Remember when Variable State, the developer of Virginia (the game, not the state), announced a PC shooter called Polaris would be coming in 2024? Well, it actually came out in early 2025, but that's pretty common in game development. The important part is that Polaris is here, baby, and it sells for only ten bucks.
What's a surefire way for a Steam game to reach more Steam users? Steam Deck support! That's just the tack adopted by Cthulhu's Reach from The Fine Arc and First Break Labs. This Steam Early Access title is a horror-themed bullet heaven shooter that features 4-player online co-op. Now that it's safely playable on Steam Deck, players can battle the terrors of the deep on the go.
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.
The original Gal Guardians: Demon Purge is a fantastic Castlevania-style co-op platformer, so it's great news that it'll soon have a sequel. Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark will arrive on consoles and PC in March - not too far from now! What's more, PQUBE has released a free demo on Steam that allows players to experience the opening of the game and its 2-player local co-op support.
As a part of the Steam Next Fest event, Forever Entertainment has released a free demo of THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2: Remake on Steam. The demo allows 1-2 local players to try the first level of the remake. Join James Taylor and Gary Stewart as they fight stop an army of undead zombies and monsters from taking over the world.
It's a rare treat to see a game that was previously non-cooperative gain co-op support. That's just what happened to Tetris Forever this week. The third game in Digital Eclipse's Gold Master Series (which also contains the delightfully quirky Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story) is a collection of new and classic Tetris games from throughout the franchise's history, plus documentary content. The arrival of Super Tetris, which supports 2-player local co-op, pushes the game count up to 21. That's a lotta Tetris!
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind has received a few updates since launching last year, tweaking the gameplay and making for a better experience. The most recent update does that and goes one step farther by adding a new skill point system to differentiate the various Power Rangers and give players upgrades to work towards. If that's not enough, Digital Eclipse and Atari have announced that online play will be getting an upgrade later this year as well.
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*
Digital game releases are the primary distribution model for indie games, but that doesn't mean that some gamers don't want physical versions. Those guys like to look at their cases on the shelf, you know! And some of them will be pleased to learn that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind from Digital Eclipse and Atari will be getting physical releases on May 30. I say "some" because only the PlayStation 5 and Switch versions will get physical releases. Everybody else will need to grab the game digitally.
When gamers name of the greatest TMNT game, many of them choose TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. That game is certainly a fantastic beat 'em up, but I would argue that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate from Super Evil Megacorp is an even better game. Well, now Splintered Fate is about to get even betterer thanks to the "Casey Jones & the Junkyard Jam" DLC. It's coming to Steam, Switch, and iOS on February 5!
I don't want to get too big for my britches or anything, but sometimes we games journalists have a lot of sway in the industry. For instance, we just published our Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 co-op review today, and on the very same day, D3 Publisher finally updates the Steam version of Earth Defense Force 6. Coincidence? I think not! The update fixes a killer crash that afflicted some AMD Radeon users, reduces load times, and more. You're welcome, EDF fans! ;)
Earth Defense Force spin-off games have been hit or miss. EDF: Insect Armageddon wasn’t much of a game, and EDF: Iron Rain was too tough for its own good. EDF: World Brothers, however, struck the right balance between new ideas and classic EDF gameplay – not to mention adding the fun of crossover characters and enemies from EDFs past. T...
