this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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My partner and I occasionally play games together, but they pretty much only play word puzzle games on their own. I'm not very good at word games though, and they don't have very good spatial skills, so we frequently find ourselves mismatched. We have a switch and a single decent gaming pc, and a pretty old laptop.

The biggest hit for us has been Baba is You because it is slow paced, and combines words and logic and spatial reasoning. Our biggest problem was that its not actually coop, so we would just alternate who played, which can disengage the other person. My partner also thought its aesthetic is cute.

Our next positive example is probably Snipperclips is also a pretty slow paced puzzler, is mostly spatial skills, but we could play at the same time. They also liked how interactive the avatars are, and particularly snipping my avatar up.

The first miss is overcooked, it was a bit too chaotic, and my partner felt a little lost and uncoordinated. They don't remember it super well, so we might retry this one at some point if they feel more at home playing video games.

The other miss is Mario Kart, which they liked when we played with 4 player, but not just the 2 of us. I'm significantly better at Mario Kart, and they are pretty competitive. If they get more into games they might be willing to put in some time improving, but not so much right now.

Our worst miss was probably Tricky Towers, I'm decently good at regular Tetris, so I can do okay out of the box at physics based Tetris, but there was too much happening to fast for my partner. Combine that with it the competitive aspect and they didn't enjoy this one at all.

The games they most fondly remember from childhood are Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero, though we have downstairs neighbors under part of our apartment and no dance pad or guitars, SSX Tricky, and the Lord of the Rings movie tie in games.

They think they'd enjoy a game that does movement as input like ddr or guitar hero but is maybe less bouncy, and are open to action games, or games with a story, but they should be easier to control and not be too chaotic. Cute aesthetics and cats are a plus.

Thanks!

Edit: Everybody gave great recommendations! We picked up It takes two and pizza possum. Just finished the first chapter of it takes two and we had a blast, and I might even be able to get another game night in this weekend if we can be on top of chores. I'll keep checking in this thread for more ideas for future games to try! Thanks again!

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 11 months ago (2 children)

"It Takes Two", check it out.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

I also recommend this game as one of the best co-op / split screen games I've played.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

My wife and I loved that.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime - coop, a bit actiony but less chaotic than Overcooked. Beautiful and cute artstyle.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Fantastic game, my family has been playing it for years on Switch, starting from when my kids were uselessly young, to now that they are pretty good gamers and it has always been fun. One of the few games my wife plays with everyone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

This was my first thought too. Highly recommend.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I think this is one we'll check out. I bounced off it a few years ago, but I think that was because I played it in a party where I was more interested in just hanging out and catching up with the other players.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

My partner didn't "do" video games growing up. Till Stardew.

This is the way.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The Trine series is pretty fun. It's a 2.5d puzzle platformer game. There are some combat bits, but most of the game is puzzles. I'd recommend the second one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I have Trine 2 in the depths of my unplayed steam library, so this is a great option!

Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

My partner and I like to play the Lego games together. Lego Star Wars (2005ish) was a favorite, but the newer ones are fun too.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I could probably sell them on lego lotr, adding this one to the list!

Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I second the Lego games. Although the older ones (Complete Saga) & Lego Indiana Jones were annoying to play COOP because there's no split screen.

But Lego Star Wars Clonewars has split screen so you don't get in the way of each other. I haven't actually played other newer Lego games but I assume they will have split screen as well.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

A lot of people have mentioned It takes Two, which really is great and you get to try many different mechanics.

You can also check out Fling or Keywe on steam. Only 2 players max (as compared to 4 players on Overcooked or Plate Up), but less complicated controls. Bread & Fred is another I've been meaning to check out too.

Unrailed has simple controls but more objectives to accomplish, and Out Of Space is similar to Overcooked but not in a cooking setting.

