some options that I don’t think anyone has mentioned yet:
- Assault Android Cactus - twin stick shooter (to access the start menu, you must be inside of a stage, not in the map)
- Jamestown - bullet hell (get original game, Jamestown+ does not work on Steam Deck)
- Broforce - 2D side scrolling action game (there’s a free version, Expendabros, that you can try out)
- Gauntlet - dungeon crawler
- Guns, Gore & Cannoli - side-scrolling shooter (it plays on Steam Deck, but throws an error when you exit, so you might have to close it directly on the Steam Deck or mess with compatibility options, I’m not sure)
- Hammer Watch - dungeon crawler (need to grab a community controller layout - there is one specifically for co-op)
- Monaco - stealth co-op heist
- Human Fall Flat - physics puzzle adventure
- Wizard of Legend - roguelike
- Divinity Original Sin - turn based rpg (might want to check out the second entry as it is supposed to be even better)
These games are in my backlog and verified on Steam Deck, but I haven’t played them yet:
- Children of Morta - roguelike hack and slash
- Darksiders Genesis - hack & slash adventure
- Huntdown - 2d sidescrolling shooter
I forgot to mention, there are a few curators that I follow on Steam for co-op games:
- https://store.steampowered.com/curator/588052-Co-Optimus/
- https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7189360-Couch-Gaming-%2528Local-Multiplayer%2529/
- https://store.steampowered.com/curator/8485829-SvenEvils-Playground/
- https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34907518-Games-for-Lovers/
- https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34251578-4-Player-Co-op-Games/
- https://store.steampowered.com/curator/11707935-More-Than-4-Local-Multiplayer/
Good list, lot of good games there.
Jamestown+ is supposed to work if you put
force_compat_profile=true %command%
in launch options, but I only own the original Jamestown so I haven’t tried it.I just tested it and it works! I didn’t need to use the Compatibility page to force a proton version either, just typed that into the launch options. Thanks!
I remember having a lot of fun with Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time a few years ago.
You have up to 4 players (iirc) manage a spaceship which is essentially a platforming area. It gets pretty hectic (in a fun way imo) managing the different equipment on the ship and piloting it around while dealing with obstacles and enemies.
Unrailed is pretty fun for chaotic couch co-op.
If you’re looking for something more relaxed, the entire Trine series.
Unrailed is really fun, one of those games where you have to do one more run with everyone
Moving Out is lots of fun and works really nicely with Steam Deck while docked. It’s a physics based game where you move stuff out of houses and break a couple of windows and doors while doing it.
At the moment it is 75% off on Steam.
And the Paradise DLC is for free for the next few days
Thanks for the info! Picked it up!
Thanks, i have the base game but didn’t know a DLC was free.
Castle Crashers. It’s a classic side scroll beatemup with RPG elements. I’ve beaten it a few times both solo and with friends.
Lego Starwars works well and is a lot of fun. Only 2 players, though.
Overcooked is a lot of fun and it’s local coop 2-4 players.
It’s also on sale on steam rn
Untitled Goose Game. My partner isn’t really into gaming and we had a blast playing The Quarry has a controller passing coop.
There are a lot of good ones listed already, but our family loves playing Drink More Glurp. It’s a pass and play game so many people can take turns playing.
More action oriented Duck Game has been a main stay with our family for years, but more recently have been playing modded Rounds (the game Rounds) to have 4 player and Spiderheck is also good.
Id love to get my wife to see how the steam deck is fun, instead of giving me crap for spending time on it. She doesn’t play games, and I suspect something like overcooked which gets hectic fast would just be frustrating for her, but really slow games would also lose her interest…
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a great turn based rpg with splitscreen. Only problem I ran in to is having to look a lot of stuff up to get through.