Playing one of the big multiplayer arcade cabinets like Simpsons or X-Men was the original couch co-op with whoever was at the arcade not playing pinball or pool.
I bought the 4-Player co-op X-Men arcade cabinet from Arcade1up and it’s been a blast playing it all the way through with my son.
For the record, I was also immensely disappointed in XV. However I loved XVI. The ability cool downs in particular felt very ATB-like to me and I loved the customization. The story is very good and one of my favorites from storytelling perspective (in other words, HOW the story is told).
I also really liked the combat and exploration of XII. And the Zodiac version makes it even better.
I thought XIII had some of the best moments in the series.
XIII-2 perfected the gameplay from XIII and made storytelling and exploration “fun”
XIII: LR is very experimental and has some of my favorite action-based combat in the series.
World of Final Fantasy is a lot of fun if you want turn based monster capturing.
Stranger of Paradise is a blast. My only issue with it is that you can’t really overpower by leveling up. I hit a hard wall with a boss and the only way through is “get good”.
I didn’t get much into Type-O but I keep meaning to.
Theatrhythm exists. I love it, but it’s also it’s own thing entirely.
My first thoughts were Final Fantasy because you have all the enemies you need. And they’ve already branched out into monster catching and Souls-like. So might as well.
My second thought was X-men because the Genesis games were already kinda built for that.
The hodgepodge of different vehicles in different terrains was so incredibly fun to navigate no matter which vehicle type you chose. And using 6axis was just a whole other level, even if it wasn’t the easiest way to play.
I assume it doesn’t work anymore. But you would set your PSP to ad-hoc, go into ad-hoc party on your PS3, find someone in a lobby with your game, and your PSP would act as if it found a local connection.