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Two Players, One Console, Cooperative Play?
boredme asks: "With the free time I'll have this summer, I thought I'd get in some quality couch-potato time. I'm married, no children, and our Playstation2 is nice because it can be both more interactive than TV and more social than a computer since it's in the living room. The problem is that the vast majority of two player games are sports or arena fighting games that only allow confrontational interaction; since I have a dozen extra years experience gaming, these competitive games get old very quickly for both of us. What suggestions for cooperative, (not online) multiplayer games do the Slashdot folks have?" Along a similar vein, the Gauntlet games (available for most platforms) offer similar opportunities for co-operative play, but no other titles come to mind right now. What co-op games do you have fun with that you can play using a single console?
"The perfect example of this is Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. The whole game, with storyline, can be played through with one or two players alike. Others, like Jedi Starfighter, are close as they offer a small set of two-player missions that are distinct from the one-player missions. (Googling for this, by the way, has turned up very short lists at best.)
I'm primarily interested in PS2 games, but I still want to know what XBOX, GameCube, or even PS1 or PC games in this category are available. I'd even like to hear about sports games that offer a cooperative mode, or games not yet released."
Cookie and Cream on PlayStation 2.
Two cutesy Japanese-style bunnies must race up the screen before the timer gets to zero. Various obstacles and puzzles get in their way. The clever bit is that each player needs the help of the other--for example, one player might have to push some logs through the wall to the other side, where the other player can then jump across a river using the logs.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I own Jedi Starfighter for the PS2 and its cooperative mode is one of the better ones I've played. Most of the time you and your partner control two different ships but on occasionone of you is the pilot and the other is the gunner on the same ship. Definitely very cool.
-- shayborg
Chu-Chu Rocket is a blast, if you can find a Dreamcast at a decent price. And my buddies and I had way too much fun with Super Monkey Ball last year at school.
Also, Agetec has a game called The Adventures of Cookie and Cream out for PS2 that's basically a 2-player puzzle adventure. It might be just what you're looking for.
Halo and Ghost Recon come to mind.
meh.
purchased this game a while back with exactly this scenario in mind. My wife still declines to play it. It's weird...she loves sci-fi and fantasy, but the idea of an RPG of any sort strikes her as "over the geek-line". any other suggestions here would be *greatly* appreciated.
You see, without that little doohicky, the universe stops.
http://propheteer.org
I know most of the EA sports games USED to allow 2 players (or 4, or even 5 back with the SNES) to play on the same team.
I see no reason why they wouldn't still. NHL 2002 for PC still does.
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
Am I the only one, who is terrified, by the "social" activities of today's era?
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
Some friends of mine snaged Brute Force for the xbox, and to listen to them, it blows their minds. I havn't played it yet, but they give rave reviews.
Zapman
...but the DC version of Half-Life had a co-op mode. I don't think it was ever released in stores, but it can be found on the web without too much difficulty.
Has some of the best COOP play for the XBox. It is supposed to only be getting better in halo 2.
halo.bungie.net for more information.
I dunno how many of these there'd be on the PS2, but there are lots of 4-player games on the 'Cube that let you play against 2 computer-controlled opponents. My SO and I generally go head-to-head against the computer players, so even though it's not a co-op game, per se, we can still cooperate and I don't have to just hand her ass to her over and over again. :)
Smash Bros: Melee and Super Monkey Ball 1/2 are particularly good for this.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
I know Rogue Squadren III is not out yet, but in that game they offer all the missions of Rouge Squadren II, as multiplayer missions. Cooperative too.
Factor 5 kicks ass.
This isn't 2 player co-op by any means, but it's a fun game to play with two people in the room. My wife is seriously addicted to it (though we haven't played head to head yet...I'm afraid I'd whomp her, which always leads to her getting completely sick of a game). that issue, btw, is one of the reasons various Tetris's are great - they have handicap mechanisms where I can play a few levels ahead of her and she can still be competetive.
You see, without that little doohicky, the universe stops.
http://propheteer.org
Sorry, it's not a console game but a classic arcade game. It's my favorate cooperative game. Think two player astroids in color, with the two ships tied together. I doubt you can find it in the arcade anymore and I wouldn't suggest doing anything, uhmameuh, illegal.
'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
It was awesome. She'd ASK to play video games when she got home. It was a lot of fun for both of us.
GREAT GAME!
Can't wait for the next one.
My wife and I play a fair bit of Super Monkey Ball 2 mini-games. Some are co-operative, some are competitive - but the competition doesn't get in the way of participation.
Games like Crazy Taxi or Tony Hawk can be fun too - while I'm a lot better than my wife, the competition isn't direct so it works well.
In sort of another vein, my wife likes playing Legend of Zelda, but she has enough difficulty playing it that often she wants me there helping/watching. Being able to dip around with the Tingle Tuner makes this work pretty good.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
This has got some good two player co-op on the XBox...but of course nothing beats Halo.
Tonight my wife and I are going to pickup a box of Monopoly from Toys R Us and/or a jigsaw puzzle.
:)
For video games, I think that the Lost Vikings series for the SNES let you play in co-op.. if not, it should've
My wife and I play storyline (rpgs) a lot.
