Underrated Co-Op Games You Should Definitely Play On The Switch
While Sony and Microsoft battle it out over what it means for a console to be truly next-gen, Nintendo remains committed not to technological advancement like its competitors, but to fun. Many of the key features of the Nintendo Switch feel designed to maximize the fun its owner can have with the system, curmudgeonly approaches to things like its online service notwithstanding.
Following this principle, the Nintendo Switch (though not its Lite variant) effectively comes equipped with two controllers by default. Games ranging from casual, like Clubhouse Games, to hardcore, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, can all be played with a single Joy-Con controller.
This means that the Switch is a natural fit for co-op gaming, since virtually all Switch owners can handle multiple players on one screen from the get-go. While a fair share titles like Overcooked and Cuphead have earned widespread acclaim for their cooperative gameplay, the list of worthwhile co-op experiences on the Switch doesn't end with the hits. Here are three under-the-radar co-op titles for the Switch well worth checking out.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, the anti-Among Us
In recent smash hit Among Us, operating a spaceship is merely a backdrop for lies, deception and clever gameplay. In Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, operating a spaceship is a meaningful task, requiring genuine trust and close cooperation.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime supports up to four players, who will have to work together to navigate a hostile space world in an upgradeable ship. Doing so requires operating its four central systems: an engine, lasers, turrets and shields. In practice, these translate to movement, attack and defense.
Rather than anyone controlling the spaceship directly, each player instead controls an avatar within the ship. Players will have to navigate that avatar to a designated onboard station in order to operate one of its central functions.
While Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime can be played solo alongside an A.I. character, the experience benefits from company, requiring real-world coordination to make best use of all of the ship's systems and survive each randomly-generated level.
Crawl leads to cooperative slaughter
Crawl, released for the Nintendo Switch in 2017, is simultaneously a couch co-op experience and an asynchronous multiplayer competition.
At the start of each match, one of four players is designated the hero, and the other three villainous ghosts. The hero must progress through a randomly-generated, pixelated dungeon, resembling many a roguelike before it. That player, accordingly, wins after collecting enough experience points to face and defeat a final boss.
The other three players, however, will use their ghosts to possess either traps or monsters in order to stop the hero. If a player controlling a ghost should kill the hero, they then become the hero and the previous hero's spirit joins the side of the ghosts. Whichever hero reaches the end goal first is the one who effectively wins against the cooperative efforts of their fellow players.
Whereas Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime includes bright colors and cutesy character designs to match its saccharine title, Crawl features a dark medieval aesthetic that likewise fits its tense gameplay.
Monaco is basically Ocean's Four
Monaco: What's Yours is Mine was first released for Xbox 360 and PC/Mac/Linux in 2013. Six years later, a Complete Edition of the game arrived on Nintendo Switch systems, including new story content and game modes.
In Monaco, a team of up to four players must work together to pull off a cooperative heist. Following a trope well-established in the genre, each character is defined by one specialty, and accordingly granted one signature ability. The Locksmith, for example, can open locks at a quicker rate than other characters, while the Hacker can disable technological obstacles.
Missions are defined by a sole objective. Completing that objective can generally be accomplished in a number of ways, whether that means relying on its Hotline Miami-esque, top-down combat, or avoiding enemies entirely.
Critics praised Monaco for its replayability, which is thanks to each possible combination of characters oftentimes necessitating an entirely different approach to a given mission objective.