Two can Play at These Games - Perfect Co-op List for Valentines Day

My wife told me to write this exact blog post over a year ago, and here we are, approaching Valentines once again. So, if you’re looking for something fun to do with your special someone on V-Day, check out one of these options. And hey, they can’t be any worse than watching the movie Holmes and Watson.

Overcooked 1 and 2 #

Follow recipes, avoid flare-ups, and theory-craft the most effective routine to cook the most food. Unlock cute characters, new levels, and best of all, the challenge always stays fresh. In particular, the challenge curve in these games is extremely well-defined. It strikes a perfect balance of just being challenging enough so that there’s always more to learn, along with being very approachable and friendly for casual players.

Portal 2 #

If your partner can embrace the first-person perspective (it’s not for everybody), Portal 2 has a standalone co-op mode that is very fun if you’re already fans of the base game. Send each other flying through the air, run on walls and bounce as high as buildings in this legendary physics puzzler from Valve. Be warned, this might induce a bit of motion sickness!

Minecraft #

Minecraft needs no introduction. Survival mode can be great fun, as you eek out a subsistence life of farming and ranching, but if you pick the right project, creative mode can be even more fulfilling. Build a giant rocket ship, or a sprawling city, or a themepark, or just a cosey forest home. In Minecraft, you make your own fun, and picking a prompt you both enjoy is crucial. It pays to gasp have a good conversation with your partner and learn what they’d be interested in building.

Codenames Duet #

This is a great co-op board game! You and your fellow agent are trying to guess which codenames are real, while avoiding making a mistake. It’s kinda like if BattleShip and Password had a baby. Very fun and very replayable. Perfect for a weekly boardgame night!

Baldur’s Gate 3 #

I haven’t personally played Baldur’s Gate, but from everything I’ve read, it’s a classic RPG adventure that is great fun when played with a friend. Co-op RPGs are technically intimidating (when I try to design one in my head, it seems astoundingly complex), but they can lead to some great payoffs.

Wattam / Katamari Damacy #

While I can’t speak for Wattam, I have played plenty of Katamari games from Namco. The sheer insanity of these games and their incoherent tones are something to behold, and are highly memorable experiences. For example: “Remember when we rolled that fat guy through town scooping up all the food?” is a great little inside joke to whip out when you’re waiting on the pizza delivery truck and twiddling your thumbs.

MarioKart Wii #

This may come as a shock, since I’ve heard some couples nearly come to blows after a single race in MarioKart, but there is actually a co-op mode! My wife actually showed it to me, and it makes racing much more enjoyable. We’re no longer competing against each other, instead, we’re both cursing Skull & Bones for being a dirty cheater. Blue team forever.

Call of Duty Black Ops #

As a stereotypical high school boy, I spent most afternoons playing shooters like COD and subjecting myself to the horrible degeneracy spoken over Xbox Live voicechat. When I eventually left for college, what I did not expect, was that both of my parents picked up Black Ops and became fanatically attached to team deathmatch. My sister and I would play with them, sure, but that was more like a family activity.

On their own, my mom and dad played against bots (usually on easy difficulty), and never online (thank God). But they would approach it with an unmatched intensity. To compensate for their lack of thumbstick aim (due to living well-adjusted productive lives), their usual strategy was to hole-up in a building and camp. Wave after wave of bots would stumble-in, look around, and occasionally take revenge, leading to wild flailing and excitement from my parents.

Don’t misunderstand me. Though technically unskilled, my folks customized their classes, placed claymores on doorways, and patently abused perks like Scavenger and Stopping Power. They even bought the DLC maps. It is a strange and wonderful thing to be able to share something like COD with your parents. I’m just glad they enjoyed it enough to play after me and my sister left home.

The lesson here is don’t let a game’s mechanics scare you off if you aren’t good. Co-op can compensate for a lack of individual skill.