Best Co-Op Classic: Minecraft — PlayStation 4 Edition
It’s easy to fall in love with Minecraft (the second best-selling game of all time) because it’s gentle and offers one of the most liberating creative experiences in gaming that you and your friends can enjoy together. The co-op game can be played through an offline, split-screen mode and through a LAN connection with up to three other players.
Minecraft allows players to play at their own pace in a random generation block world where they’re encouraged to explore, craft materials and tools such as pickaxes, bows, shovels and swords, and, ultimately create anything they want to. The game’s Creative Mode gives players unlimited resources and full control over their 3D world. They can build anything within their imagination (think full-scale city replicas, castles in the sky, dreams houses, etc.) Survival Mode, the more challenging of the two, has players mine for resources, construct buildings to hide out in and fight off against creatures that come in the night to do battle and cause chaos.
Best Co-Op 2D Beat-‘Em-Up: Zombie Vikings
It may be a bizarre title, but Zombie Vikings will appease any old school set of gamers who long for a modern, side-scrolling, 2D beat-‘em-up game. It gets better: Where side-scrolling, 2D beat-‘em-up games are traditionally only for two players, Zombie Vikings ups the ante by giving both an online and offline co-op campaign with up to four players.
With animation and character design that has an ugly-beautiful look, Zombie Vikings is a nonsensical story of Odin raising four zombie Vikings to help recover his lost eye from Loki because the other gods are out partying. Best played with friends, the co-op brawler feels like an arcade game where each character has a unique set of abilities and special powers that help them overcome a various set of bizarre enemies such as giant maggots. With over 25 levels in eight different worlds, Zombie Vikings will keep you and your friends busy as you venture out to collect unlockable weapons, runes and occasionally smack each other around.
Best Co-Op for Survival: Don’t Starve
Nature can be cruel, but that’s not going to stop and your friend in destroying it and roughing it in the great outdoors with Don’t Starve. The RPG survival adventure game gives you no instructions or help as you and a friend explore, hunt, farm and fight for your lives.
Don’t Starve is an overhead, 2D, cartoony game where you and a friend venture out to survive by collecting materials and performing tasks such as chopping down trees for wood, picking berries for food and even crafting armor and weapons to fend off against various wild enemies. Fixated on item collection, the only real objective in Don’t Starve is to not die, and the game becomes more fulfilling as you take more risks and explore deeper and deeper into different, ever-changing environments. Nothing’s predictable; each time you and a friend start a new game, a newly generated world is created with different environmental makeup and challenges.
Best Co-Op for Rocking Out: Rock Band 4
Rock Band 4 unleashes your inner rock star with three other friends by performing…in a rock band. The musical rhythm game will test your vocal range, finger fretting and drum beating as you and your band cover 60 tracks from rocks biggest names.
Rock Band 4 includes old and new hits from bands such as Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, The Black Keys, The Cure and, yes, even U2. Though the game can be played with PS4 controllers, the real fun is with its Band-in-a-Box Bundle that includes guitar controllers, a drum kit and a microphone; it makes the game that much more interactive and fulfilling. If you really want to go all out, Rock Band 4 includes 1,500 downloadable songs through its in-game Rock Band Music Store.
Best Co-Op for Kids: The Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame
A family-friendly ninja lego video game like The Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame is the perfect formula for kids’ entertainment and parent approval. Lego does a wonderful job of creating children’s games that encourage its players to explore, build structures, collect and fight off fun foes without any stress.
The Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame features a two-player co-op mode that kids can jump into at any time and play as ninjas who must master the art of “Ninjagility,” which is not limited to wall-running and high-jumping. The game’s tame plot involves an evil samurai named Lord Garmdon and his army of sharks invading a home island of ninjas who must defend themselves. Though easy to play, kids will enjoy the challenge of battling enemies, leveling up and unlocking new skills and abilities that keep the game fun, fresh and entertaining.
Best Co-Op for First Person RPG-Style Shooter: Destiny 2
From the makers who brought you Halo, Destiny 2 is an action-adventure, first-person shooter game where players set out to explore the universe and take out menacing life-threatening aliens. The game’s big world comes with updates and expansion packs that give players even more content and missions to keep them busy.
Destiny 2 features a player versus environment (PvE) game type where you and up to three other players can perform various side missions on planets, as well as partake in a normal story mode where Earth’s last safe planet is at risk of alien attack. The game features RPG elements similar to dungeon exploration where players have to battle tough enemies in unique levels and are rewarded with epic items and weapons for their efforts. Different classes, power-ups, weapons, gear and updates keep Destiny 2 fresh and players busy with an online community that’s ready to play together.