We'll both cuddle up on the couch and play. Even though only one person can control the game at once, you can keep the game so it involves both of you. Usually when reading the story line conversations we'll make comments about what we think is going on, some subtle point of intrigue that we think the other might have missed or something. Usually the person not with control will squeeze the other's foot or hand when they are done reading the current page of text so the person with the controller knows to goto the next page.
Some games that we really enjoy are:
Wildarms (1 excellent, 2 pretty good, 3 pretty good)
Star Ocean (eagerly waiting for 3 this fall for US release)
Breath of Fire (3 and 4 were both pretty good, haven't played 5 yet)
Suikoden (1 was good and different, never found 2, 3 we are playing now)
Legend of Legaia (sp?) (1 was a blast, 2 was equally good)
Theres plenty more, but those are the ones off the top of my head. They are fun and have good stories. Also, playing with your spouse is a lot of fun.
Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
What about The Adventures of Cookie & Cream? It's a platformer that has some puzzles which require two players working in tandem. I've never played it, but I've always wanted to to since I heard about it.
Doom2, on the before last difficulty setting is a BLAST (bad play on words, I know). You get the Cyberdemon on almost all the levels starting at lvl 8 or 9 (of 30) and "accidentally" shooting your friend is always fun as well :)
Also, the upcoming Mario Kart for GameCube will allow a co-op mode, where one player will control the kart and the other will aim and shoot the powerups. Check out the preview over at IGN. The previews make it seem like it should be pretty cool!
I dunno who it is
but it prolly is fhqwhgads.
What about contra? best co-op game ever. Also like Baluders Gate for PS2 as a CO-OP. I have gauntlet dark legends for PS2 also. Great game.
I haven't followed this very much, but from what I can tell, the new MarioKart DoubleDash title (for the gamecube, obviously) would allow two people to play together against the other computers. One of them would drive the cart, and the other would control the "extras" while riding on back.
From past experience, even the competitive parts of the MarioKart games have been really fun - especially if you get into a hard race, and the players racing (if against other computers, mind) have to only hit the other computers in order to be able to advance to the next race.
The whole series consists of some of the best two-player games ever.
Sure, not _all_ of the game is real cooperative 2 player, but the game + SNES will probably cost you less than a new PC or console game.
Obviously there's the Gauntlet Games =)
For the X-Box there's Halo, that's great co-op.
Still introducing myself to the x-box though..so that's about all I can recomend co-op there =)
Really, almost any game that *supports* co-op is good co-op. Go to the store and look at the back, often it'll say. I would imagine that a lot of FPSe'rs with a story line will support co-op (if it supports multiplayer) perahps the MoH series and Bond series excluded.
Brian
A friend and I played through TimeSplitters2 recently and are currently going through TimeSplitters1. Both games support co-op and are a lot of fun. Some of the levels get pretty hard and really require good teamwork.
Brien Voorhees
Anybody remember the Ninja Turtles coin-op game? That was a lot of fun to play with a friend. There was a whole slew of them. The Simpsons! Heh.
In this day and age of consoles with 4 controller ports, gotta admit I'm saddened that this genre has disappeared. You didn't need no stinking split-screen.
Fortunately, there is a Ninja Turtles game for the GameCube in the works.
"Derp de derp."
At E3 (electronic entertainment expo) the big thing in the nintendo area was cooperative play.
No use to the author since but for cube owners (preferably with a few GBAs and link cables) it'll be great as soon as these hit the market (i think a few were targeted for christmas release).
There were 3 that stood out to me...
A pacman game where 3 players control ghosts on the TV in pretty 3D and a 4th player controls pacman on his/her GBA.
A legend of zelda: wind waker spinoff called Tetra's Trackers where 4 players play competatively in scavenger hunt type missions (for the first few levels at least). I don't know if there may be some cooperative play (a la mario party) later on, but the games are simple enough that the playing field is pretty even for veteran gamers and newbies alike.
And a new Final Fantasy game that's kind of diablo like gameplay for up to 4 players. All cooperative and played with GBAs plugged into the cube with status screens/menus on the GBA.
No good for sony users and not in time for summer, but something to look forward to. Seems like cooperative play may be the next big thing (from what I saw from the heavyweights at E3).
DONT PANIC
Tonight my wife and I are going to pickup a box of Monopoly from Toys R Us and/or a jigsaw puzzle.
NOOOOOOOOOO!
What is it with you Americans and Monopoly? Each year, hundreds of new board gamesare hoping for a little exposure, a little space on store shelves, and you keep buying Monopoly simpsons edition, Monopoly star wars edition, Monopoly yourcity edition, monopoly golf... Stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it! It's not even a good game, for crying out loud! Please just stop it! Or would you rather give Hasbro more money for domain disputes?
There's nothing quite like you and your buddy taking on and destroying hundreds of enemies. Plus, the cooperative mode forces coordination between players and has this sweet two-player musou attack.
My boyfriend and I love playing videogames together, too, and we also prefer cooperative games. Chew-Man-Fu is a great game for Turbographix (you can Google for the emulator and the rom). The players work together to move balls onto color-coded pads before you get hit by bad creatures. It also has a kind of bonus game in which the players can play kickball against each other, so it's sort of a 2-in-1 cooperational/competitive game. Unfortunately, you'd have to play on your computer and not in the living room, but I still recommend it highly.
