Just wondering: what are some of your favorite co-op games. What games did you have a blast playing with your friends back in the day and now?
Mine are:
- Mana series/Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 3/Legend of Mana
- Halo series
- Guardian Heroes/Gunstar Heroes
- Geomon series/Geomons’ Great Adventure N64
- Diablo series
- Super Mario 3D World
- Elemental Gearbolt
- Metal Slug series
- Contra Series
- Sonic 3 and Knuckles
Honorable mentions:
- Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (PS2)
- Gears of War
- Dragons’ Crown
- Astal
- House of the Dead series
- Zelda Four Swords
- ICO
Seiken Densetsu 3 is my favorite, too. 
The Tales series is a close second - it’s especially fun when I can round up three other players to adventure with me! The co-op game I’ve spent the most time with is Terraria.
(Edit: Forgot Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. The way it integrated the GBA was pretty neat.)
I’d have difficulty naming ten, since I usually stick to single player games. Mainly the Sonic and Halo games. Ikaruga, as well. Metal Slug, Gunstar & Guardian Heroes could be fun too.
Since you mentioned Contra, I used to play a game called Probotector co-op. It was a rebranded version of one of the Contra games for PAL Megadrives. The human characters were replaced by robots.
I never got heavily into Gears of War and didn’t have the opportunity to try ICO in co-op mode.
Streets of Rage
Halo series
Guardian Heroes
Sonic 2, 3, etc.
Gears of War
Doom (new one)
Left for Dead 2
CS Go (I only play it with my brother)
are what I can remember at the moment.
I just remembered Rayman Origins and Legends. Although I haven’t played them yet…
It’s a top ten list, so I took it seriously and spent some time deliberating over it. I almost exclusively play single player or co-op games these days (with the exception of CS:GO), so this list is based on the games I’ve spent the most time on and had the most fun with.
-
Portal 2
I’ve played almost 200 hours of Portal 2 on Steam, and that’s because of the community test chambers. The game itself is already like no other, and whilst the six co-op missions are pretty fun it’s the levels made by community members that give the game an unrivaled longevity.
-
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
I played this to death when it first game out, and a couple of times since. At the time it was unique, and even better for the fact that over Xbox Live the enemy could hear when you used your mic to communicate with your team mate. This lead to having to be silent when in close proximity, and many tense moments of no communication…
-
Saints Row 2
Mayhem. That’s the only word to describe SR2’s co-op. You can get up to enough carnage on your own, but the game allows you to add a second player which brings with it a surprising layer of team work and strategy. It’s also brilliantly fun to pilot helicopters together.
-
Gears of War 2
The co-op in Gears was always a special, narrative-focused experience, but Gears 2 expands upon that with the ability to face off against the AI in horde mode. I spent many a night with friends building a fort in a corner of a map, trying to hold off the waves of enemies…
-
Halo 3
I surprised myself by putting a Halo title so far down the list, but finally being able to play Halo online was a gratifying experience. It’s easily still one of the funnest games to just sit down and play, simple to pick up and understand and even better played on Legendary together.
-
Far Cry 4
There’s nothing uniquely special about Far Cry 4, other than it does pretty much everything right. It has what I think is the best sandbox gunplay in gaming, and is set in such a beautiful landscape with plenty of things to do. The only downside here is that campaign isn’t co-op.
-
Gears of War
What made the first Gears special is just how dark and suffocating most of the game was. Even in single player you’re still playing with an AI companion, but when in co-op you experience the journey with another person and that makes it all the more visceral and meaningful.
-
Halo: Combat Evolved
This game represents a throwback for me, back to when you’d have friends come over to play the campaign with you. It was the first proper campaign co-op game that I played, and so many of my earliest memories of co-op were forged with Halo. Every session would end in betrayal after betrayal…
-
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers
A game I played relatively recently, and not one without it’s faults, but one that is different to most of the games on this list in that it actually requires you to use team work to progress. You have to cover each other, flank around the enemy to surprise them etc. It’s also super hard.
-
Sonic 2
I feel that Sonic games barely count as co-op, but this was my very first co-op game. My sister and I would play it, arguing over who got to be Sonic, because we always ended up sacrificing Tails here and there almost ritualistically (all in the name of progress, you understand).
Honourable mentions:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Ghost Recon 2
Halo 2
Splinter Cell Blacklist
1 Like
Anyone played Halo Reach or Halo ODST? How do they compare to the main series, gameplay-wise? Are they just as fun?
They are solid Halo games. ODST introduces Firefight mode, a survival mode which can be played co-op. Quite fun. Reach allows you to play the campaign with 4 players online, plus it introduces some new abilities such as the jet pack which add variety, but removes other abilities like dual wielding.
Do both games have split-screen, campaign co-op? Can you go through both Reach and ODST’s campaign with a friend?
You can. ODST feels a lot like Halo 3, Reach feels closer to Halo: Combat Evolved in a lot of ways.
Great, it’s nice to be able to play with a friend in the same room. You don’t get much of that any more. I plan on playing them soon!
1 Like
For the longest time now I’ve wanted to play co-op through all the Halo and Gears games again. They’re very special experiences.
@UrbanReflex do you recommend the co-op modes in Halo 4 and 5? I never tried those (just the single player campaign in 4). I imagine there will be a Halo 6 on the way soon as well.
I don’t remember any other game aside from streets of rage and golden axé.
If you like Halo co-op then there’s no reason not to try them, they’re still fun. They’re no better or worse in co-op than in single player though, which perhaps can’t be said for the originals (which seemed to have something special added in co-op).
Hey remember when we did a little twota Halo 2 tournament back in the day? We need to do something like that again someday. Not necesserilly with Halo 2 (maybe Master Chief Collection? i don’t own it tho) but just some fun excuse to shoot each other and hang out. I have fun memories of owning everyone’sasses under the Paet monicker.
How many people here own an Xbox One? Less than the number who owned an original Xbox I’m guessing. Maybe we could get the old version of Halo 2 for PC working if most people have a Windows machine that can run it.
Yeah PC would be best for me. I don’t own an Xbox One even.
And here is the ancient topic for that tournament: The Will of the Ancients' Halo 2 Championship
If enough people have Xbox 360s and Halo 3 that could be a good alternative…
Not anymore for me, I sold all three Xboxes, although perhaps others have still held onto theirs. Times have changed; while it’s understandable that the original Xbox was popular around here, not everyone will have stuck with the Xbox brand after Orta’s release.
The Tales series is a close second - it’s especially fun when I can round up three other players to adventure with me! The co-op game I’ve spent the most time with is Terraria.