Edit: Didn't realise I used a shortened name. Fling refers to 'Fling to the Finish'

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Late to the thread, and you already have loads of suggestions, but Portal and Portal2 may help your partner with their spatial issues. I've heard that those are the games to use to introduce someone who doesn't play videogames in general, but specifically FPS, to the media and basic controls that most of us gamers take for granted.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

NOPE. This might work for some people but my partner couldn’t handle it :/. When walking around in 3D and paying attention is hard portals are just too hard when thrown into the mix. I would kill to be able to play Portal 2 coop, but alas :C. Maybe Portal 2 would be better to start on, they do a better job of introducing some concepts and the story is harder to completely ignore lol.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2. It's not on the switch, but I'm guessing it should run fine on your old laptop since D:OS1 came out in 2014. My wife and I love these games since she isn't very good with fast action, and these are turn based fighting so she can take her time figuring out what to do to whom.

It's also got great couch co-op.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Yep, my partner also did not enjoy the "misses" on his list, but we had a blast playing divinity original sins 1 & 2. Now we are 100 hours into Baldurs gate 3. I highly recommend these games for couples.

Surprisingly, though, while more fast paced, she did also really enjoy It Takes Two. It is a game that does try to be a bit accessible for the new player.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Try out It takes two

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Overcooked is only fun if everyone is terrible or everyone is great. It's a great concept but definitely not going to work out for most groups.

For Mario kart, did you put on some bots? Without the NPCs, 2 player is lame, even if you are both quite good.

Have you played It Takes Two? This sounds like it hits your requirements.

For couch coop, I'd actually suggest Mario Deluxe over the very recent Mario Wonder if you wanted to try a side scroller. Wonder is great, but it's couch coop is poorly implemented unless you are both good or both terrible as with overcooked. Deluxe doesn't have that issue, in my opinion, due to the way the scrolling works in game. It might feel odd spending $60 on a 10 year old game from the WII U, but Nintendo originals always hold up well.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think they struggled to even parse what was going on in overcooked, and need more experience playing games generally to be able to enjoy that kind of chaos because they just felt lost.

Alas, beating bots on Mario Kart means nothing to them.

That's 2 fast recs for it takes two, so I think thats probably gonna be on the shortlist.

I think I have NSMBU on wii u in storage at my parent's house. We're visiting in for the holidays, so maybe we'll hook up the wii u there and try that. I remember liking that game a lot.

Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Portal 2 has a coop mode which I hear is great. I adore portal 1 and 2, but never got a chance to try coop.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Can confirm, the portal 2 coop is fantastic.

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[–] GreenZanbato 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

We Were Here and its sequels seem like the perfect slowish paced coop puzzle games for you guys.

Operation Tango and Escape Simulator are similar and also great.

A Way Out is similar to It Takes Two, with a more serious story.

Monster Prom/Monster Camp and The Yahwg are co-op visual novels.

Clandestine is a Co-op stealth game where one player plays as a spy, fps style, while the other plays as a hacker providing overwatch by controlling cameras and doors, giving directions, etc.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is another asymmetrical co-op game where one person is trying to defuse a bomb by solving puzzles and the other is trying to help by reading the manual. The defuser has to tell the other person what’s going on so they can give the right instructions, much sillier than it sounds.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

It takes two is the obvious suggestion, and I'd personally also recommend vampire survivors

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I found this really difficult to read/understand this in places with the neutral pronouns. Anyway a cool little coop puzzle game is Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. It's an asymmetrical puzzle game where one of you is trying to defuse a bomb (played on a computer) while the other is trying to give directions without seeing the bomb. It might fit your asymmetrical needs you described.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Every "they" refers to the partner (the first two words of the post). Shouldn't take too long to get used to in future.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Serious answer:
If it doesn't have to be digital, there's an entire world of board games available. Dominoes, Magic: The Gathering
Funny answer:
If it has to be digital, Table Top Simulator is fairly cheap and can play an entire world of available board games. /s

Wife an I split time on RDR2. Her doing most of the fishing/hunting, me doing the rootin/tootin parts.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

If you have two displays for you PC and are willing to do a bit of fiddling, I think you can set up split screen two player stardew valley which is a great chill game

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

what about Yoshi's Crafted World? easy gameplay, cute aesthetics and good co-op

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Lego games like Lego Starwars has already been mentioned and I will second those (especially the newer ones that have split screen).

