As well as new games, how can we forget the old ones? The most famous of the co-operative games is Two for the Road, an excellent two-player co-operative game that has won a number of awards and has received near perfect scores from the gaming press, a very impressive result. The game can only continue with two players, who take on the role of two parents who have become dolls and work together to save their relationship and marriage and rekindle the warmth of their family for their daughter in a world that seems both real and unreal.
The game is available on all three consoles and PC and supports local two-player and online remote co-op, cross-platform online, free to play with XGP and EA Play subscriptions, and support for sharing friends passes.
Another game, A Way Out, may not be as famous as its predecessor, but it is also a two-player co-op game from EA and has many accolades to its name. Here, two players take on the roles of two men who have been imprisoned and need to complete various co-operative tasks to escape from prison. But just when they think they’ve regained their freedom, a difficult choice awaits them.
It’s a short game with a short story line, but with surprising plot twists and turns. In terms of co-op, A Way Out is more of a ‘co-op’ game than A Way Out, which is more of a breakout game, so it’s perfect for two friends to take a few hours out of their day and experience it all in one sitting.
The game is available on all platforms except Switch, and is free to play for XGP and EA Play subscribers, and also supports sharing of friends passes and cross-platform online. Note that the game does not support Simplified Chinese, but the English language is not too difficult and the full plot can be understood at a high school English level. I would personally prefer A Way Out to Two for Two, and for those who are interested, we recommend that you simply open EA Play so that you can play both games at a lower cost.
The classic co-operative game series ‘Hocus Pocus Kitchen’ is one of the most enduring titles of all time and has even been nicknamed ‘Break Up Kitchen’ by many couples. There were two generations of “Hocus Pocus Kitchen”, each with a unique map and a different and non-existent story line, followed by a DLC and a compilation version.
I’d recommend going straight to the next-gen console and playing the collection, which includes both generations of the full game and all the DLC content, optimised for next-gen consoles. While the game supports a single player mode, it’s the online multiplayer that’s the essence of the game, with up to 4 players working together on each dish and your headphones threatening to explode if anything goes wrong (trust me, one of your teammates will always be a screaming chicken).
The compilation version of Hocus Pocus Kitchen: It’s All Good is now available on all platforms, free for PS+ members, with local and remote online co-op, and cross-platform online only in this compilation version.
The name of the game suggests that it is inextricably linked to the former. Although they are not produced by the same studio, they are both published by Team17 and have a very similar game mode. In this game you and your friends take on the role of ‘furniture placement and repositioning technicians’ and complete a moving task.
With up to 4 players working together, you’ll encounter simple small items, fragile items that need to be moved together, and even ghosts, fires and other obstacles along the way (shouldn’t you be putting down your cargo to put out the fire?). You’ll need to plan the order of the moves, control the direction of travel, deal with emergencies and avoid damage to the goods until they’re on the truck.
Moving Out supports full platform play and is added to the PS+ member library (XGP is out of the library). However, the game only supports local co-op mode and console players will need multiple handles to play.
You can play as a ‘shared firefighter’ with up to three other players, going to a client’s house in danger to save lives, loot and rescue valuable property, then win prizes and buy more advanced fire-fighting equipment. The game is played from a first-person perspective where you can only see your hands, making it feel more like a VR game. The graphics are low-modelling and cartoonish, and it’s funny to see the clients’ scribbled faces without even playing the game. The game is available on all platforms and is part of the PS+ member library. The game is online co-op only, with good cross-platform online support.
How many of you spent your extra-curricular time at university linking up with your housemates in your dorm room for Survival Road? Then you’ll want to check out Revenge of the Fallen. This game was developed by Turtle Rock Studios and is considered by many to be a sequel to Survival Path. The game mode is also very similar, with both games being played from a first-person perspective as you make your way through a world full of mutant creatures.
As a ‘spiritual sequel’, Back 4 Blood is not just a rehash, but one that does its best to maintain the core of the game while adding a number of highlights, such as the card feature that IGN named and praised. Players will need to collect and purchase cards to expand their packs, and then mix and match decks for different characters and maps, looking like they’re playing Hearthstone Legends.
Thanks to the Unreal 4 engine, Back 4 Blood has more polished graphics and is more enjoyable to play. However, the public opinion seems to be mixed compared to the 8 out of 10 rating given by IGN, and the fact is that Back 4 Blood has a heavier commercial flavour. If you want to find out what the experience is like, why not grab your friends and have a blast in the game?
The game is available on all platforms other than Switch, debuts in the XGP library and has just been added to the PS+ library as well. The game supports online co-op battles for up to 4 players and PVP modes for up to 8 players, but unfortunately does not support local co-op play.
You’ve heard of Dance Force, but chances are you don’t know about BonBon Jump. The former is a classic Ubisoft dance game that is popular all over the world, but requires a device such as a joystick or remote control for body detection, while BonBon Jump plays no differently, but uses the power of AI and requires no additional equipment, just an iPhone.
Simply put, BonBon Jump utilises the iPhone’s camera and machine learning capabilities to recognise the body’s movements as it dances, allowing us to get rid of the joystick and remote control. Once you enter the game, you can choose to dance alone in ‘Fat Burner’ mode, or you can enter ‘World Dance Floor’ mode and create a room or join any of the rooms to compete with your friends online.
Once set up, BonBon Jump will suggest that you project your iPhone onto a large screen device for better results. Then choose whether you want to follow the jump with an avatar or a real person in the screen, and you’ll be able to enter the game. I’m sure many of you are easily shy when you see yourself on screen, so BonBon Jump once again uses AI to introduce avatar follow jumps, a great solution to those of us with social fears.
In terms of song genres, BonBon Jump doesn’t have as many as ‘Dance Power’, but it does cover Chinese, English and Japanese and Korean Pop songs. It also labels the difficulty of the dance moves for each song, so newcomers can choose between ‘Zero’ or ‘Beginner’, while those who have some basic dance skills or want to challenge themselves can go for ‘Intensive’ and ‘Challenging’ difficulty in one step.
Overall, BonBon Jump is not only a great way to spend New Year’s Eve dancing alone at home, but also to bring your friends and family together (although only one person can be tested, it is mainly more fun to dance together) and to compete with other players online. It’s a great way to liven things up and get some exercise. Of course, if you have just recovered from a new crown, it is important to avoid overly intense movements.
Crossy Road+ is a very old game, but it’s always been my go-to multiplayer game during New Year’s Eve. It was featured in a live demo at Apple’s autumn launch event in 2015, and its simple gameplay, childlike graphics, magical sound effects and various choking actions drew a steady stream of laughter from the audience.
I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about how to play Crossy Road+, as you control your chosen character with the remote control across a road, a railway and a river. But it’s the two-player mode that’s more fun. When you enter two-player mode, you can not only manipulate your critters to fight each other, but you can even do something bad, such as blocking the road in a space where there is only room for one player to pass and wait for him to be crushed by a car.
Crossy Road+ is simple to play, but it tests the interplay and reaction time of the eyes, brain and hands, and if you are not careful, your hands can easily mishandle the game and cause the chickens to be crunched. At the same time, it’s the simplicity of the game and the cuteness of the graphics that makes it so popular with a wide range of audiences. From school children as young as ten years old, young people in their 20s and 30s who are my age, middle-aged people in their 40s and 50s, and even older people who are not very old, all can break the age barrier and find their own enjoyment in this game.
However, it should be noted that Crossy Road+’s two-player mode requires an Apple TV and an out-of-area Apple Arcade subscription to play. And as Apple has now removed dual remote support, you’ll need to connect multiple Bluetooth gamepads or iPhones for two-player mode.
