Nintendo’s primary focus is to provide a gaming experience with friends and families. It delivers its purpose by giving us an awesome gaming console where players can use joy-con individually to play a second player without using additional gaming controllers. With varieties of Multiplayer games in the library of Nintendo, I am excluding anything that allows PvP battles in the name of co-op and other co-op games that differentiate gameplay with varied characters. One might fully experience the game while others are there to aid in some context, thus making the game unjustifiable to second players. By filtering out those games, both players can have equal fun, so here are the fifteen best co-op games you can play on your Nintendo Switch.
Overcooked: All You Can Eat
We have the combination of Overcooked one and two in all you can eat. It’s absolute chaos when playing co-op with your friends. Its simple mechanism allows any player to pick up and play, but communicating with others and working with your food simultaneously creates tension and excitement as you run back and forth for a perfect score. The game adds various new stages that challenge and make players act fast while playing. Throw your food back into the moving platform or the hands of your friends while the platform moves around. The remastered version of both predecessors, Overcooked: all you can eat, provides many additional contents tweaked to match the gameplay and aesthetic of cooking. It’s fun to take part in all the mayhem in the dynamic kitchen when players try to keep up with cooking.
Snipperclips
A little joy of discovery keeps me coming back for more. The idea of cutting down your player character to achieve goals set by games might be downright simple, but the game has nailed it in terms of presentation and gameplay. It is a puzzle game, but what makes Snipperclip unique is its beautiful puzzles that look easy to pass through but equally challenging to execute. Its minimalist design of characters and stages is easy to grasp. It is also extremely rewarding to experiment with different cuts to make it through the stage until you come to a great solution. Its physics-based machines add depth to the game where you and your partner can use several different ways to achieve a goal successfully. The game allows four-player co-op modes to help solve more difficult puzzles. It’s the unexpected moments of eureka and solving puzzles in different ways that make this game an enjoyable co-op experience on the Switch.
Cadence of Hyrule
Long-time Zelda fans will love the musical rendition of the classic Zelda game turned into a different and exciting genre. It’s more of a dance to the rhythm game than fighting. You can play the entire game solo, but co-op is where the games bring on some challenges.The gameplay is straight from Crypt of the NecroDancer. In fact, both games are created by the same studio, and Cadence is the main protagonist of Crypt of NecroDancer. However, Cadence of Hyrule has its version of creativity that sprung back from the awesome soundtrack of past Zelda games and gameplay machines that is a unique take on real-time puzzle strategies. It’s a pleasure to watch enemies dancing to the beat and moving close to attack while we shake our heads listening to the remix version and moving our characters to the rhythm. Playing co-op is an absolute blast, especially when you and your friend match rhythm to defeat bosses.
Cuphead
It’s nerve-wracking when you have to consistently dodge bosses’ attacks while you keep dying, and you have to revive and attack the boss simultaneously. The game gives the additional option of creating chaos by allowing second players into an already difficult game. You might think playing co-op will ease the difficulty, but it’s the exact opposite when you are dodging projectiles from all directions, and your other player creates more distraction than help. It’s when both players are equally skilled enough to synchronize their moves that makes Cuphead an exhilarating experience. Cuphead is unforgiving, but those desperate moments of constantly saving each other and finally defeating bosses make everlasting memories in the game.
Streets of Rage 4
Streets of Rage 4 brings back the nostalgia of old-school beat-em-up games with new and improved fighting styles. The game brings back old familiar faces with Axel and Blaze and also introduces new characters to balance out game mechanics. Cherry Hunter and Floyd Iraia are two new characters who fight differently than any other. One has an electric guitar while the other crushes enemies with his bionic arms. Fight mechanics now have an interesting twist in relation to health bars. Players can now increase their health by chaining a series of combos but also lose health once the combo does not meet a certain threshold. This keeps players engaging with new ways to earn some health and insert special in between once they are confident enough. Playing co-op can change the gameplay experience as each character is created with a different play style in mind, especially new characters. One can jump and dash through enemies, while another player can work as an absolute tank and take down groups of enemies.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game
Scott Pilgrim vs the world is a type of game that you have to play with friends to fully enjoy the excitement of the game. It’s a beat-’em-up game where you have to defeat a number of enemies on a single platform or stage. Enemies are sometimes unforgiving, beating you down and juggling you in the air. It’s a challenge to play solo, so the game gives us the option to play up to four players. It’s really fun to beat down enemies and perform combos with friends. It’s retro-style pixel art that stays true to its comic style has established a unique visual aesthetic in the game. Every character spreads its own charm during battle, and fans will instantly recognize the set of moves performed in movies and comics. An enjoyable experience with a sense of memories for franchise lovers. It is truly a game for Scott Pilgrim fans crafted with love.
Hyper Light Drifter
The game sometimes gets too much to handle, with gunners shooting you from all directions and teleporting enemies. That is why the game provides the functionality of co-op. You and your friend can together set a journey to defeat bosses from around the map. There are a total of eight bosses, each with unique fighting styles. Playing solo is extremely challenging, especially at the beginning when you don’t have any modules to upgrade your gears and weapon skills. Fighting alongside friends to defeat hordes of enemies is equally satisfying and figuring out ways to defeat bosses together creates a sense of accomplishment. The game added an extra player to ease up the harsh enemy combat, but the joy of visiting beautiful scenery and exploring together the land rich with untold stories creates memories that can be shared even after the compilation of the game.