Divinity Original Sin is also great.

 

Honestly most games I can think of have already been mentioned and those who have not seem like they might not be that great of an option since it seems your partner isn't normally into gaming. (RTS in particular might be too hard)

But I will suggest some anyway just in case

 

Starcraft 2 has free online multiplayer which includes a COOP vs AI mode.

There's also a 2 player campaign adaption of Warcraft 3's normally single player campaign. Although it might only be available for pre-Reforged.

Also I didn't know about it before now, I googled it just in case, but apparently SC2 also has COOP mods for its campaigns.

 

You mentioned having a Switch so I will recommend Advance Wars Reboot and Wargroove 1 & 2, although there are no COOP campaigns but you can play multiplayer maps.

Besides Advance Wars Reboot Camp on Switch (or the originals for Gameboy, which you could play with emulator), there's also an online fan site called Advance Wars By Web where you can play advance wars in the web browser, although there's no single player.

Wargroove is also on Steam and besides the campaign and regular game itself there are puzzles.

 

And speaking of Puzzles, card games tend to have Puzzles. I haven't actually played Magic, Yu Gi Oh, etc. so I can't say for sure whether they have any, but there's puzzles in Faeria. (I would've recommended Might and Magic Duel of Champions, it had some great puzzles, but Ubisoft shut that game down many years ago)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Also StarCraft 2 can be modded with MassRecall so you can go through the SC1 campaigns, more than just SC and Broodwars, in the SC2 engine, which makes them a bit easier and more satisfying. I think that would allow you to do co-op on the original single player campaigns.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

It Takes Two is probably the best jumping off point (as you’ve already been informed). It has enough variety that you can discuss what parts they liked and maybe find the games in that kind of genre.

My partner isn’t big on games, but loves The Binding of Isaac for coop. The latest DLC adds a better coop mode, but the original coop mode with coop babies works well too (and there’s advantages like them being able to fly so they don’t need to worry about floor hazards). I think the fact that they grew up in a catholic household but aren’t religious helped them get into it lol.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

My partner was never really into games growing up, and especially had trouble with the spatial aspect and controllers.

The tipping point came when we played Minecraft together and they got to use a keyboard and mouse rather than a controller. Since then, they’ve done tons gaming on their own with hundreds of hours in Stardew Valley and a more recently a deep dive into Fallout 4.

Destiny 2 played a big part in learning shooting mechanics, sense of space, and especially precision platforming.

Thrilled to see that you’ve found and enjoyed It Takes Two because that’s our all-time favorite co-op game and we recommend it to everybody.

Since yours is into puzzling, I want to second the recommendation for the We Were Here series. The first one is free and each is better than the next. It’s an asymmetrical puzzler that requires two computers with each player unable to see the other’s screen. Communication is critical to solve each of the puzzles.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I genuinely think getting a Wii U would be an awesome idea too, massive libraries made of just games that are perfect for this situation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I have a Wii U in storage at my parent's house, I might see about us checking some games out when we visit for the holidays in a couple weeks. I don't want to overwhelm them too much though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I play a lot of games with my 10yr old daughter. Here are some of what we liked:

-Any lego game(there are sooo many and they often go on sale)

