My Favorite 🤝 Collaborative Games
Gaming is better with a partner, but it can be hard to pick something that everyone is excited about. Luckily, I have just the things.
The 34 games below are "collaborative", meaning there's only one controller, but all players feel engaged in the story, puzzle solving, and/or decision making.
Please let me know if you'd like to nominate an addition!
⬅️ Or, head back to All Collections.
A Short Hike
Cute, relaxing game. Similar to Celeste almost, where the oveall goal is to summit a mountain. Great music, design. Fun flying mechanics. Light, doesn't overstay its welcome.
Animal Well
Extremely intricate puzzles layered onto a world busting with explorable areas made this a most engaging adventure. Learning new mechanics kept the world from feeling too small and the odd atmosphere kept us engaged throughout. Ended up getting the platinum trophy (and the true ending) because we were having so much fun.
Botany Manor
Pleasant little puzzle game. Fun to explore the manor and piece together the clues about how each plant is grown. On the simpler side, but generally enjoyable for its short runtime.
Bugsnax
Very cute/horrifying game. Gameplay is simple, but layered. The characters have a surprising amount of depth to them, which gives the game a lot of legs. Had fun exploring the world; got the plat! --- Finished story in 7h 29m. Caught 52 on that play through on 9/24
Carto
Delightful game! Great art style and characters. Puzzles were light, but pretty good. Great core puzzle elment - they did a good job with it. Manipulating the map could have been a little more fluid, especially when trying to match pieces that didn't fit, but I really enjoyed it all the way through.
Chants of Sennaar
Superb puzzle game. Loved learning languages based on context clues and pictograms. The sections combined and overlapped well. The overall message was good and the story went fun places. Managed to say a lot without any dialogue. Had some unnecessary stealth sections, but they didn't bog it down too much. Deservedly in the conversation w/ Obra Dinn and Golden Idol.
Cocoon
Ethereal little puzzle game. I loved the seamlessness and otherworldliness of the environment. Was also nice to have a game from this dev that wasn't so gross or death-focused. The recursion was a good mechanic and it did a good job respecting your time. Lovely little experience!
DEVICE 6
Weird interactive puzzle / novel. Really amazing presentation, both at an audio and visual level. Sort of odd and meta, but in a very cool way.
Detroit: Become Human
Really impressive scope of choices and outcomes. Gorgeous game. A little heavy handed sometimes, but overall very good. They made the flowchart hard to navigate and replaying levels can't be sped up, so I'm not sure it's possible to go see all the other options in any reasonable amount of time.
Escape Academy
A little janky, but very fun. Good puzzles, charming enough story (such that it is). Did the DLC too, which were fun but not necessary.
Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island
What it lacks it gameplay, it makes up for in charm!
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
Similarly charming with marginally more gameplay this time around (but not really). Still a fun world and story though.
Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County
A lovely end to an extremely cute trilogy. Tied it up perfectly, no notes.
Hades
Such a fun game. Great gameplay and art direction. Hugely dynamic text is impressive, as is the totally dynamic storytelling. The builds are varied and fun. There's a lot of agency. I think it does get a little repetitive, but there's a lot of levers to pull. I could have maybe done with more enemy variety though. Endgame difficulty levels definitely add longevity.
Horizon Forbidden West
Took everything about the first game and improved it. Bigger world, better stories, more varied machines, better weapons, more interesting exploration, the works. The story was a little weaker, but set up some very interesting things. Plus, there's a lot of bits to find. And the stash system! What an improvement. Kudos all around.
Horizon Zero Dawn
What a beautiful world. Lots to explore. Good monsters, really makes you feel scared while hunting. Cool story, great worldbuilding. Never dragged, which was impressive. The inventory management was annoying and there were a lot of weapons that never got used. They didn't get in the way though, and it was just so fun to play.
Little Kitty, Big City
Game that tries hard to be cute and mostly nails it. Takes a lot of care to let you really _be_ a cat, doing as much or a little as you want. Gameplay mechanics are simplistic and there are more than a few bugs, but its charming supporting cast and cozy neighborhood make for a good time.
Maquette
Cool puzzles and atmosphere, evocative enough story. Mind bending presentation. Cute little game!
Patrick's Parabox
Very charming puzzle game. Definitely mind bending, especially towards the end. Completed 161/364 puzzles, which is impressive. Game felt smooth and engaging throughout, and introduced new mechanics well.
Pentiment
An enthralling tale of a man's place in a small town and the murders that happen there. But it's not about the mystery, really. More about the people and their lives. It's great to learn about everyone and see how your choices impact the story of this village. It's a bit slow at times, but it's cool to see the scope of it all.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
It was fun! Writing was better than I remember and the cases had good twists. Characters were eccentric and animated. Some of the evidence presentations were a little obtuse, but nothing too bad.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Justice for All
Better story than I remembered. Good investigation. Goofy cast, as always.
Return of the Obra Dinn
Really great concept. Frustrating at times, but really rewarding to figure it all out. Enjoyed the art style.
Strange Horticulture
Fun, plant-based puzzle game. There's a branching story that's surprisingly engaging. Plant identification gets a little repetitive after a while, but there's enough different identification angles and other puzzles that it stays fun.
Superliminal
Not really a story, even though there pretends to be one. But, the trippy visuals and mind-bending puzzles were pretty neat. Short and sweet.
TOEM
Extraordinary. Extremely charming, straightforward but not too simple. Fun to explore and build a little vacation album (captures some of the magic of FFXV in that way). Great level design. Fun taking pictures of hard-to-find things and wear funny clothes. Just a delight, top to bottom.
The Case of the Golden Idol
Great puzzles, good art style. Liked the overarching plot and the approachability of it all. I could have used 20% more difficulty, but it was a superp addition to the detective/logic genre.
The Forgotten City
Very cool exploration and mystery. I really liked how the storylines fit together. City was fun to poke around and the premise was interesting. Cool mix of history, too. I could have used more of it, but it was pretty tightly told.
The Talos Principle
Great "outside the box" puzzles paired with an philosophical story and beautiful graphics make for a great time.
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
Cute little game. Fun to explore the world, and it's ineresting being so short. The gameplay was light and there wasn't much gameplay in hunting for animals, but it's fun to stumble across them. Story was decent though, and the music was nice.
Baba is You
Really superb puzzles, but just brutally hard. I like the idea of it more than actually playing it, unfortunately. Great design and ideas though.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Puzzles are very hit-or-miss, but the art, story, and music are fun. All things told, it's aged surprisingly well.
Untitled Goose Game
Cute little game. Simplistic, suprisingly tough controls. Great audio work. Charming, lots of cackling. Nice and short, too. Nails what it tries to be, but I think it was a little simplistic to have totally knocked it out of the park for me.