15 Best Switch Couch Co-Op Games To Play With Friends

Experiencing a video game alone can feel incredibly immersive, but there are also countless reasons why bringing a friend along might heighten the experience. Whether they are an extra hand in a difficult fight, a fellow tactician to bounce ideas off of, or someone to laugh with as you run around the kitchen with a burning steak in hand.

A game with couch co-op can offer dozens of memorable moments and the Switch has a plethora of great couch co-op games that allow you to play games locally with friends. After all, the best way to create memories is by inviting a friend to live them out with you. Here are the best Switch couch co-op games that’ll make you want to hit up your best friend and play together.

 

The Best Switch Couch Co-Op Games

15. Terraria

Developer: Re-Logic
Publisher: 505 Games
Players: 2 players local

Terraria is an action-adventure sandbox game with an expansive environment. To progress through this world, you need to explore miles under the surface and fight mobs and bosses in order to progress. However, these monsters are no cakewalk and will require you either to have great gear or some good friends to help you survive in this world.

Having a pal in Terraria not only makes overcoming boss challenges a little easier, but spelunking with friends is always more fun. Don’t think your sibling or friend is going to be much help during boss fights? That’s fine: You can always use them as a pack mule to bring loot back to your base. There’s always a job to do.

 

14. Cadence of Hyrule

Developer: Brace Yourself Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Player: 2 players local

Cadence of Hyrule isn’t the toughest roguelike in the world unless you are rhythmically challenged, but it certainly helps to bring a friend along. Cadence of Hyrule allows you to have a couch co-op playthrough for you and a friend can take on the adventure together if you choose it from the start of the game. There’s no drop-in/drop-out co-op in Hyrule.

A friend coming along means you better make use of the items that you find scattered across the dungeons and potentially even change how you two approach situations based on your playstyles. This additional level of strategy combined with the ongoing rhythmic nature of the gameplay makes the co-op almost feel like a different experience altogether, which is all the more reason to try it.

 

13. Super Mario Maker 2

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 4 players local

If you didn’t know this, Super Mario Maker 2 actually added a ton of quality of life improvements during its lifespan. One of these upgrades was a co-op function for building stages. No longer is your friend forced to collaborate solely through voicing their opinions. Instead, they can place that warp tunnel exactly where they think it goes best.

But maybe the building isn’t your thing, all stages can be played in couch co-op as well. Right after completing your world, you can celebrate its completion with an inaugural playthrough. There are also plenty of ready-made stages and worlds online that you and your friends can work through, and they can be tough. The extra brainpower and skill might be needed.

 

12. Moving Out

Developer: SMG Studio
Publisher: Team17
Players: 4 players local

The last thing you want to do with your friends in real life is help them move to their new apartment. Yet, developer SMG Studio manages to make this societal obligation feel less like a chore you forgot you promised and more like an exciting endeavor in teamwork, with a lot less sweating.

Moving Out has you and up to three other friends relocating furniture from home to moving truck. The challenge (and fun) comes in when racing to get objects moved out while the clock ticks down and your friend doesn’t quite understand how to properly pivot their side of the couch to get through the front door.

Moving Out rewards communication, hustle, and especially creativity as you figure out how objects can best be removed from the environment.

 

11. Kirby Star Allies

Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 4 players local

Kirby Star Allies does a great job of giving you a cute world with approachable platforming and combat.

You and three friends can take on these cartoony levels that host an array of enemies and bosses to take down. While you won’t be needing help to overcome the challenge in Star Allies, you’ll be thankful to have them as they liven up the gameplay and allow you to perform additional moves. Star Allies is at its best when everyone in your party is using their abilities in tandem with one another, creating unique scenarios.

Creativity is where Kirby really shines and shows why it’s one of the best Switch couch co-op games. While not everyone in the party will have Kirby’s unique copying skill, they do have one of the abilities that Kirby can copy. This can make planning the makeup of your party just as important as the actual use of your party’s powers. When Kirby and his squad show up, King DeDeDe will have no idea what hit him.

 

10. Guacamelee! 2

Developer: Drinkbox Games
Publisher: Drinkbox Games
Players: 4 players local

Guacamelee! was harder than the average 2D beat ‘em up platformer and its sequel continued that trend. Luckily, Guacamelee! 2 allows for drop-in/drop-out couch co-op with up to four players. This can make dealing with the big arena battles much more manageable for people as the enemies can be broken down into groups and dealt with, rather than fighting everyone in the room at once.

Meanwhile, the platforming sections feel like a fight to see who can get to the end the fastest. It has the same energy as Speedrunners as people are falling over one another to stay in the lead. Conquering these difficult sections will give you and your buddies war stories to recount for weeks to come.

 

9. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 4 players local

Like Stardew, Animal Crossing: New Horizons focuses on creating a community, but New Horizons is a lot more about the decorative aspects of community infrastructure. You and a friend can decorate your own island from the way the roads look to entire river and mountain construction.

The entire island can be transformed by you and your friends, which helps to give it a more personal flair. You’ll make friends with your fellow islanders as you fish whale sharks, dig up fossils, and catch every tarantula that dares intrude on your property.

If you want something low-key with a big cute factor, New Horizons will deliver that in spades. It’s also a great way to spend a virtual holiday with a loved one that might be across the world.

