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[nenjin]

Really been getting into couch coop lately, what my friends and I do when plans for weekly table top gaming fall through. And I'm looking for some recommendations.

Some caveats:

-I know there's a lot of 4 player local coop games out there now. Indie devs have cranked out dozens and dozens of games in the last couple years, mostly pixel art games. I've looked at a lot of them.
-I really want the best of the best of the best when it comes to 4 player local coop. Something my friends and I can come back to regularly instead of playing once for a couple of hours and never touching it again.
-Aesthetically speaking, cool wins every time vs. cute. We're fairly picky about what we'll play. For example, anime-themed games tend to fall pretty flat with us even if the gameplay is good, because none of us can really stomach saccharine sweet anime. Cool, badass anime is another story.
-Coop is a must. Even those weird half coop/half versus games like Crawl aren't really what we're looking for. We've all been playing games together for a long time and there are old rivalries, so we prefer games that aren't competitive.
-Puzzle games like Monaco and company also really aren't our bag. We like action first and foremost. Beat 'em ups, shooters, racers and the like are what we get into. Tower defense, puzzle solving etc.... not so much.
-RPGs, straight action games, most are ok.....the best would be games that give you a reason to come back other than just mindless coop fun.

As an example, a game like Road Redemption is what we're looking for. As a counter example, while fun, Gang Beasts is not what we're looking for. It pretty much typifies that light weight Early Access Steam game that is all fur coat and no knickers.

[miauw62]

Well, the Borderlands series is a pretty obvious one. As is Payday. Risk of Rain is fun for a while, but it's not very deep. Neverwinter Nights is old but seems pretty fun in coop.

[Mephisto]

How about something like Mercenary Kings? Mission-based gun porn that plays like Metal Slug.

[nenjin]

Well, the Borderlands series is a pretty obvious one. As is Payday. Risk of Rain is fun for a while, but it's not very deep. Neverwinter Nights is old but seems pretty fun in coop.

Local coop only.

[Ozyton]

Steam helpfully has a thing that allows you to specifically search for co-op splitscreen games, which I will link here. I could've sworn there was a better way to search, but I can't remember how to do it. I'm 100% certain that there should be more than one page of games.
Magicka has local co-op
Helldivers is made by the same people and could fit the description.
Castle Crashers is a co-op game, but it does feature a bit of competitive stuff at the end of levels(?). I only ever played solo so I'm not sure how much of a focus there is on that.
Hammerwatch is another game I haven't played much of but the store page says it has split screen.

Out of curiosity, how is Road Redemption a co-op game? I haven't really heard much about it, but I remember Road Rash being very much competitive.

[Il Palazzo]

Dude, Broforce. It's like, cool and shit.
http://www.broforcegame.com/

[Levi]

Towerfall is a riot, but I haven't tried its co-op mode.

[Sonlirain]

Sonic & All-Stars racing transformed is a kart racer with 4 player split screen.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/212480/?l=english
And so is it's predecessor.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/34190/
Plus you can get them on the cheap if you know where to look.
And Humble Bundle has a big sonic related 25'th anniversary bundle happening right now.
https://www.humblebundle.com/sonic-25th-anniversary-bundle.
As long as you have 4 gamepads (even cheap ones because you don't have to be super accurate with the analogs) i can swear by Transformed.

Then there's Little Fighter.
http://www.littlefighter.com/
Very old but kinda interesting in that you can play it yourself or add allied AI characters. And the game will spawn more enemies to fight (there can be literally over a hundred of various characters at once if you try hard enough). The hero characters (and most enemies) have spacial moves they can pull off and all their combos are fairly easy.
It's kinda like streets of rage with chibis and worthy of checking out.

Worms (and of the entire long series) is a staple of local multiplayer.

And then scrubbing the absolute bottom of my memory there's a game called "Get Medieval"
It's basically a gauntlet remake but made in 1998.
Probably cool but i doubt it's going to run on a modern system without making a fuss so it's more of a honorable mention.

And speaking of honorable mentions there's also this.
http://www.old-games.com/download/3091/v-wing
I remember having a lot of fun with that game back in 1999... it's obviously ancient and dated however but it's pretty much a weird mix of lander and descent in 2D.

[miauw62]

Well, the Borderlands series is a pretty obvious one. As is Payday. Risk of Rain is fun for a while, but it's not very deep. Neverwinter Nights is old but seems pretty fun in coop.

Local coop only.

Whoops, I missed that. Risk of rain has local coop, at least. I've had tons of fun in Ratchet and Clank Gladiator with my best friend, but that's only two-player.

[nenjin]

which I will link here

Helpful thanks. Although it returns a pretty paltry list of titles.

Magicka has local co-op

Does it play worth a damn on controllers? Last night we couldn't remember if it was local coop or not. We've already had a ton of fun with magicka at lan parties but I'd play more.

Helldivers is made by the same people and could fit the description.

Eyeballed on the store when it came out, I will revisit it.

Castle Crashers is a co-op game, but it does feature a bit of competitive stuff at the end of levels(?). I only ever played solo so I'm not sure how much of a focus there is on that.

CC was a bit too cutesy for me iirc.

Hammerwatch is another game I haven't played much of but the store page says it has split screen.

I own it but I don't think I've put more than 20 minutes into it. I'll have to revisit it.

Out of curiosity, how is Road Redemption a co-op game? I haven't really heard much about it, but I remember Road Rash being very much competitive.

Full coop. Shared experience, cash, win races as a team. However friendly fire is a real bitch, just like Magicka, so coop is in large part making sure you don't swerve across three lanes and accidentally behead your bro. Prior to the last update I'd say it was too feature incomplete to really support coop. But the latest update really fleshed it out. Some small bits still missing but otherwise it's been a riot playing it 4 player.

Dude, Broforce. It's like, cool and shit.
http://www.broforcegame.com/

Yeah. I want to like Broforce and I know it's a good game....I'm just trying to stay away from 2d pixel shooters because....well there's a shit load of them and they tend to be ephemeral, ya know? Like "Haha, that was fun blowing stuff up but do you have a real game" kind of thing.

Worms

We played a lot of Worms back in the day. It was one of those "multiplayer but not coop" games that made us all realize we need to not indulge our competitiveness when playing tgoether. Or you see 30 year old guys reduced to bickering 14 year olds

Hell, there were plenty of bitter recriminations in Road Redemption because people kept braining each other

Thanks for the suggestions all.

[Ozyton]

Sorry, I don't know why but for some reason that link only has one page of games. This link should work better

However it does list games like Rocket League as co-op which is... not... quite true.

[ThtblovesDF]

+1 on Helldivers.

Alien Swarm is free, you could try it.

Cortex Command is amazing if you... can get invested.

[nenjin]

For the record I already have Gauntlet 2015 as well, and have played it through solo. It's currently the only fully released dedicated coop game I own that we haven't tried yet. It was a pretty sore disappointment for me in SP, and I have heard the Slayer Edition really fucked with the mix and made the gameplay itself, taken alone, worse.

I wish to god someone would make something like Gauntlet Legends for the PC, or even a really well done old school Gauntlet remake with sexy topdown graphics.

I really liked Salt and Sanctuary and had played it two player coop with a friend, and found myself under the delusion it could do 4 player coop. Man that was a freaking disappointment.

[Ozyton]

I think the problem is you have too many friends =p

[nenjin]

I think the problem is you have too many friends =p

FML.