Best Co-Op Games No One Remembers

The co-op genre has been synonymous with gaming since the beginning of it all, as playing alongside a friend has always been something that's made sense in the gaming universe.

It's a great thing to be able to play a game with someone, and even better when it doesn't require an online connection, but I suppose that's nearly here or there.

There have been incredible cooperative titles, but then there are the ones that get lost in the shuffle and forgotten by time. We're going to check out a bunch of the best co-op games that deserved a bit more love than they got.

8 Magicka 2

Spell Combos Galore

Magicka 2 is an underappreciated gem from 2015 that has some of the most creative and explosive co-op combat around. You play as a wizard in a weird and funny adventure where you play and possibly 3 other friends, fight against evil in a world that is slowly being drained of magic.

The story isn't too important, but the action very much is. The pull of the game is using your spells to combine spells to create a variety of wild effects. As you can imagine, playing through this with a friend is a blast, and discovering all the crazy combos is an incredible experience. It's not all that advanced graphically, but the gameplay is pure co-op bliss, and it's too bad this series doesn't have the shine on it that others in the genre do.

It also requires your brain, as you'll need to use your spells to navigate levels in unique ways, and it's all supported by your guide, Vlad, who is one of the weirdest characters I've seen in any game period and is worth the price of admission alone.

7 Fable 3

Forgotten Stories

Fable 3 is the black sheep of the franchise, but there were a lot of cool ideas there, like building a kingdom, making decisions for your people, and seeing the consequences of your rule play out in real time.

But what's it doing on this list, you might ask. Well, did you know Fable 3 has a co-op? It turns out you can experience the journey alongside a friend, and, for a game of this magnitude, it was quite an ambitious leap. Co-op is fully supported here, and you can do everything from ruling together to even getting married and having kids with your partner.

It's slightly janky in its execution, but getting to explore a big-budget fantasy world with a friend is something you generally only get to do with mods enabled, and yet, Fable 3 had it fully implemented. It's a game that shows its age in a variety of ways, but you can still have a ton of fun playing with a friend.

6 Castle Crashers

Unstoppable Co-op Action

Castle Crashers is one of the all-time best co-op games, but I don't hear its name shouted on the internet halls like it really should be. It's a shame, because as far as co-op games go, this action is top-notch. You play as a knight on a mission to save a princess, which is simple enough, but this game is packed with humor, wild level designs, and amazing boss fights.

Each character you have to choose from has their own special attack, so depending on who you choose, your playstyle may be completely different. You can play with up to 3 other friends, and it's a surprisingly challenging experience with plenty of replay value in the form of new characters to play as.

It's one of the original Xbox Live arcade games to really make an impact, and it's been remastered and re-released since then, so if you've got some friends to play with and are curious, I can't recommend this one enough. It's an all-time video game experience despite how cute and simple it looks.

5 Outriders

Outriders is a game that's already 4 years old, and it seems like it's just been completely forgotten by time and gamers alike. 2021 was an awkward year for gaming. Coming out of the pandemic, we just didn't have the blockbusters that we would get from 2023 to 2025 onward. But Outriders was a damn good game and a really fun co-op experience that deserved more than it got.

The tone of the game is over-the-top camp, but there is a cool story there where your character wakes up in the future to a crazy war between humans and an alien race. You're one of the Altered, which means you've got some cool powers to play with on top of your normal third-person, cover shooter faire.

The real fun is playing with a friend though. The game is frantic as hell with some amazing looking and fun to use powers, and you can build your character in a variety of different ways, and your class changes your playstyle considerably. It's also gorgeous to look at too, with amazing environments, great enemy designs, and explosive combat and ability effects. It never got the love it deserved, but it's a lengthy and incredibly fun experience to play through with a friend.

4 Resident Evil 5

The Forgotten Child

Resident Evil 5 is a game that just doesn't get talked about nearly enough. Everyone talks about how great 4 is and how awful 6 is, but nobody ever gives the love to 5 that it deserves. It's a full co-op experience that feels like the happy middle ground between 4 and 6 in terms of gameplay. It's absolutely terrifying as you play either Chris Redfield or newcomer Sheva as you explore an outbreak of a virus in Africa.

It's got some amazing sequences, boss fights, and overall, some of the best atmosphere in the series. The story is completely insane, with appearances from series staple Wesker as you face him in his Matrix era, and also some amazingly dumb moments like Chris punching a boulder, but despite that, it's a hell of a lot of fun to play.

It feels like Resident Evil 4 with a friend, and it doesn't have to be any deeper than that. It's frantic, has every Resident Evil staple under the sun and, at its best, the gameplay and set pieces are amongst the best in the series.

3 Army of Two

You and a Friend Against the World

Army of Two is a brutal, gritty, and completely un-PC look at two mercenaries that get caught up in a conspiracy involving the force they work for. While the story is fine enough, you're there for the action, and there's good stuff here.

You play as either Salem or Rios, and the co-op is as good as it gets. You can drag your partner around when they fall in battle, revive them, go back to back in the midst of a firefight and also combine to take hostages and even fake your own death in the midst of battle to get the jump on an enemy.

It's a violent, raucous and curse-laden journey that pulls no punches, and likely has a lot of content that today may be a bit controversial, but hey, this was 2008, and gaming was gray, bloody and full of curses like we were trying to replicate the latest Tarantino flick. It's got some mechanics that shockingly were never carried over to other games, but if you can find a copy, you'll see it has some of the best co-op gameplay out there.

2 The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Journey as the Fellowship

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is one of the best movie games of all time, and thankfully, it's possible to be played alongside a friend. It's as faithful an adaptation as there is, with everything from accurate scenery and dialogue to even the talents of the actors themselves taking up their legendary parts.

The gameplay is just awesome, with a fantastic assortment of levels with great set pieces to play through and multiple paths through the story as well. You have a bunch of playable characters too, so anyone you're looking to take up arms with in the movies, they're here, from the main Fellowship of Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf to beloved side characters like Faramir, Merry and Pippin.

There is great skill progression, amazingly done level design, and, while it's not the longest game, you get all you could possibly ask for here and then some, and for 2003, it was an incredibly impressive game.

The X-Men at Their Best

X-Men: Legends is arguably the best adaptation of the world-famous comics that we've ever gotten. Yes, it did release over 20 years ago in 2004, but honestly, it still stands up today in many ways.

You've got a bunch of X-Men to play with, a chance to explore the X mansion and a decently lengthy story mode that is pretty difficult and demands a lot out of you in terms of using your brain to get through some of the scenarios.

The game is an action RPG, and you can play as one of four characters at a time and the character progression lets you unlock new powers and abilities as you go, as well as letting you outfit your heroes any way you'd like. As far as the co-op goes, it's amazing, and you can pull off different combo attacks depending on which characters you're using, adding to the variety of gameplay.

It's got a ton of classic X-Men villains, and the story is surprisingly well written for a superhero game in 2004. Plus, it's the game that would eventually give birth to the ultra popular Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series.