Honestly? There is not much to say about March. Our release calender was filled but not overwhelming. So we got the usual mix of new releases. Like the ones entering (Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone) or leaving (Time to Morp) Early Access. The retro-inspired (The Phanom, Kemono Heroes) ones as well as re-releases of old classics (Castle of Shikigami III). The surefire hits (Split Fiction) and the ones that were expected to be hits but didn't quite make the landing (Rise of the Ronin on PC). And of course tons and tons of indie release (Party Club, Astroloot).

There are plenty of gaming controllers available for mobile phones. Folks love to play their emulators on the go, after all. How do you improve on the mobile controller solutions that are already out there? You add Hall Effect analog sticks, for starters, and then you design the controller to fold up and tuck away under the phone itself. That's what the MCON from Ohsnap! does, and it looks really sweet.

We are lucky to have our Database Manager to write these monthly reports. Otherwise, we would have no time to do it. We are after all way too busy to "catch all those mons." No, we are not talking about Pokémon. That's for little babies! *contemptuous sniffle* We only play real games here at Co-Optimus! Like Monster Hunter: Wilds, the long-awaited 27th entry in the series that finally hit store shelves yesterday.

In January, we hit another milestone for our database: We now have 15,000 entries for active co-op games. "Active" means that the game is still technically playable in co-op in some form and hasn't been fully become inoperable by a server shutdown. To give you a bit of additional perspective on that number, back in 2020, we were at around 6,000 entries. So our Database Master definitely has been busy the last few years - and we'll make sure he continues to keep busy! *whip crack*

After months of leaks and rumors, Nintendo finally announced the Switch 2 a few days ago. The successor to the Switch will be bigger and presumably more powerful, and it will be backwards compatible. Details beyond the appearance of the hardware and the mouse function of the new Joy-Cons are scarce, but we'll find out more in April.

The Game Awards - which featured quite a few co-op titles this year - be damned: the biggest highlight of December for most of us was Path of Exile 2 entering Early Access. Even in this early state, it seems to successfully scratch that itch the lukewarm reception of Diablo IV left behind. Hopefully it can keep up the momentum until release.

When we look at our release calender, its fascinating to note that even in this digital age without any retail restrictions, there's still one day in the week most of the games are released: Thursday. What's more, almost everyone agrees that Saturday and Sunday are off limits for new releases.

While October saw a great amount of survival horror titles released (not only, but especially) on the Steam store, the actual new hot thing™ in the co-op meta seems to be shop games. You know, those titles like Old Market Simulator where you have to manage a supermarket together with friends and make all those customers happy. Luckily, this month also saw a ton of other, perhaps more desirable releases - for example, Ys X: Nordics, the newest entry in the long-running JRPG series.

Can you believe this is our thirteenth year of me bugging you to join and donate to the Co-Optimus Extra Life team? It seems like just yesterday I Jerry-rigged a poor excuse for a streaming setup and streamed Xbox 360 games for 25 hours from my living room. While 25 hours is a pipe dream at our ages, our faithful Extra Life team will be streaming a good chunk of this Saturday morning and afternoon for your delight!

Looking at the release calender for September, it has become clear to us that we and our friends somehow need more time to play games. Way more time. It's just not enough to carve out a couple of hours in the evening/night on the weekends to enjoy all that co-op goodness. So if you vote for us in whatever election is coming up, we hereby pledge

When it comes to co-op gaming, audio quality can make or break the experience. Communicating effectively with your team, being immersed in the game's world, and hearing every subtle cue can drastically improve gameplay. I've been using Turtle Beach's headsets now for the past few years, with both the iterations of the Stealth 700 Gen 2 tested on this site. But is the Gen 3 enough of a difference? Let's dive in.

August started slow in terms of new co-op releases - very slow. For a hot minute, we feared we would have nothing to play and would need to go out into the summer heat and enjoy life or something. Luckily, publishers and developers came to the rescue releasing long awaited titles like World of Goo 2 (sadly only the Switch-version has co-op), Cat Quest III, and another (excellent) re-release of DOOM and DOOM II. Meanwhile, Petroglyph's newest RTS, 9-Bit Armies: A Bit Too Far left Steam Early Access together with Core Keeper, a "mining sandbox adventure." Additionally, Gunpla-fans can once again enjoy virtually building and battling their Gundam thanks to the release of Gundam Breaker 4.