I love cooperative games and really wish game producers put more effort into making cooperative play a priority. It seems like co-op availability especially went downhill when all of the games went to 3-D. I'm bummed that Doom3 won't have co-op since my friends and I had an absolute blast playing Doom1&2 together back in the day.
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I recently scoured usenet for game titles that support cooperative play. Here are the notes I compiled resulting from that search in case it's helpful (I haven't played any of them yet so I can't vouch for them)
Defender - Xbox
PS2
Conflict Desert Storm[mediocre reviews but co-op is supposed to be good]
Mobile Light Force 2 (shooter)
Contra Shattered Soldier
PS1
Herc's Adventures. (platformer - highly recommended)
Unholy War (strategy/action game similar to Archon and designed by Paul Reiche III. Might be competitive instead of co-op)
RayStorm (overhead water-based shooter)
You Don't Know Jack
Metal Slug-X
Assault: Retribution (similar to contra)
Ballistic (looks like good puzzle/action game)
Bomberman Party Edition
Poy Poy (party)
Trap Gunner (well-reviewed, similar to "bomberman, grid runner, crackdown")
Space Invaders
Twisted Metal 2 & Critical Depth
Micro Machines V3
bomberman fantasy race
In The Hunt
Critical Depth (Warhawk meets Twisted Metal)
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo "It's the best two-player puzzle game ever made. No kidding!"
Tecmo Stackers (similar to Super Puzzle Fighter)
Bust-a-Groove
FoxKids.com Micro Maniacs Racing
N2O: Nitrous Oxide (Like tempest but better?)
Roll Away (2-player puzzle/marble-madness/monkeyball)
Here are some:
Tales of Destiny.
You'll have to play the first dungeon by yourself, but once you get Mary
in your party & find the Channeling in that cave near the temple, you can
have your girlfriend play as Mary...
Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 (like twisted metal but a bit more cartoonish and supports cooperative)
Team Buddies (single player and deathmatch. over-head real-time strategy/action)
Grid Runner
Namco museum 4
Nectaris: Military Madness
Norse By Norsewest
R-Types (listed as 2-player but I don't think it is)
MAME (emulator) ROMs
Most of these are side scrolling multi-player games:
Aliens Vs Predator - avsp
Armored Warriors - armwar
Double Dragon(japan) - ddragon
D&D - ddsom
D&D2 - ddtod
Golden Axe - goldnaxe
Knights of the Round - knights
Smash TV - smashtv
TMNT1 - tmnt
x-men (4 players) - xmen
Brien Voorhees
Since you're willing to look at PC games, I should mention the few that I know.
Starcraft
Diablo 2
Kohan
Unreal
All of those can be set up as to-player cooperative. At the same time, the enemies in some of them are pretty dumb. Starcraft or Kohan would probably be your best bet because the strategy generally requires that you communicate with each other. My wife and I used to play a lot of cooperative Starcraft.
On the PS1, I can remember Gauntlet and Legend of Mana. In Legend of Mana, though, the second player is very definitely secondary, and not always present.
It's a great game, it's made by the same people that made Goldeneye for N64. After goldeneye they started their own company.
:p
It's a shooter game similar to goldeneye. But instead you travel through time. It has high replay value too. On easy you can beat it well easy. On normal it's much harder. But you'll beat it. Now hard heh it's near impossible
It also has a great multiplayer part where you can play in teams against bots. It also has some crazy singleplayer mini games.
Higly recommended.
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
Marble Maddness!
You might need to purchase a regular nintendo, but all told it will probably cost you around $7.50
http://use.perl.org
I will never play these games in public but the DDR games are a lot of fun and reasonable exercise. (I sweat more playing DDR than I do inline skating.) Since you want games you can play at home and not suffer the humiliation that you would in pubic. I've found it's very hard to get friends over to play the game the first time but after two weeks I'm averaging two friends a night on Mondays though Thursdays who want to play.
I bought from here: http://buynshop.com/newindex.php?parentid=29 and had a good experience. After two weeks I'm buying higher end pads, via eBay, as the lower end pads can be annoying to work with on carpet.
If you have two PC's:
Diablo 2 is a great cooperative game. I played it with a friend and his wife (on three computers) and we played through the levels (not online).
Another good one is Doom 2. The good thing is if you don't already have two computers (or even one) is you can probably put some together for free with used parts because Doom 2 is such an old game. It's a pretty fun game with lots of cooperative playing. And if you get bored you can turn on each other and turn it into a deathmatch. ("Ok ok... truce now... for real.... DIE!")
Play Tony Hawk 2-4 all of the time. Granted, I am much more skilled at the game, but she enjoys watching me fall more than anything.
She will score 60,000 points in a trick, I will be on the verge of 2 million, and I fall.
Nothing more entertaining to her than that.
I'd also suggest Marble Maddness on Nintendo
Snake Rattle and Roll was also a wonderful 2 player game.
http://use.perl.org
Either of those for PS2 are great cooperative games. Not exactly tons of thought needed, but great for a couple people to play cooperatively. Whenever I bring it over for the weekend hang-out sessions, it always ends up being in there most of the night and with people fighting for the controller. It's even more fun when you use the unlock codes to unlock all the characters that you normally can't get without playing an insane number of times through. Yeah, there are lots of cool things that unlocking doesn't do, but having zillions of characters to choose from makes it more fun.