-trine series, much more puzzley

-sackboy a big adventure

-brothers a tale of two sons

-it takes two

-portal 2

-degrees of separation

-putty pals

-ibb and obb

-toodee and topdee

-bleep bloop

-battle block theater

-chariot

-pikunuku

We also loved going through the monkey island games. They are not mumtiplayer but they are slow point and click games that we bounced ideas off one another.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I have been recommending Farm Together as a co-op game a lot lately because it is so damn simple but so good. The controls are immediately accessible, the game doesn't give a flying fuck about stressing you out but at the same time there are a lot of systems to discover (making money isn't trivial in this game) and the crops take realtime to grow so it naturally sets up a simple ritual with your co-op partner to play. There is not really any story to get into, but at the same time this makes it a bit more accessible to someone who isn't already invested in video games since the gameplay loop is so immediate and unframed by any cutscenes, story setup, long tutorials or forced activities. You pick it up and start playing immediately, you decide completely how to interface with the game whether it be crunching out the numbers to figure out which crop, fish etc.. to go for to maximize money, just zoning out watering, planting and harvesting or spending all your time placing cosmetic buildings and props to make your farm look cool. Want to take a break and just watch your partner play? Sure! Walk away for a half an hour if you want, you will probably have a bunch of crops waiting for you to harvest once you come back. The game really doesn't have an opinion on how you should play it and it is great.

(It looks like a game like farmville, but there is zero manipulative microtransaction crap, just buy the game and play)

If you want more story and thematic framing, you absolutely have to try Stardew Valley, it is a co-op classic for a reason.

Also if you liked the idea of Overcooked but found it too focused on stressful energy that isn't necessarily fun for everyone than check out PlateUp! YOU design the kitchen in plateup and add various components to it as you progress. It puts a lot more agency in the players hands instead of throwing players through a chaotic theme park ride that overcooked feels like in the harder levels. It also brings strategizing about kitchen design with your co-op partner into the gameplay loop which is great fun. You can also automate some stuff, so players can dig into that if they want to avoid feeling like the game is so focused on stressful action.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

The biggest hit for us has been Baba is You because it is slow paced, and combines words and logic and spatial reasoning. Our biggest problem was that its not actually coop, so we would just alternate who played, which can disengage the other person. My partner also thought its aesthetic is cute.

Portal 2 might be fun. It has a co-op mode and is similarly a puzzle game where you need to work out the logic of each level and then sequence your actions in the correct order.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Secret of Mana (SNES)

As one of the consoles most famous titles, there's a number of ways to play it.

It'll help develop some of her hand-eye, but in a slower, calmer way she will probably be more than equal to. There's also a lot of character development and plot, it is a jrpg-influenced game after all.

2 player co-op kicks in about an hour-ish into the game, if memory serves, once the second character enters the story.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I really like Secret of Mana. I think because I've already played through it would make it less of a good coop game for them, but if I can get them a little interested in playing on their own I think it would have potential as an early game for them.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

May be hit or miss but Moving Out (1 or 2) is a lot of fun. You spend most of your time failing to do anything and just laughing about how goofy it is.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

My wife and I really enjoyed playing The Quarry together. It's one of those games where it is more of a movie with decisions so I would do all of the controls and she would do the decisions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Video games: Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Pizza Opossum, PlateUp!

Physical game: Crokinole

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Out of Space: it's very similar to Overcooked, but a lot less chaotic, me and my wife love it and play it all of the time because Overcooked, while great, can be too much action. It is available for PC (and should work even on the crappy one possibly), and switch. Let me know how that goes, I love this game and it is not widely known so I love showing it up to people.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Might be not as recent, but the Trine series might be worth a look. I would also recommend Magicka, but that can be chaotic at times so I am not sure if that would be a good fit or not.

Since they mentioned action games as an option, Vermintide 2 can be a super fun co-op game and is very enjoyable across the easiest and hardest difficulties. It’s Warhammer Fantasy so the aesthetic is gonna be more grimdark and gory than cute, but holy fucknuggets is the gameplay good. It’s basically horde shooter like Left 4 Dead and Payday, but with a huge focus on melee combat rather than shooting. It’s also an “easy to pick up, hard to master” game and very much enjoyable, so the lower difficulties might be less chaotic than the higher difficulties. The community is also generally pretty chill and nice, so if y’all ever play pubs you’ll usually get people who aren’t sweaty and tryharding in the game outside of very specifically the second-hardest difficulty called Legend. Killing rats on anything below the Champion difficulty can be a chill time, and on Champion or above, the game starts to really engage you with mechanics like dodging, pushblocking, cleave, stagger, boss kiting, and light/heavy attack weaving.

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