Diablo 3
Running down randomly generated dungeons and killing swords of enemies to get exciting loot is a pleasure to play. What’s more exciting is the feature to fight enemies together with friends online, as Diablo 3 allows four players to share the experience.Everyone equally contributes to the massive mayhem happening on a screen, and each player equally obtains loot according to their gears and levels. The game is crafted to balance players’ levels to the stage and the difficulty they face along the way. Although the game is heavy on its lore and storylines, what truly keeps players coming back is the variety of features the game provides online. You can give players an item, and together go on an adventure; and there is also the feature called nemesis, where enemies of one player’s world can teleport to their friends’ game and wreak havoc on their world. It’s a fun new mechanic that keeps Diablo 3 fresh.
Animal Crossing: New Horizon
Multiplayer is an amazing way to play Animal Crossing: New Horizon. You can either play locally or online. You can go to Dodo Airlines and establish wireless or local connections. By enabling connection, you can invite your friends to your island and tour guide them to the beautiful places you have created. The game also allows players to help decorate each other’s island by the best friend feature available on your nook phone. Players who you have invited will not have access to shovel or axe unless you put them on your best friend list. By allowing them to edit your island, you will have more fun working together designing places, parks, and gardens on your island. You too can pay a visit to your friend’s island and help them to bring your personal preference to theirs.
Monster Hunter Rise
It’s just so satisfying to see players trying their best to defeat huge monsters from every corner. Monster Hunter rise is a beautiful game of hunting down fantasy beasts together with friends. The game suggests you play with friends as there are monsters way more powerful if you stray too far from the safe zone. Exploring new places and hunting down monsters to gather resources is less stressful. It’s a game with heavy RPG elements, so progressing might seem a bit tedious, so gathering friends online and going out to complete quests makes the game rewarding in its own way. Monster Hunter Rise is a must for Nintendo Switch owners who want to build their characters and go on a fantasy ride.
Mario Party Superstars
Mario Party Superstars has refined its co-op through many years of iteration. A game that truly keeps entertainment with a reduction of many gimmicks introduced in its past predecessors.With the inclusion of hundreds of mini-games playable with friends online, the main attraction of board games keeps players engaging for hours. The game is no doubt a collection of the best old games that are redesigned and remade into a visually pleasing experience. What makes Mario Party Superstars stand out from any other party game is its simplicity of games that gets competitive with friends. The main focus of all the mini-games is to have fun, and Mario Party Superstars delivers all the excitement while playing together both locally and online.
Moving Out
It’s such a pain to carry a bunch of loads to the vehicles In real life. Thinking about moving out makes me exalt my energy. Well, not anymore because the game Moving Out has made carrying and moving stuff from a fun time to play with friends and families. Moving Out in real life might be tedious and frustrating, but it’s more frustrating in-game when your friends break your plasma tv during the process or you have to take flocks of chicken out of vehicles to make room for furniture. It’s a healthy dose of frustration that keeps the game challenging with puzzles and ways to solve them. You can also play this game solo, but I would not recommend it because it’s no fun to drag along your bed only to get stuck in a doorway. With friends, you can pivot your furniture in hard corners and watch your furniture break. But it’s all right once it reaches into the vehicles. Up to four players can be added to move out every furniture of your virtual house, but it only has couch co-op features available for now.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
It’s time to know what happened one hundred years ago. Age of Calamity brings out the charm of Breath of the wild as the game itself is a prequel to one hundred years before Breath of the wild. Besides their visual aesthetic and storyline, the game is different from one another. Fight hordes of enemies in a Dynasty warrior-style combat known as Musou. Two players can enjoy the fight by using each joy-con and fight side by side on a split-screen. With over nineteen different playable characters, each with their own abilities, every fight feels different. Play together with friends and experience the world of Zelda in new ways. Learn about the past and see how the story of Hyrule Warriors unfolds.
Death Squared
Communication is the key here, but no matter how much you communicate, the tricky puzzles will always find their way to defeat the two cubes you play with. It’s a couch co-op game where each player takes their joy-cons and controls these little cubes to reach their destination. Every puzzle is designed to keep pushing the limit of players as they meticulously think of a solution to complex puzzles. It’s not the puzzle that is difficult but how players combine their brain power to come up with solutions. It’s a perfect game to pick up and play. No combat, no story, Just playing plain old puzzles together to test players’ deductive skills.
Enter The Gungeon
It’s a bullet hell roguelike game where you dodge hundreds of enemies’ projectiles that scatter the room. Its strange enemies and ridiculous amounts of weapons will keep you hooked for hours. Playing solo can be insanely difficult, so going out there with friends can give a breath of relief. With its intensely fast pace run and sun style, Enter The Gungeon always keeps players to their edge of excitement. It keeps players wanting more to get good at it once they die and have to repeat again. The best thing about playing co-op is even if you die, your friends have the opportunity to revive you by collecting hearts while you float around in a ghostly form and helping in a tiny bit. Enter The Gungeon is exhaustingly fun to play, and with its randomly generated stages, every run feels new, thus adding new depth to its replayability.