Dynasty Warriors 4 might be a good choice. It supports cooperative split-screen play, has good graphics, a branching storyline, and some character customization with savable, recurring characters.
> I've tried going checking out review sites like GameSpot,
> but they don't really list that specifically, and
> reviewers don't necessarily care about it.
I've been very frustrated by this, as well. AdrenalineVault (http://www.avault.com) is good about covering multi-player features of games. Their reviews have a separate section/rating specifically for multi-player features. I wish more review sites had that. I'd also love to be able to sort/select games based on their multi-player features.
Brien Voorhees
Unfortunately this an N64 game, so it's not much help for you and your PS2, but a friend and I had hours of fun playing this together.
It's a first-person shooter with an X-Files-esque storyline that we found quite interesting, and the graphics and gameplay were great. It only took us a few games to get up to speed.
You can also play with one person as the lead and the other as one of the bad guys. The split screen kills the view and graphics a bit compared to one-player, but the game was so much more enjoyable as a dynamic duo that I've hardly played in one-player mode.
This is by the same group (Rareware) that did Goldeneye, also for N64. I'm not sure if it had the same 2-player mode.
I know of a game that some would consider a sport, definately cooperative, and is probably the only way to remedy the lack of children. I don't think its been released in stores, too many security cameras
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Open Source Sysadmin
I really like video games. My wife really doesn't like them. It even took me awhile to convice her that they were fun to play and actually ENCOURAGED some social interaction, especially between other guys. That being said, we have played a couple of games together -- something I REALLY enjoy.
The first one we played together was Escape From Monkey Island. Not really a two player game, but that was great because it didn't require quick reflexes or button mashing. Plus, it provided quite a bit of good humor. We still use lines from the game to make each other laugh. Instead of watching a movie any random night, we'd huddle around the computer and enjoy the story of Monkey Island at our own pace.
After we finished that, I was bummed. I had an Xbox and found that Sega was releasing a new ToeJam and Earl game. I had fond memories of the original game on the Genesis and thought it would be a great game for us. With the true co-op play, it's a little more fast-paced than Monkey Island, but still she enjoys it occasionally.
Finally, I bought Morrowind. I bought this for me to play solo, but my wife really likes to hang around and watch what's going on. Plus, it is an extremely satisfying, open-ended, huge game that I'm still just getting into.
Hope those help!
Um, Halo has a fantastic 2-player Co-op mode. Of course, it's xbox only.
My wife and I love these. While it isn't cooperative, you can pick up PS1 versions of YDKJ games for 5 bucks, and they are a blast but don't require both players to have similar hand eye skills (although the Jack Attacks might be an exception.)
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
Twisted Metal Black (about as good as TM2, lots of fun in co-op mode) Project Eden (You can play this with up to four people co-op, switching between members of a 4 man squad. It's 1st or 3d person, and there's some combat, but it's largely puzzle-oriented, where you have to use each team member's unique talents to pass various obstacles. I picked it up quite cheap somewhere and was very pleased.)
A favorite of mine is playing SSX Tricky with my gf. You can play competetively, but usually we will just take turns trying to get gold for every character, unlocking trick books, and figuring out the best path to take. It's pretty fun rooting each other on, too. :-)
Anything in the Guantlet series is fun, but it tends to get old failry quickly. And you can play Tekken Tag in co-op mode, which is always a blast...especially if you get another couple to play the other team.
I haven't seen it posted yet, but Phantasy Star Online is out for at least a couple of platforms, if not all the current major ones and it is piles of fun with 2 or more people playing on one console.
Some friends and I get together on a semi-regular basis and play PSO together for hours at a time.
Build boards not bombs
Hopefully Sony is stealing another idea from nintendo & will put all of this functionality into the PSP.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of **insert current Slashdot topic**. Sweet!
I think some of the bomberman's have a coop mode if you do adventure and not battle.
Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story
This game came out for NES back in the day. It was the most fun cooperative game I've ever played....right up until the FPS team-based things came out for PC and consoles.
isn't SOCOM a cooperative game?
happy gaming!
Those who can, do. Those who can't, simulate.
My wife and I love playing all the Diablo games, she usually plays an archer of some sort and I'm either a thug (ugh, ugh, slash, slash) or magician. It works well, she throws in the hired grunt into the middle of combat while she sits back and shoots arrows over my head. Except in Diablo 1 where you can hit the other person, which isn't fun in-game but is good for a laugh out-of-game ("ouch, that hurt! Here's some popcorn on your head!".
Monkey Ball (1 & 2), Mario Party 4
The number of coop games are not easily found.
We have tried and did not like:
Alon Dar : had to play 2 hours solo before second person can join. No option for character the second player gets (it's a lizard). Very poor battle system, tedious quests (collect 30 silver acorns, collect 30 rocks...) and more time in the game forces you to play with 2 characters each.
Half-Life Decay : First person shooter, split screen very hard to determine where you are. Have sworn off split screen games.
Project Eden: Split screen (uggh!) each player controls 2 characters. Can give orders to secondary characters to follow you, but if you tell them do something like turn on their helmet lights, they forget to follow you.
We play:
As you mentioned Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, and Gauntlet Dark Legacy. We also share Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers (1 cheers while the other plays)
Swing Away Golf : build a character in single mode, and compete with your spouse together. She still beats me.
