Since you mentioned platformers, Rayman Origins might be worth a look. It’s a 2D platformer from 2011 so it doesn’t require a lot of power, levels take a few minutes to complete so it’s perfect for short sessions and it has local co-op (up to 4 players).
I tried it recently on my desktop (Pop!_OS, ubuntu based) and Steam Deck, played without issues on both of them.
Older games are purely singleplayer, multi is something they leaned on later on. For PC Rayman Legends also supports local co-op, I believe. This one however is only available on Steam and requires Uplay account or linking your Steam to it. Origins is available on both Steam and GOG - I can confirm the latter version does not require any additional accounts or services.
Finally, there’s Rayman Raving Rabbids but that’s more of a mini-game compilation/party game rather than a platformer. It also has multiplayer.
Semi-casual games that run well on older PCs and linux? Plus no launchers? Let’s see.
I got a few but there may be splitscreen ones in this list too. (If that’s ok)
Battleblock Theater
Biped (maybe?)
Cassette Beasts
Castle Crashers
Children of Morta
Don’t Starve Together
Dinkum (If Australian Animal Crossing sounds interesting)
Factorio
A hat in time
Guacamelee
Human Fall Flat
Hyper Light Drifter
ibb & obb
KeyWe
Kingdom Two Crowns
Knights and Bikes
Like, all of the lego games (They’re all similar mechanically, so pick one of the newer ones that look good)
Lovers in a dangerous spacetime
Magicka (I like the first one but the second one isn’t bad)
Monaco
Moon Hunters
Necesse
Peak
Resident Evil 5/6 (Yes, really, its a great time in co-op)
Satisfactory
Secrets of Grindea
Split Fiction (This one may be graphically harder to run?)
Stardew Valley
Spiritfarer
Terraria
Trine games
Valheim (At least until mistlands)
I’m kind of going off of semi-casual meaning not high intensity shooters or things that require crazy skills. Most of these are pretty easy to pick up and are generally forgiving. They shouldn’t have launchers but if they added one in a later update, then dang.
That is quite the list! I know a handful of these but most are new to me. I haven’t gone through it them yet but I wanted to be sure to say thanks for the effort you put in to your reply.
I will toss in, don’t starve together is very much NOT beginner friendly. Playing with someone less experienced with video games can turn into effectively playing with one hand behind your back as you try to cover the needs for both of you, the world is threatening, and the penalty for death is high. Might not be well suited to what you’re looking for
Playing Factorio co-op was one of the games that got my wife into gaming. She couldn’t do quick reaction time shooters, but Factorio at its most basic is essentially a ‘puzzle’ game.
… But yeah we lost a few weekends or weeks or months to it. The factory must grow.
Abiotic Factor has been a blast with a friend. I don’t play a lot of survival games (I prefer more narrative than most offer, and Grounded was a great one for that) and this one doesn’t take itself very seriously (you craft weapons and armor from general office supplies a lot of the time… I’ve never been so excited to find a cache of staplers).
May want to turn the difficulty down if she gets overwhelmed easily, as while they majority of the game is pretty manageable, there are the occasional hard fight.
I’ll take half credit! Lol. It’s ridiculous in the best ways. I still have no idea how much longer we have on our playthrough but it is a pretty long game… Or we suck, which is very plausible.
I tried to get my friend group into this and most of them bounced off. I tried to convince the “hardcore gamers” of the group that by the looks of it things get quite hard in the late game. Bummed I never really got to experience it to that point.
Maybe. I like a farming sims but I think it might be a hard sell. Though the cute graphics might help. How in the going in to town portion of the game? Does it have RPG elements? While I like that kind of thing, I don’t think she will.
Not really though I get how the game seems like it might be like that, in fact what I like about Farm Together 1 and 2 is that they are very focused on the actual moment to moment process of a running an arcadey farm. It is almost like a realtime boardgame or simple economy simulator, which makes the core gameplay loop immediately salient to anybody. You can pick up a controller, jump in and start helping out on the farm, it is a very simple, relaxed and rewarding gameplay loop and it makes the perfect co-op game because of it. There aren’t long cutscenes and lots of stuff and context you have to explain, it is a pick up and play experience.
It isn’t a shallow game either, while the game by no means “hard” in the sense that there aren’t really fail states, figuring out how to create an economy with your farm is a really interesting challenge and the wide variety of unlocks encourage and reward strategizing. The graphics are deceptive, there is a genuine engine building game at the heart of Farm Together 2.
I don’t have specific games to recommend because there are many of many genres. I’d instead suggest to make trying out cooperative games as an experience for you both. The fun will be in exploring them on your own. Or the frustration. He he.
Split fiction was great fun for my partner and I, the story is mid but gameplay is probably the best action adventure coop I’ve played. It has so much variety to offer.
Stardew valley? Farming co op game has a LAN mode so you can play together. You can do a casual playthrough to learn or try to min max like my wife does.
Haven’t played that in years but a game I enjoy! I wasn’t aware it had co-op, but I think that’s going to be too slow and involved for her tastes though. But the suggestion is still appreciated.
Lovers in a dangerous spacetime was a ton of fun! Very adorable, simple mechanics, plays on one screen, and not too hard. Also came out over 5 years ago so win win
I do challenges for the fun of doing them, not for the reward.
Dark Souls at level 1 is absolutely worth doing if you’re replaying the game. It’s a lot of fun, and much easier than you’d think during your first time playthrough.
Surprisingly enough, playing Getting Over It 50 times over for the achievement is one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had. The skill curve is just awesome to experience, my time dropped from 18h all the way down to 10 minutes.
Challenge not worth doing : all achievements on Rayman Legends. The game itself is amazing, but to get the last achievement you need to play daily procedural levels for MONTHS unless you’re a god at the game (and I’m pretty sure the top times are always cheated anyway, so you’re never getting the highest point reward anytime ever)
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