Gaming doesn’t have to be a sure-fire path to a hermetic life. With local multiplayer games, you can sit with friends and family and share the joys and frustrations that co-op teamwork brings or feel the competitive air as you combat in close proximity to each other. You can physically talk to discuss puzzle solutions, and mull over tactics in the heat of battle.
Whether you’re playing for a quick, adrenaline-fueled contest or sitting down for a long session of bonding in a collective adventure, here are some of the best local multiplayer games to prevent loneliness and to keep you connected with those around you.
Still on the couch with a friend? Why don’t you play ‘The Best Survival Horror Games You Won’t Want To Play Alone?’
1. What The Golf
What The Golf is a game not to be taken seriously (unless we’re talking about seriously fun). It’s certainly not what you might expect from a ‘sports’ game.
Without shying away from the ‘pull back and let go’ mechanics used by regular golf titles, the game treats us to all kinds of crazy antics. Instead of the ball flying, our player launches forward instead; or we’re launching a desk chair over ramps; sometimes we are hitting a ball but we’re hitting it through wormholes, or around eager soccer players towards a goal instead of a hole.
The absurdity of the game is gratifyingly rife and the madcap antics are plentiful. With its bright and cartoony visuals, this is a perfect game to keep you and your gaming buddy laughing all day long.
2. Regular Human Basketball
Platforms: PC
A game about cooperation rather than basketball, Regular Human Basketball slams you into the gigantic mechanical frame of a ‘human’.
As miniature robots playing inside a humanoid machine, the ongoing joke is one long unsubtle wink alluding to the fact that you’re not actually a human. Like some deluded reverse-cosplay sporting convention, you run around inside these machines, attempting to control the giant, clunky appendages dangling out of their oversized costumes. You awkwardly swing and fling yourself around with the aim to dunk the ball in the hoop.
Gamers can play on opposing teams but it is most entertaining with two players on one side. Communication is key as you contradict movements. You trip and slip over each other’s intended motions as the robotic ‘regular human commentators’ make offbeat, yet somehow realistic, observations on the match.
3. Death Squared
Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Xbox Series
If you’re looking for a way to test your friendship then Death Squared is a good place to start. A difficult game even for solo play, the challenge ramps up quickly with the inclusion of additional players. You use your conjoined grey matter to solve puzzles (or die trying).
Squares of differing colors maneuver around cubed platforms beset with hazards. Each cube has its own weakness and immunity; for example, they can pass through squares of their own color but not others, so each movement must be calculated and precise.
While speed is not an essential element, precision is. And with that comes the requirement to plan and converse with your fellow gamers as you shift and climb on and around each other. This seemingly simple game hides a depth of difficulty to challenge even the tightest of relationships.
4. Inversus Deluxe
Platforms: PC
Magnificent monochrome mayhem ensues in Inversus Deluxe.
An homage to arcade games of old, Inversus has black and white squares battling each other with cunning, tricks and traps. What seems at first to simply be squares shooting pixels of opposing shades at each other in fact broadens out into a clever and imaginative use of “negative space” (as the developers call it).
Bullets streak across the screen switching opposing-colored tiles, freeing you from imprisonment, blocking enemy fire and trapping opponents within cells.
There are both co-op and competitive modes for you to jump into with a friend (or enemy). Speedy and tactical, this is a perfect ‘pick-up-and-play.’
5. Unravel Two
Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Xbox Series
The gaming embodiment of a virtual hug, this rapturous entry has you feeling like you’re holding the hands of your gaming partner in defiant and loving solidarity.
Unravel Two adds an extra ‘Yarny’ character for co-op play. The thread that binds the two of you acts as your tool for progression as you swing and loop your way across meltingly rich and endearing platforms in emotive and engaging environments.
6. Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime
Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Xbox Series
You might not know what to expect from a game with this title, but if it brings to mind thoughts of cuddly galactic cartoon rabbits hurtling through space in a giant, spherical neon battleship then you’d be right.
Not dissimilar to Regular Human Basketball, here you are severely overburdened by the task of running different parts of a ship with your team of up to four people. You run madly up and down ladders to access different controls that maneuver your ship, shields, blast cannons and thrust forward.
Communication is vital and it’s easy to trip over each other as you scramble desperately to demolish adversaries and avoid cosmic obstacles. This is a lovers’ tiff and apologetic embrace bonded and rolled into 6 hours of eccentric and uplifting fun.
7. Ibb and Obb
Gravitational mechanics are the key to this game’s uniqueness. Step through various openings to enter environments of flipped gravity. The ethereal electronic soundtrack hypnotizes you into a comfortable silence that you can only feel amongst friends.
The objective is to collect the crystals that explode from objects and enemies, requiring both players to orientate themselves around the screen. Whilst frustrating at times this is a relaxing co-op game that keeps both players absorbed.
Has co-op gaming has gotten you too stressed? Wind down with ‘The Most Relaxing Games To Ease your Busy Mind’. Or warm yourself up with ‘The Best Springtime Games To Welcome In The New Season’.