Games that are coming out that may be of interest:
Baldur's Gate : Dark Alliance II -- Fall
Lord of the Rings : Return of the King -- Nov 4
Also you can do searches on the Playstation web site for 2 player games. A lot of sports games appear, but it gets you a list.
You can lose something that is loose, so tighten the loose item so you don't lose it.
There's a game out there called Cookies and Cream. You can get it for about 20$ now. This is the perfect game for someone who has a significant other. The game is a two player cooperative game. Itâ(TM)s the only game (So says the manual) where two players can share one controller. My girlfriend loves it. In order to play with one controller we both have sit next to each other. You each use one hand on the controller, one using the left analog stick and the other the right. Or if you want you can use two separate controllers. To be honest the game is a lot of fun, and cute. Both players have to work as a team to complete levels.
There are alot of games on the NES that were great for co-op. If I had to wager, that's probably the best system for co-op, especially with the four-player adapter. In my dorm, we used to have 15-20 people in the lobby playing Super Spike V-Ball on a big screen tv with the Dreamcast and PS2 sitting off to the side gathering dust.
Some game suggestions... Contra, Super Spike V-Ball, Super Dodgeball, Blades of Steel, Skate or Die, various other sports games, Battletoads, Double Dragon series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marble Madness, Super Off Road, 1942, Bomberman and Jeopardy.
Granted, some of the ones I mentioned are multi-player and not co-op but they are still fun nonetheless.
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven (Tenchu 3) has some two-player co-op missions.
One of my favorite games for the original playstation is Devil Dice. Two players. Cooperative. Great Game
I reject your reality
Serious Sam (both the first and second encounters) are the only PC titles I've seen with multiplayer play on one computer (split-screen), and their cooperative mode is fun. I would assume they've got the same cooperative mode in the xbox version.
Dance Dance Revolution
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Rez yet.
:-P
I'll just go now.
It might have something to do with the fact that all the games I saw on that site are like $30+, while you can buy Monopoly for $6.
Halo for XBOX, coming soon to PC. Cooperative is MUCH better than single play - so good, my partner (who HATES FPS's) actually likes playing.
It's an older PS1 game, but you should still be able to find it. Tiny little devils rotating dice to score points.....very addictive.
:)
Plus, it's still kinda cool to squash the other guy, even on cooperative mode!
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
It might have something to do with the fact that all the games I saw on that site are like $30+, while you can buy Monopoly for $6.
The prices tend to be higher when the people who design the games actually get paid... not to mention the fact that most good games are imported, and the economics of scale (Hasbro knows they can move N million units a year).
But the new special editions people buy each other are probably around $30 too. And you know what? There's many PC / console games available for $5-$10 ; you still buy the $20+ titles sometimes, don't you? And some of the bargain bin games are gems; this is monopoly you're talking about. It never gets good.
- Two opposing players taking alternation turns.
- Two opposing players competing at the same time.
- Two opposing players competing at the same time taking alternating shots.
- Two player partnership game with each player able to move the canon one direction.
- Two player partnership game with one player controlling cannon movement and the other player firing laser.
- Two player partnership game with alternating firing and control of the canon.
Multiply that by all the other variations (invisible, zig-zag bombs, moving shields) and there were hours of entertainment. The cooperative play modes were especially fun because you really had to be communicating in order to clear a level. I say ditch the Playstation2 and find an old Atari 2600 and some decent joysticks. You might be surprised how much fun you have.One girlfriend used to get quite frisky after we played Space Invaders for awhile. Now she's my wife. How's that for an endorsement?
Return to Castle Wolfenstein has a cooperative mission mode
Counter-strike is coming, so you and all your nerdy friends can get all nerd gay on it.
Game designers seem to always add cooperative multiplayer in as an afterthought. I play Xbox and PS2 with my buddies and we have been faced with the same problem.
Here are some with potential:
Halo - Great, multiplayer right through the story, but needs bots
Tenchu 3 - Multiplayer mission are seperate and unlockable
Legends of wrestling - Tag team matches (No career mode)
Deaththrow - Xbox, unique sports game. Simple rules. Lots of fun
Timesplitters 2 - FPS, You and friends can take on loads of bots. Great characters (like a duck and the gingerbread man)
Dungeons and Dragons Heroes - Gauntlet, only better (Hopefully)
DOA Extreme Volleyball - just for *clears throat* a laugh
(Actually, this game is on my "hated it" list for not having 4 player multiplayer. Would have been great with that simple addition.)
Any sports game, as long as you have friends that know the sport. Playing sports games when nobody knows what's going on is a waste of time.
For the best social gaming, you can't beat Fuzion Frenzy on Xbox, or Super Monkey Ball 2 on Game Cube. Simple to learn and lots of fun, Everyone gets involved.
What is it with you Americans and Monopoly?
Everyone has played it, and most people don't have any imagination to try something new. The worst part is, the game is boring, and takes days to play to completion.
Growing up, my favorite boardgame was Scotland Yard. 5 detectives run around trying to catch Mr. X. A great mix of cooperative and competitive play. Fun, and doesn't take hours to play.
