Acquiring Xbox Game Pass does not solely entail solo play-time. Fun experiences are just lying in store for duos with access to the console’s greatest gaming service. A decent amount of titles available on Xbox Game Pass (and EA Play) allow for the pleasure of local co-op. And as any gamer worth their salt knows, playing a game with a buddy using good old-fashioned couch co-op is one of the best joys to be had.
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Whether the action occurs on a single screen or double the participation necessitates split-screen, these games ensure entertainment between friends. From sci-fi shooters to goofy physics-based playgrounds, Xbox owners can’t go wrong with these fun, local co-op titles.
The Ascent
The Ascent mashes up the straightforward RPG progression elements and loot-snagging shenanigans of a Diablo clone with the frenetic, action-packed stylings of a twin-stick shooter to great effect, and then wraps it all up in the neon-washed sheen of its cyberpunk setting.
While it’s an entirely competent single-player outing, playing it alongside a few buddies is where it’s at its best. Cooperatively hosing down its vibrant, gritty, high-tech locales with a hail of bullets is truly delightful. Players working together can build their characters using various augmentations and skill points to better support each other during intense shoot-outs in the cityscapes of Veles.
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Since Ultimate Chicken Horse got added to Xbox Game Pass, I’ve had the chance to host not one but two friend get-togethers, where all we do is sit around the TV and play this game. If you’ve never tried Ultimate Chicken Horse, you’re missing out on one of the greatest couch co-op experiences, especially because it’s as enjoyable and accessible to all people regardless of gaming experience. Each of the four players can select platforms, traps, or obstacles to place on this 2D map.
Once these objects are placed, the platforming portion of the game begins, and you all have to try to make it to the end goal. However, the game caters to having the fewest number of players actually make it to the end. If all of you or none of you make it, no one gets points. You basically do this over and over until a winner is declared. Failure is often the only option, and it’s hilarious. Much like a game of Jackbox, winning a match doesn’t matter. What matters is the laughs you had along the way.
Kingdom Two Crowns
The sign of a healthy, happy game subscription service is how many local co-op games it can give you. And brother, Xbox Game Pass keeps giving us healthy and happy. Recently (at the time of this writing), Game Pass added Kingdom Two Crowns to its library, and it’s a joy to see the local co-op offerings further diversified. You and a friend play as burgeoning royalty looking to explore your kingdom and expand your borders in a pixelated, 2D side-scrolling adventure.
You start off small, wooden fortifications protecting your base and retinue from the creatures of the night. But as you gather resources and rescue prospective citizens, you grow your realm more and more. Kingdom Two Crowns lightly encourages you and your friend to work together with great visuals and a nice soundtrack in the background of your kingdom-building. And even though you’re both limited by the scope of a side-scroller, the loop of exploring a land, building a kingdom, and then sailing to a new one, feels infinitely enjoyable.
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Local split-screen fun can be either cooperative or competitive, and which is best is all up to personal preference. The majority of options on this list are of a more cooperative nature. You’re usually working together to clear levels, cause chaos in an open world, or solve cute puzzles. Today, we add a game that just embodies that classic split-screen competition that we know and love from the olden days: Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. Nitro-Fueled is the fully remastered version of the original game.
Just as with the iconic Mario Kart, you’ll compete against friends in tracks, racing your little karts around and around during laps, using your knowledge of the track and power-ups to beat them all to the finish line. The only difference is you’re playing as Crash Bandicoot characters. Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a perfect title for game night, without a too high-stakes level of competition and with an easy learning curve.
Battletoads
That’s right, it’s everyone’s favorite froggies (yes, I realize they’re toads, but the alliteration doesn’t work there) named after various cutaneous conditions — the Battletoads.
The 2020 reboot of Battletoads wears what it is on its sleeve — it’s a humorously juvenile side-scrolling brawler that packs in a ton of couch co-op goodness. If you’re looking for an enthralling, deeply engaging gameplay loop or award-winning narrative experience, keep on trucking. But frankly, if you’re still reading, you’re past that already.
Battletoads supports up to three players, with each playing one of the unique characters (Rash, Pimple, or Zitz) and allows the relatively novel option of any unpicked characters being allowed to “tag” in, so you get the benefit of exhausting your healthbar then bringing in whoever’s on the bench. It’s a light, fun, not-too-serious party game or short session slug-a-thon with enough surprises and gags to keep you glued for a good while.
Doom + Doom II
If you’re craving a bit of retro boomer shooter goodness, you’ll be hard-pressed to do better than the original — and id Software has recently taken pains to ensure you can do just that in the best way possible.