Best Co-Op for Story & Suspense: A Way Out
A game for readers and movie fans, A Way Out has players assume the roles of two jailbirds set on working together and breaking out of prison. With both an offline and online option, gamers get the chance to play with a friend to complete an emotional narrative experience where choices matter and have consequences just like real life.
With a unique variety of gameplay, A Way Out is an immersive story-style game filled with moments of intense action, adventure, exploration, puzzle solving, chasing sequences and stealth missions. The game paces itself similar to a movie, getting players to feel fluid in the story by keeping them on their toes with meaningful interactions and decisions that unveil its unraveling plot. Multiple endings and paths of dialogue will keep you and your friend guessing and playing again until you find what you’re looking for.
Best Co-Op for The Ultimate Challenge: Dark Souls Remastered
Dark Souls Remastered is one of the most challenging modern day games that’ll have you suffering but loving every minute of it. The co-op, RPG, adventure game for PS4 allows you to summon a friend online while in-game to battle against various difficult foes and some of the hardest bosses in gaming. This one is not for beginners.
If the enemy AI wasn’t enough, Dark Souls will occasionally induce panic by having online human enemy players invade your game and spawn in an area on your map for the sole purpose of killing you and your friends. Full of customizations, skill attributes, weapons and items, players can pick a character class that specializes in everything from melee to magic that best suits them in helping prepare against the onslaught of zombies, knights, dragons and other terrifying enemies in a hostile dark fantasy universe. The game becomes increasingly difficult as players explore dungeons, uncover secrets and conquer menacing foes that offer a unique lesson in delayed gratification, patience and being careful.
Best Co-Op Cooking Simulation: Overcooked
Overcooked is a family-friendly fun cartoony PS4 cooking simulation game where up to four players can dish it up in its campaign mode. The game’s zany and creative scenarios challenge players to work together as a cohesive cooking unit of chefs who must feed the world.
Uh oh, a giant reasonable spaghetti monster is facing a moral dilemma and is stuck between destroying the city or just being fed, and it’s up to you and three other friends to prepare meals by cutting up iceberg lettuce, transporting tomatoes and delivering entrees in a timely fashion before it’s too late. Yes, Overcooked is that type of game — it doesn’t take itself seriously, which makes it that much more fun when you race against the clock and rush to cook soups, dice onions in a timely manner and satiate the hunger of various patrons of different species. Overcooked will challenge players to work cooperatively by following instructions, adapting to changes and ultimately appreciate equal teamwork.
Best Co-Op Classic: Minecraft — PlayStation 4 Edition
It’s easy to fall in love with Minecraft (the second best-selling game of all time) because it’s gentle and offers one of the most liberating creative experiences in gaming that you and your friends can enjoy together. The co-op game can be played through an offline, split-screen mode and through a LAN connection with up to three other players.
Minecraft allows players to play at their own pace in a random generation block world where they’re encouraged to explore, craft materials and tools such as pickaxes, bows, shovels and swords, and, ultimately create anything they want to. The game’s Creative Mode gives players unlimited resources and full control over their 3D world. They can build anything within their imagination (think full-scale city replicas, castles in the sky, dreams houses, etc.) Survival Mode, the more challenging of the two, has players mine for resources, construct buildings to hide out in and fight off against creatures that come in the night to do battle and cause chaos.
Best Co-Op 2D Beat-‘Em-Up: Zombie Vikings
It may be a bizarre title, but Zombie Vikings will appease any old school set of gamers who long for a modern, side-scrolling, 2D beat-‘em-up game. It gets better: Where side-scrolling, 2D beat-‘em-up games are traditionally only for two players, Zombie Vikings ups the ante by giving both an online and offline co-op campaign with up to four players.
With animation and character design that has an ugly-beautiful look, Zombie Vikings is a nonsensical story of Odin raising four zombie Vikings to help recover his lost eye from Loki because the other gods are out partying. Best played with friends, the co-op brawler feels like an arcade game where each character has a unique set of abilities and special powers that help them overcome a various set of bizarre enemies such as giant maggots. With over 25 levels in eight different worlds, Zombie Vikings will keep you and your friends busy as you venture out to collect unlockable weapons, runes and occasionally smack each other around.
