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Preferably free or at least not to expensive (<20 EUR)

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[-] missingno@fedia.io 1 points 4 minutes ago
  • Lethal League (and the sequel, but I liked LL1 better tbh)
  • Mega Knockdown
  • Panel Attack (FOSS)
  • Petal Crash
  • Streets of Rage 4
  • Them's Fightin' Herds
[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 7 points 4 hours ago
  • A Hat in Time - $30 USD
  • Caveblazers - $10
  • Unravel Two - $20
  • Alien Hominid Invasion - $20
  • Magicka 2 - $15
  • Jamestown - $10
  • Ship of Fools - $22
  • Pixeljunk Shooter - $9
  • River City Girls - $30
  • Degrees of Separation - $20
  • Speedrunners - $15
  • Blanc - $15
  • Cat Quest 2 - $15
  • Potion Party - $10
  • Double Dragon Gaiden - $25
  • Biped - $15
  • Guacamelee 1 + 2 - $15 & $20
  • KeyWe - $25

All of these are full price, so if you wait for a sale (like I do), you can usually find each of these for $10 or less.

[-] Someplaceunknown@leminal.space 3 points 3 hours ago

SuperTuxKart is fun

[-] londos@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago
[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago

In that vein, Hedgewars is basically open-source Worms Armageddon.

Very likely available from your distro, so sudo pkcon install hedgewars should set you up in no time.

[-] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 20 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Here's a quick list of inexpensive games I think your kids could enjoy. All of these are shared screen games and I've played (almost) all of these with my kid who is around the same age. All of these run great on my Steam Deck.

All costs are in USD, so they should all fall below the 20 EUR mark.

Of these games, I would absolutely grab EDF 5 while it's on sale. It's just plain, stupid, fun and at $15 it's a steal. Saw EDF World Brothers is on sale as well, though I haven't played that one, it looks like it's the same dumb fun as the others.

[-] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

I will put in a strong vote for Castle Crashers, one of the most fun, charismatic beat em ups of all time, imo. Would be perfect for kids that age.

[-] tamal3@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

You can play Portal split screen, or do you mean that they collaborate on the solutions?

Also, my husband and I love playing Overcooked. That's an excellent suggestion.

[-] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago

Portal 2 can be played split screen, yes.

I was joking below with someone else that suggested it that Overcooked is more likely to cause a fight. That game is so stressful lol

[-] str82L@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

Definitely recommend It Takes 2 when it's on sale.

[-] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Basically all the Lego games (although 13y olds might already find them too child-like, depends...).
They all have split screen, so are suitable for couch (or desk) coop.
Also the slightly older ones are quite inexpensive when buying them during sales (a few €).

Special recommendation: Lego City Undercover.

Another fun couch-coop-capable game would be SuperTux, a Super-Mario-Cart like game.
This one is OSS and therefore completely free!

[-] tamal3@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

LEGO Island nostalgia.......

[-] karthnemesis@leminal.space 7 points 5 hours ago

Ordered by amount of "potential" replayability, vaguely

I've played all these through and am confident it'd be ok for 13 yos

If they like silly chaos and cooking games, $20 PlateUp!

If they like absolute madness and precise button inputs to make pretty food, $20 Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!

Rock of ages series I think all have local multiplayer, but I think $30 > on sale for $3 till sept 1 rn Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break is the only one you can do the actual story mode together (which is very fun) instead of just versus. describing this one is hard uh. Both a tower defense as well as a reverse tower defense where you play as a boulder smashing things. historical art humour themed. very silly. highly recommend this series.

$15 Tricky towers is competitive tetris with balancing physics

$14 Neurovoider is a straightforward / small scope game, robot piece-swapping twin stick shooter, very arcadey

$20 Ember knights is in the same vein as neurovoider but with flamey dudes and more fantasy / magic theme

[-] karthnemesis@leminal.space 3 points 5 hours ago

On looking in to it some more I am fairly certain you can also play $15 Rock of Ages 2's campaign as splitscreen co-op. Did not remember offhand but looked around at steam discussions. 2 is also very good!

[-] mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 hours ago

lego games and on sale?

[-] salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 20 points 7 hours ago

Sure. Get two controllers and Retroarch and they're set on games for life.

[-] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 19 points 7 hours ago

Overcooked is one of the most popular co-op games of the last few years, simple concept but fun, frantic gameplay. It's pretty cheap at base price but goes on sale pretty regularly too.

Would have to get it through Steam I believe.

[-] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago

They said fun, not anger inducing

[-] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

It'll teach them teamwork XD

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 5 hours ago

https://hurrycurry.metamuffin.org/

Is also cool. Not sure if it has splitscrern multiplayer though.

[-] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 5 hours ago

I mean, I can basically advise the same list as I do for anybody.

  • Mindustry
  • OpenTTD
  • Luanti (especially MT-Game, I actually dislike MineClonia)
  • Endless Sky
  • Shattered Pixel Dungeon
  • FreeCiv
  • YGO Omega & EDOPro

If you're open to buying and/or piracy, I can also suggest the following:

  • OpenRCT2 (get both RCT Deluxe and RCT2)
  • OpenXCom (get both X-COM: UFO Defense and Terror From the Deep)
  • CorsixTH (Theme Hospital)

If you're okay with more violent games, any Doom sourceport (like GZDoom) with FreeDoom phases 1 & 2. There's also OpenQuake, but I don't do 3D much.

[-] karthnemesis@leminal.space 1 points 5 hours ago

they only have 1 computer, most of these are online only unfortunately (though not bad suggestions for 2 cpus)

[-] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 4 hours ago

Ah, if you're looking for the kids to play together, I have no idea. I don't do multiplayer

[-] Flyswat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 hours ago

Rayman Origins

[-] RushLana 7 points 7 hours ago

If you are ok with emulation dolphin is pretty great. You can still find wiimotes for cheap and don't need the sensor bar ( use two candle instead ). With that the entire wii games library is yours.

If you want natives games I would recomend indie couch games ( overcook, moving out, etc... ).

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 5 hours ago

I think Children of Morta can be played in coop on a single PC.

[-] jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 7 hours ago
[-] vikingtons@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

such a fun game

so cute as well 😊

[-] bjornsno@programming.dev 2 points 6 hours ago

Heroes of Might and Magic 3. Great strategy game, on steam or gog, can't remember which one has the expansion packs, but they're not necessary anyway for the first year. I played it for hundreds of hours with my sister as a kid. Has a lot of replayability. Works really well with two players with hot seat mode. More players and you will want to use the network capability.

[-] wizzor@sopuli.xyz 2 points 7 hours ago

I played an ungodly amount of Tapan Kaikki 3 with my brother.

Best game ever.

[-] DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

SuperTuxKart? Also, emulation of retro consoles as others have suggested.

Civ5 and earlier installments in the Civ franchise are also pretty good if they like virtual board games, although recent decisions at TakeTwo corporate might be a turnoff.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 points 7 hours ago

Lego Batman 2. Probably all the other Lego games as well. But I know that this one can be played on one keyboard.

this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
33 points (100.0% liked)

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