Now my personal favorite boardgame (as a concept, not play value) is the 1980's version of "Life". You go to college Get a job. Get married. Have 1.5 kids. Then at the end you decide whether you're going to retire to the house in the suburbs or try the alternate route and go for a million dollars and live in the mansion. If you don't get a million dollars, you lose. Even if you have more money than anyone else, you still lose.
The current version eliminated the "big gamble", so if you end the game with a million dollars you go the mansion, if not you go to the house in the suburbs.
Still the winner is the one with the most money. A wonderful game for children. Perhaps I should make one where you have to exploit workers, bust unions, dismantel health and safety regulations, and bribe politicians...
Gauntlet has far more replayability that balder's gate dark alliance because there are 16 playable character (8 have to be opened up). Far more than BG's 3 characters (plus drzzt).
Dang what's my password?
require a certain level of knowledge on the part of both parties, however, there are some games with very low learning curves.
In the Sporting Genre:
Wakeboarding Unleashed (PS2) is coop in that you one can drive the boat and one can be on the board.
In the Puzzle Genre (which I'm addicted to btw):
Super Monkey Ball 2 (GameCube)
Amplitude and it's predecessor Frequency (PS2)
all offer some sort of cooperative/competitive play.
Dance Dance Revolution/DDR Max (PS/PS2 respectively) offer excellent interactive play, plus it's just plain fun if you have nothing better to do on a low budget weekend.
The english language is in beta. It's evolving but has not yet reached a level of usability.
My Wife HATED first person shooters. Wouldn't have anything to do with anything other than Mario or Abe/Oddworld stuff. When she bought and XBOX for my 29th Birthday, it came with HALO. Now, I purchased an XBOX at launch and played Halo all the way through, put the bastard on ebay, and covered all my expenses for 1 week of pure gaming bliss. She didn't touch that first box, and hated Halo for taking up all my free time for that week.
Okay, fast forward to aformentioned 29th b-day. We get home and tear that sucker open, set it up, and I start playing Halo. She asks if she can play too. I nearly, okay, I ACTUALLY shit my pants and did a spit take, all at once. After I cleaned the TV Screen of it's Coke Bath, we started in on COOPERATIVE Halo. Needless to say, Everyday I came home for a month, she was playing that game. She would play through a part, get stuck, I would jump in and help on COOP, she would pick up from there. I had to make the final Warthog run at the end (hope that isn't a spoiler) but she beat the thing. Faced down the flood and KICKED THERE ASSES!!! Not bad for a Vegetarian! My Wife ROCKS! AND SO DO EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!
To this day, we primarily play Halo in Co-op (2 person multiplay deathmatch is kind of lame), Dead or Alive 3 (she can often kick my ass) or even Fusion Frenzy (yes, it is pretty lame too, but some of the games are fun) and I got her to try Unreal Championship with me, but since you can't change the screen split (we have a widescreen TV and UC splits the screen top and bottom not left and right, if anyone knows how to fix this, let me KNOW) that hurt the eyes. I am looking forward to trying Wolfenstein with her in co-op, and she will OWN you punk asses when Halo 2 hits next year.
Just watch LIVE for "Darth Bender" and Wife to OWN YOU IN HALO 2!
I really liked Bacterion from the old Atari 400 as a cooperative game.
You can find lots of 2 player cooperative arcade games in MAME.
Carcassonne is a great game for 2-5 players $20
Lost Cities is a good two player game for $20 (in fact, Kosmos imports a whole line of two player games for $20, including the very good Hera and Zeus)
Mystery Rummy 1: Jack the Ripper and Mystery Rummy 2: Murders in the Rue Morgue are both very good (I prefer Jack the Ripper) and only $10
Set is a great visual perception game for 1-n players (where n is the number of people that can see the cards) $12
Gods is a free download. Print it out and cut out the tiles. 2-4 players. less than $5
Go is a classic game for two players. I made my own board and got glass stones for less than $5.
Yeah, a lot of board games cost more than $30, but there are a number of good options that are less expensive, you just have to look for them.
fnord
You'd be wise to look out for this one. In co-op mode, two characters can share one kart. Apparently one player drives, while the the second player shoots at the other racers, attempting to slow them down. Looks like a lot of fun, IGN have a preview here. You might also like to keep an eye out for Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles on the Gamecube. The previews i've read compare it to Gauntlet in 3D and with more depth, and of course it's Final Fantasy ;).
Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2 are great games to play together, and the fun only gets better when your drinking some beer and smoking some weed :)
The games my wife and I have had success with in cooperative mode:
1. Cookies and Cream (mentioned many times already, and yes, you will have to help with ugly jumping puzzles).
2. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - really simple RPG lite.
3. Gauntlet, although the later levels are too big and annoying.
4. Any 2 player puzzle game with adjustable difficulty. Bubble Bobble, Tetris, and Pokemon Puzzle League (yes, you can laugh, but it's a great puzzler)
On the PC we have played both Diablo I and II (with expansions) all the way though, and Baldur's Gate, although that gets to be a pause fest sometimes.
Sig under construction since 1998.
Final Fantasy Chrystal Cronicles.
I KNEW IT!
Missus and I bought Game of Life a couple of years back and when we played it I was sure SOMETHING had changed but couldn't figure out what. THAT WAS IT! They changed the endgame.
Thanks:)
It's a board game on your TV!
I really hate Dan Patrick.
