Preferably free or at least not to expensive (<20 EUR)
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
I love worms Armageddon when I was a kid.
Atomic Tanks. Old school 2D hot seat fun. Nuke your friends and family.
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.
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.
Rabbit and steel is SUCH A FUCKING GOOD GAME
it needs WAY more love
This answer is way too good for such a rough broad question with too many options. 👍
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.
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
I would also keep an eye out for the steam sales on the TT Lego games, I still enjoy them even as an adult.
Ultimate chicken horse
Goat simulator still exists?
My nephews loved it
- 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.
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
And swears.
https://hurrycurry.metamuffin.org/
Is also cool. Not sure if it has splitscrern multiplayer though.
Any of the Worms games
Playing Worms at a friend’s house around that age is one of the fondest memories I have of any game.
In that vein, Hedgewars is basically open-source Worms Armageddon.
Very likely available from your distro, so
sudo pkcon install hedgewarsshould set you up in no time.
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…
- 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
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!
