- 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
- 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.
SuperTuxKart is fun
Any of the Worms games
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.
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.
- BattleBlock Theater $15 on Steam
- Broforce $15 on Steam
- Castle Crashers $15 on Steam
- Cuphead $20 on Steam
- Duck Game $13 on Steam
- Earth Defense Force 5 $60 on Steam (currently on sale for $15, ends Sept 1)
- Earth Defense Force: World Brothers $40 on Steam (currently on sale for $10, ends Sept 1)
- Just Shapes and Beats $20 on Steam (currently on sale for $12, ends Sept 7)
- Left 4 Dead 2 $10 on Steam
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime $15 on Steam
- Overcooked $17 on Steam
- Portal $10 on Steam
- Rabbit and Steel $15 on Steam
- Screencheat $15 on Steam
- Stardew Valley $15 on Steam
- Unrailed $20 on Steam
- Wizard of Legend $16 on Steam
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.
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.
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.
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
Definitely recommend It Takes 2 when it's on sale.
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!
LEGO Island nostalgia.......
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
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!
lego games and on sale?
Sure. Get two controllers and Retroarch and they're set on games for life.
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.
They said fun, not anger inducing
It'll teach them teamwork XD
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.
they only have 1 computer, most of these are online only unfortunately (though not bad suggestions for 2 cpus)
Ah, if you're looking for the kids to play together, I have no idea. I don't do multiplayer
Rayman Origins
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... ).
I think Children of Morta can be played in coop on a single PC.
Boomerang-Fu ?
such a fun game
so cute as well 😊
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.
I played an ungodly amount of Tapan Kaikki 3 with my brother.
Best game ever.
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.
Lego Batman 2. Probably all the other Lego games as well. But I know that this one can be played on one keyboard.
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