Well, dunno if you got these systems, but Time Splitters 2 on GameCube has great 2 player action in many modes, including co-op. I think they also make it for PS2. Perfect Dark on N64 also has a wide range of 2 player madness, including 2 person co-op on all levels on all difficulty settings. Great games. I got Perfect Dark used at Electronics Boutique for $10. Well worth it.
... is an awesome game for NES. My cousin and I used to play it for hours.
They changed a lot of it. Dumbed it down in a few ways, but made it more complicated in others. It's still almost entirely a game of chance though. That's bad because it isn't very thought provoking to play. But, it's good also sometimes. The other day I played with a bunch of friends, and it's a lot of fun to joke and insult each other over the good/bad luck everyone's having, and noone takes it seriously because it's really just the spin of the wheel. I like the old version better I think.
I agree, Gauntlet is good. My girlfriend and I played through it on the N64 a few years ago, now we're going through it on the PS2. She's not that great at games (although she did get pretty good at Mario Kart 64 after we played it for hundreds and hundreds of hours :-) ), and I like the mindless slashing and exploring in Gauntlet. Plus there are a few pretty funny things in there, such as when you find the egg -- "Red Warrior is now poultry" and you turn into a chicken running around squawking.
And also, like others, we have enjoyed some 1-player games where I'm doing the controlling, but we're both figuring out what to do next.
Also like others, in Mario Kart 64, we'd do competitive racing, but promise to try not to hurt each other, and only to hurt the other computer players. We are really looking forward to the new Mario Kart for Gamecube.
I like simple games, and simple driving games. One of my favorites is Midtown Madness (1 and 2) for PC. I've finally got 2 decent PC's running Windows set up in my apartment, and 2 steering wheels, so I'm hoping to start doing some racing with her, although I expect it will take a while for her to get the hang of that. (I bought Midtown Madness 2 and a steering wheel for my dad after I bought my parents a new PC 2 years ago, since my dad used to race real cars. I finally did network racing against him last month when I brought my laptop and steering wheel home, but was fairly disappointed because I totally kicked his butt).
It's not completely cooperative, if you actually keep track of points, but it's mostly cooperative, in the same sense as Contra.
I'm a hardcore gamer, and my wife typically throws up her hands at most games, saying that the controls are too complex or that the 3D camera makes her disoriented or that I have some automatic advantage just due to my familiarity with the "game vocabulary" if you will...
However, she'll play the Sims and DDR Max on our PS2 until I peel her off of the controller! For that matter so will I; those are great games.
Half-Life for PS2 has Decay, which is co op single player. Its awsome +5.
I've seen contra mentioned. If they Legend of Mana (PSX) has the same feature as the SNES game it's an adventure type game, but on the second controller you could press select and it would allow 2 players to join the game. None of my friends were ever interested in a story-line game, but it could be fun. Racing games are usually 2 player and quite fun. Is there something similar to mario kart on PS2? I'm not sure.
:x
You could try learning japanese together, if you want to get an imported PS2 and some japanese games, that could prove to be interesting.
Final Fight for SNES was pretty cool. It was an arcade remake, I always found those types of fighting games with 2 people always better than playing solo.
Double Dragon is a NES name. Battletoads. similar game.
My friend and I had quite a good time passing the controller back and forth trying to get better scores on tony hawk for dreamcast.
Dragon Lair is an interactive movie of sorts (to the best of my knowledge) that could be fun.
however, I play mostly 1 player RPGs, I don't have a significant other that wants to game with me
- Joe
You can play doubles games in Mario Tennis...that's quite a bit of fun. Returning serves into the back of your teammate's head is especially entertaining, at least when it's an accident... and only the first time, not like.. the 10th or 12th...
Mario Golf wasn't bad either, though there's less in the way of cooperative play.
You might keep an eye on the above game, based on the 70's TV series (no idea if the game as any good though). It features a two-player mode where one person does the driving while the other does the shooting (with a light gun). What's more, each is responsible for collecting power-ups for the other (the shooter fires at driving bonuses, the driver runs over gun enhancements), so the players have to cooperate for each of them to complete their goals.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
Just about every sports game on the market allows players to choose which team you play on. If you both plan on the same team, you're playing co-op.
toe jam and earl 3 has a neat feature for coop. when both charecters are close together, they are on 1 screen, but if they diverge the screen splits.
also "the greatest rpg ever" FABLE will have a jump in and play coop option.
also the just released tetris worlds is an addictive multiplayer.
another great coop fun game is fuzion frenzy, with over 40 minigames for 4 player fun.
...that semi-ok Diablo port for the original Playstation. I rented it once with a buddy and we couldn't get our game to save; but it was pretty fun for a few bucks.
-You get on another train but it crashes very quick, throwing you into a water level. You fight a big alien fish.
-You fight some assassins (very badass black clad women).
-You are caught in a trap by some grunts. They throw you in a garbage compactor.
-You escape and have to go through a Rube Goldberg waste processing facility.
-You discover that the facility has been experimenting on the aliens.
-For a long time you fight your way across the surface towards the Lambda Core.
-The military decides this is a clusterfuck and starts pulling out.
-You find an elevator that takes you down to the Lambda Core and a scientist lets you in.
-You have to fight your way through aliens to turn on the Lambda Reactor in several steps.
-The reactor powers teleporters, which you use to get to the top of the reactor.