Doom + Doom II is essentially a repackaging of id Software’s already slightly touched-up modern Doom ports, but with a few additional cherries on top. The original games come with an updated soundtrack, mod support, and practically every Doom episode that’s ever been released, including John Romero’s Sigil and a brand new campaign by Nightdive Studios and MachineGames.
And more to the point of this particular article, you can play through all of that goodness with both online and offline multiplayer support — seeing that FPS games with four-player split-screen support are something of a rarity these days, it’s highly recommended you give it a whirl next time you’ve got three like-minded friends over.
Army Of Two
Army of Two is an often overlooked little piece of Xbox 360-era third-person shooter history — and that’s a bit of a shame, really, because despite its shortcomings, it’s a blast to spend an evening with.
This is most definitely not a game that’s ever going to make you think too hard. It knew its audience. Gears of War was an entrenched favorite at the time of its 2008 release, and it straightforwardly shot to get a piece of that action. That said, the basics are going to be entirely familiar to any Gears fan. The core differences are a relatively in-depth weapons upgrade system and a much, much bigger emphasis on cooperative play — so much so that the campaign demands that you play with a suped-up AI companion if you don’t have a friend immediately available.
In terms of plot, it’s… well, about run-of-the-mill. Former military dude-bro mercenaries have to fight the terrorists, there’s a betrayal of some sort along the way that ups the stakes, and yadda yadda. It’s absurd, over the top, and so full of delightfully ham-fisted campiness that it’s incapable of taking itself seriously. But that’s meant in the best-possible way.
Diablo IV
Blizzard’s beloved hack-and-slash series went bigger than ever with its fourth numbered installment, but still managed to maintain most of its intrinsic charm, not least of which is the immense fun factor of journeying alongside a friend in seamlessly integrated local co-op.
Diablo IV’s narrative plonks your custom-made hero into the middle of a developing quarrel between the forces of fallen angel Inarius and his demonic ex-lover, Lilith (the daughter of Mephisto, for established fans that might care). As you journey through the world of Sanctuary to stop her schemes from taking root, you’ll slay a whole host of demons, tick quests off of your to-do list, and, of course, sift through absolute gobs of loot to maximize your chosen hero’s potential.
The number of bells and whistles that Blizzard’s tacked onto the tried-and-true series formula is fairly dense, but refreshingly, most of them land pretty well. Swapping Diablo III’s vibrant color palette for a dingy, gothic style more reminiscent of Diablo II’s visuals is an entirely welcome shift. The most ambitious is the game’s “MMO-lite” style — filling town instances with fellow players and randomly allowing them to drift past each-other in real-time during gameplay lands in a way that successfully makes the world feel “bigger” and more community-oriented without ruining its ARPG roots.
PlateUp!
What is it about the act of cooking that makes for great co-op games? PlateUp! follows in the footsteps of Overcooked as another fantastic local multiplayer game that tasks you and your friends with operating a restaurant and dealing with the chaos that ensues. But where Overcooked focuses on timed rushes assembling various dishes, PlateUp! has you building your entire restaurant from the ground up.
You design the layout, the placement of kitchen devices and seating arrangements, and then you go about serving customers. Crafting the most easily automated kitchen that won’t get entangled in complicated pathways is key to having a smooth experience. So the frenetic action that running a kitchen and dining area entails, albeit in an arcade-y fashion, is perfectly encapsulated in this solid co-op title. As you and your friends hurry to make it to that final day, tempers will be strained for sure, but hilarity will be had by all.
Vampire Survivors
2022’s surprise smash-hit roguelike already had a legion of adoring fans mincing up legions of vampires and undead fiends while eating copious amounts of chicken off of the floor — but they were forced to do so in abject solitude… until 2023’s 1.6 update, that is. Now they can engage in floor chicken feasts with up to four friends! Now that sounds like a dinner party for the ages.
Vampire Survivors’ still-relatively-fresh cooperative mode is just about what you’d expect, and just a wee bit more. The core gameplay remains unchanged — idle-shoot your way through progressively difficult hordes, scoop up items to become even shootier, rinse-and-repeat until you’ve met your match or the game decides to stop you. However, the developers did include a few mode specific nuances to really make the experience shine. For example, you can elect to “pass” your level-up item selection to a cooperative partner if you happen to nab a particular item they’re holding out for.
It’s just more Vampire Survivors, but tailored to share with friends. And that’s all it needs to be.