Best Co-Op for Survival: Don’t Starve
Nature can be cruel, but that’s not going to stop and your friend in destroying it and roughing it in the great outdoors with Don’t Starve. The RPG survival adventure game gives you no instructions or help as you and a friend explore, hunt, farm and fight for your lives.
Don’t Starve is an overhead, 2D, cartoony game where you and a friend venture out to survive by collecting materials and performing tasks such as chopping down trees for wood, picking berries for food and even crafting armor and weapons to fend off against various wild enemies. Fixated on item collection, the only real objective in Don’t Starve is to not die, and the game becomes more fulfilling as you take more risks and explore deeper and deeper into different, ever-changing environments. Nothing’s predictable; each time you and a friend start a new game, a newly generated world is created with different environmental makeup and challenges.
Best Co-Op for Rocking Out: Rock Band 4
Rock Band 4 unleashes your inner rock star with three other friends by performing…in a rock band. The musical rhythm game will test your vocal range, finger fretting and drum beating as you and your band cover 60 tracks from rocks biggest names.
Rock Band 4 includes old and new hits from bands such as Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, The Black Keys, The Cure and, yes, even U2. Though the game can be played with PS4 controllers, the real fun is with its Band-in-a-Box Bundle that includes guitar controllers, a drum kit and a microphone; it makes the game that much more interactive and fulfilling. If you really want to go all out, Rock Band 4 includes 1,500 downloadable songs through its in-game Rock Band Music Store.
Best Co-Op for Kids: The Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame
A family-friendly ninja lego video game like The Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame is the perfect formula for kids’ entertainment and parent approval. Lego does a wonderful job of creating children’s games that encourage its players to explore, build structures, collect and fight off fun foes without any stress.
The Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame features a two-player co-op mode that kids can jump into at any time and play as ninjas who must master the art of “Ninjagility,” which is not limited to wall-running and high-jumping. The game’s tame plot involves an evil samurai named Lord Garmdon and his army of sharks invading a home island of ninjas who must defend themselves. Though easy to play, kids will enjoy the challenge of battling enemies, leveling up and unlocking new skills and abilities that keep the game fun, fresh and entertaining.
Best Co-Op for First Person RPG-Style Shooter: Destiny 2
From the makers who brought you Halo, Destiny 2 is an action-adventure, first-person shooter game where players set out to explore the universe and take out menacing life-threatening aliens. The game’s big world comes with updates and expansion packs that give players even more content and missions to keep them busy.
Destiny 2 features a player versus environment (PvE) game type where you and up to three other players can perform various side missions on planets, as well as partake in a normal story mode where Earth’s last safe planet is at risk of alien attack. The game features RPG elements similar to dungeon exploration where players have to battle tough enemies in unique levels and are rewarded with epic items and weapons for their efforts. Different classes, power-ups, weapons, gear and updates keep Destiny 2 fresh and players busy with an online community that’s ready to play together.
Best Co-Op for Story & Suspense: A Way Out
A game for readers and movie fans, A Way Out has players assume the roles of two jailbirds set on working together and breaking out of prison. With both an offline and online option, gamers get the chance to play with a friend to complete an emotional narrative experience where choices matter and have consequences just like real life.
With a unique variety of gameplay, A Way Out is an immersive story-style game filled with moments of intense action, adventure, exploration, puzzle solving, chasing sequences and stealth missions. The game paces itself similar to a movie, getting players to feel fluid in the story by keeping them on their toes with meaningful interactions and decisions that unveil its unraveling plot. Multiple endings and paths of dialogue will keep you and your friend guessing and playing again until you find what you’re looking for.
Best Co-Op for The Ultimate Challenge: Dark Souls Remastered
Dark Souls Remastered is one of the most challenging modern day games that’ll have you suffering but loving every minute of it. The co-op, RPG, adventure game for PS4 allows you to summon a friend online while in-game to battle against various difficult foes and some of the hardest bosses in gaming. This one is not for beginners.
If the enemy AI wasn’t enough, Dark Souls will occasionally induce panic by having online human enemy players invade your game and spawn in an area on your map for the sole purpose of killing you and your friends. Full of customizations, skill attributes, weapons and items, players can pick a character class that specializes in everything from melee to magic that best suits them in helping prepare against the onslaught of zombies, knights, dragons and other terrifying enemies in a hostile dark fantasy universe. The game becomes increasingly difficult as players explore dungeons, uncover secrets and conquer menacing foes that offer a unique lesson in delayed gratification, patience and being careful.