-At the top you load up on weaponry and go through a big teleporter to the alien world of Xen.
-You walk around on Xen for a while.
-You kill the mother of the headcrabs.
-You walk through a Xen factory for a while.
-You destroy the boss of the aliens.
-The GMan (Blue suited man you saw throughout the game) talks with you while you teleport through some Xen scenes. He offers you a choice between working for him or death. If you work for him he says "I'll be seeing you up ahead" and the game ends. (Apparently he puts you in cryogenic sleep and wakes you up decades later to play Half Life 2) If you chose not to work for him he teleports you to a room with about 50 Alien grunts (most of them are sprites though, since that was a bit beyond the hardware of the day.)
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Well on TENCHU 3 : WRATH OF HEAVEN on PS2 you have a good cooperative mode which use vertical split screen.
It's a great game for everyone, you'd better play in a dark room for the mood.
Chris
http://www.gamespy.com/previews/june02/smtgcn/
Ask anybody this game (on the N64 at least) was a tonne of fun for up to four players.
Grab a GameCube and pre-order Mario Tennis if you want a fun game for you and your wife.
Unlike Mario Party where none of the clones are as fun Sega's Virtua Tennis was almost as good as this.
Not really co-op but Super Smash Bros Melee is fun. Its your (not-so) typical fighting game, but everybody fights at once. So if you had additional players your wife could team up with them to kick your ass.
Unreleased, but on the way, is a cool pack man game. One player is pac-man, the rest are ghosts. So you and your wife can team up to catch pac-man. It'll be more fun with four players as once you catch pac man you become pac-man.
Good PS2/Gamecube game called Hunter, hard to find, but it's a great coop game in the line of Gauntlet.
Hey, I've got that. You can get it for PS1 on Atari Anniverisary Edition Redux...
Also, maybe 5 years earlier.. Wizard of WOR.. you can play co-op or against each other , and change your mind at any time.. Its a Midway game.. that and GORF was one of the first games to speak...
I agree, Monopoly is not a great game by any means, it's just THE game that most Americans have been exposed to.
Here in the US, board gaming seems to be something mostly done by hobbyists and bored couples, but in Germany (from what I understand) it's considered something to do with the whole family. As such, there are a TON of great German designers designing some incredible games that are making their way over into the states. Don't worry, the majority of them have domestic versions, so you don't have to read German to play.
I would HIGHLY recommend:
The Settlers of Catan
Carcassone
Bohnanza
Puerto Rico
Two player games are a little harder to come by, but there are quite a few good ones out there. You might consider:
Lost Cities
Zeus and Hera
Odin's Ravens
Hammer of the Scots
Once you play any of these games, you'll never want to play Monopoly again. You can find more information on them at Board Game Geek, and you can buy them at FunAgain.com or GameSurplus.
Serious Sam for the XBOX also offers Co-op multiplay, and not only that - its got all the levels from BOTH of the PC games.
Its a shame that after about 30 mins playing, your eyes begin to water from trying to spot the guys who run at you screaming and then explode!
--Matt
--Matt http://www.eldoops.co.uk
Halo is fantastic multiplayer co-op. The co-op play is exactly the same as the single player games - except there are two of you and it's a great deal more fun (as has been previusly mentioned). A great deal of attention has actually been put into this mode and in my humble mind it's the finest dynamic of what is in my mind one of the finest games ever created (and is sadly often overlooked, or merely thought of as a cheap addon). Great little 'moments' arise when playing e.g. You're pinned down and getting the shit kicked out of you, you shout at your flatmate who leaps onto a jeep and races to the rescue. Leap onboard and be rushed to safety whilst lobbing plasma bolts at your attackers with the meaty plasma gun on the back of the vehicle. Ok Ok...I know it sounds a little sad and 'computer gamey' but it really is genuine "light up your face" fun. If you're after something else then maybe Four Swords (on GBA Zelda) or linkup between GBA and Gamecube for the Windwalker.
That first game looks really cool, thanks for pointing it out to me. I might pick it up.
My wife and I really enjoyed playing Myst 3 Exile and Monkey Island on the PS2. Since they are puzzle adventure games, the play is in solving the puzzles together. The humor in Monkey Island made it really fun to play.
btw, great topic! I've enjoyed seeing what people have played co-op.
Since you mentioned it, I have to bring it up.
Gauntlet II, for the NES. Don't play this game with the intent of beating it, because IT NEVER ENDS. I read a guide which said it ended at 100, and me and some buddies played it up to level 102 and it didn't end. After more hunting I found a FAQ which said level 250 was the end. NOPE! We played the game up to level 372 (yes, that's three hundred and seventy two!) and it didn't end.
Somewhere around there the NES froze (probably because we'd had it on for about two weeks straight while we played the game off and on trying to get to the freaking end of it...) and then we decided to call it quits.
But I must know; anybody go higher than 372? How much liquor/drugs/cheez product did it require?
Oh, to stay on-topic, get an old NES and pick up a copy of Battletoads, or any of the Double Dragon games, or Nemesis; they're all two-player simultaneous in a non-pvp kind of way.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
They've been dumbing down the games in general. I remember playing Payday years ago, and when I bought it again recently, half of the gameplay was simply excised. Suck.
Full House is another classic I remember from my youth.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.