What Are The Best Games for Couch Multiplayer?

While online multiplayer has connected us to more players and possibilities over the years, the local multiplayer experience has been an unfortunate casualty of this transition. With developer focus having shifted to online matchmaking for AAA titles over the last decade or more, local multiplayer ends up being either a tacked on ignored feature or in some cases removed entirely. Even the Halo series, whose first game only supported splitscreen for multiplayer eventually did away with it by Halo 5—cutting offline multiplayer entirely.

Though between Nintendo and a handful of indie developers, there are a lot of great couch co-op or competitive local multiplayer experiences to be found if you’re willing to look for them. If you’ve got a few friends coming over for nice night in playing some games on the couch, what are the one you’re gonna make sure are pre-installed before they get there? We want to know your favorite local multiplayer games.

Some quick rules for your nominations:

1) Your nomination should contain the name of a specific video game, why it is a good pick, a link where it can be purchased, and an image.

2) You can nominate multiple games, but please put each one in a separate comment.

3) Vote by starring someone else’s nomination.