 

8. Cuphead

Developer: Studio MDHR
Publisher: Studio MDHR
Players: 2 players local

Cuphead is a gauntlet of boss fights with an art style inspired by 1930s animation. The game is difficult, but you’ll be pushing through just to see the design of the next boss and hub world. Cuphead is difficult under normal circumstances, so bringing a friend along to help defeat Grim Matchstick might be a wise decision.

Just watch out, as it might actually be more difficult in couch co-op as there are now two moving targets, so that’s twice the chance of getting scorched by a cognizant ball of fire. However, nothing can compete with the screams of terror as you both jump around the stage looking for respite from the walls of fire that are shot at you.

Cuphead can be one of the most intense co-op games on the Switch, so make sure that you and your partner are very patient with one another.

 

7. Castle Crashers

Developer: The Behemoth
Publisher: The Behemoth
Players: 4 players local

Behemoth’s co-op classic, Castle Crashers is one of the best co-operative arcade experiences you can have on the Switch. Castle Crashers allows you to play with up to three friends locally or online. Each player selects a knight and works to improve their weapon, pet, and stats to traverse the world, rescue the princesses, and save the kingdom.

The jokes are very Behemoth, with an emphasis on visual gags and potty humor. Also, don’t think you are completely done with a level once you leave it, not only can you continue to level up in a completed stage, but it’s likely that you missed an animal orb or secret weapon the first time.

There are distinct power cliffs in Castle Crashers where you will either need to do a little bit of grinding, or you and your friends need to be at the top of your game.

 

6. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 2 players local

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is the underrated gem of the Switch era. It’s a well-crafted turn-based tactics game starring the Mario and Rabbids characters. Co-op isn’t available at the start but will become available as you complete sections of the single-player. That might seem frustrating, but at least each co-op section unlocked is its own challenge.

You and a friend will have an entirely new set of levels to work together to complete, and when they are all beat, you can try the hard mode. They aren’t necessarily easy to begin with, so you’ll need to be regular Mushroom Kingdom tacticians if you plan on completing this game.

 

5. Unravel Two

Developer: Coldwood Interactive
Publisher: EA Originals
Players: 2 players local

Puzzle-solving is always better with a friend, and Unravel Two knows that fact well.

For the second outing, Coldwood Interactive introduced a second Yarny to make puzzles and obstacles more challenging, and this means that co-op can make a huge difference. Working together, you and a friend will need to navigate the world using their yarn-inspired abilities such as grappling, tugging, or swinging.

However, it’s when you need to think in multiple steps that some of these situations become head-scratchers. Not only will the second player be a great help in assisting, but you’ll need to put your heads together to triumph over some of these challenges.

 

4. Overcooked 2

Developer: Team17
Publisher: Team17
Players: 4 players local

Have you ever wanted to know what it’s like to work in a real professional kitchen with all the screaming and multitasking that it would have? Well, Overcooked 2 pushes your soft skills to the test with each level’s long list of kitchen duties that you and your friends need to stay on top of.

From chopping vegetables and cooking meat to running plates and doing the dishes, there are a lot of things that keep track of as the orders come in and the time slowly goes down. A successful kitchen is going to need optimal teamwork, communication, and adaptability, but that’s not easy.

There will be plenty of frustration and one or two people being called a “doughnut” by the time the stoves are cool.

 

3. Snipperclips: Cut it Out, Together

Developer: SFB Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 4 players local

Working out problems with a friend is a great bonding experience, and Snipperclips is one of the most charming and best couch co-op games on Switch. You and up to three friends work together to solve puzzles. The main world can only be played by two players who use characters Snip and Clip to carve out useful shapes in themselves to manipulate the environment.

Players carve these shapes by overlapping their characters and cutting away the overlapped sections. The results of these shapes will vary, and that’s where a lot of the fun of this game comes from, as you scream at your younger brother for snipping you into oblivion for the tenth time.

 

2. Minecraft

Developer: Mojang Studios
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Players: 4 players local

Minecraft allows you to create the world of your imagination, but wandering your curated, pixelated world by yourself can get quite lonesome. The best way to make your adventures in Minecraft more exciting and memorable is to invite a friend or as many as eight friends online. The options in Minecraft are nearly limitless, which is partly why it makes for one of the best Switch couch co-op games.

You can work together to build a fortress against creepers, or you might separate and carve out parts of the world for yourselves, creating a race to see who might create the better digital civilization.

Building a world with friends is something really special as time passes. Before long you’ll have this artifact that you can revisit for years to come.

 

1. Stardew Valley

Developer: ConcernedApe
Publisher: Chucklefish
Players: 4 players local

Everyone has heard about Stardew Valley at this point. It’s easily the best Switch co-op game for its depth alone. It’s the indie darling that allows you to retire to a quiet community where you farm, fish, crawl through bug-infested dungeons, and kick a mega corporation’s butt.

But what you might not know is that the game allows you to create a farm with your friends.

You can set up a farm for up to four players, which spawns additional housing around your farm’s property. Everyone is free to do as they please, but with the limited farmland and multitude of tasks to do, you’ll need to communicate to ensure that you are making your grandfather proud.

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