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monolalia@lemmy.world

Are there any fun games for 2 children (around 13y) to play on one computer? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by niva@discuss.tchncs.de to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world

67 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

Edit: Thank you so much for all your great suggestions! I now have to buy 2 controllers I think? Steam does not say what input hardware is needed for local multiplayer.

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[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 43 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

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.

[–] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week 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 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago

I hate Overcooked and other games like that. If I wanted that kind of stress, I'd just fucking work and at least I'd be getting paid for it

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This answer is way too good for such a rough broad question with too many options. 👍

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I’m always on the lookout for solid games I can play with my kid. For a long while the games had to be shared screen / split screen, at least until I got a Steam Deck. Now I’ve got a lot more options open to me like Risk of Rain 2, but that didn’t really fit their constraints so I left those type of games out.

There’s a bunch of games I left off due to low play time, so I didn’t think they were really worth it to suggest as first picks for someone on a tight budget. It’s definitely by no means a complete list.

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[–] seralth@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Rabbit and steel is SUCH A FUCKING GOOD GAME

it needs WAY more love

[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a great game.

Glad it's being recognized

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[–] salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 26 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They said fun, not anger inducing

[–] SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It'll teach them teamwork XD

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[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

https://hurrycurry.metamuffin.org/

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

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[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 16 points 1 week 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.

[–] londos@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Any of the Worms games

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week 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.

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[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

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 5 points 2 weeks ago

LEGO Island nostalgia.......

[–] karthnemesis@leminal.space 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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 2 weeks 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!

[–] engagewithzorp@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I love worms Armageddon when I was a kid.

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[–] RushLana@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 weeks 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... ).

[–] Flyswat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 weeks ago

Rayman Origins

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Off the top of my head.

Peak

Sunderfolk, needs a tablet or phone as a controller, though.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Suns

Sunderered

It Takes Two

Split Fiction

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[–] Someplaceunknown@leminal.space 6 points 1 week ago

SuperTuxKart is fun

[–] str82L@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

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

[–] PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Stardew valley

[–] missingno@fedia.io 5 points 1 week 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

[–] mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

lego games and on sale?

[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 1 week ago

I've now been thinking about the multiplayer aspect of this. The first thing that comes to mind is something like DOSBox and Epic Pinball or other pinball games. Sure they'll have to take turns, but pinball is a fun time so the one who's playing learns the table and the one who's watching gets the spectacle. Going into the more piratey side of things, MAME or Retroarch. MAME especially has stuff like Marvel vs. Capcom, the Street Fighter series, Fantasy Zone... so basically, you can give them an arcade cab at home. And I'll mention FreeCiv again.

Back on the less-pirate side:

Armagetron Advanced: Tron lightcycle game which can support local multiplayer. I've enjoyed it for years.
Battle for Wesnoth: Hex-grid turn-based strategy (think Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, or Tactics Ogre). Supports local multiplayer.
Any chess, checkers/droughts, or shogi game. I don't know if lichess or lishogi (both .orgs) support local multiplayer - but I know there are local ones like gnome-chess, brutalchess and gnushogi + Xshogi.

So there's my thoughts on local multiplayer games.

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[–] bjornsno@programming.dev 4 points 2 weeks 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.

[–] jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Boomerang-Fu ?

[–] vikingtons@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

such a fun game

so cute as well 😊

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago

Depends on their tastes I guess. Stardew Valley is cheap, you can put hundreds of hours in and it does "couch co-op" off a single PC. It also doesn't require very good hardware either.

[–] bassad@jlai.lu 3 points 1 week ago

Goat simulator still exists?

My nephews loved it

[–] Machinist@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Atomic Tanks. Old school 2D hot seat fun. Nuke your friends and family.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] wizzor@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

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

Best game ever.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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.