While Darius is Taito's number one shoot 'em up series, the "Ray'z" series is a close second. Made up of three vertically-scrolling arcade shmups released from 1994-1998, the Ray'z games still command a loyal following. Now PlayStation and Switch gamers can own the entire series (or just the two newest games) via two freshly-released collections: RayStorm X RayCrisis HD Collection and Ray'z Arcade Chronology. Both collections are similar, so we'll outline what each one contains.

If you stop and think about it, managing traffic signals requires a lot of planning and observation. Many real-world tasks and careers have provided inspiration for video games over the years. However, rather than taking the dry simulation approach as many of their contemporaries would, Polish developer Baltoro made a cooperative puzzle game instea...

July will be a banner month for beat 'em up fans thanks to the impending release of Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons from Secret Base Games and Modus Games. With the game drawing nearer to launch, the publisher has just released a new trailer that provides lots of details about how the beat 'em up Roguelike will play. Even more excitingly, it also reveals four of the game's 9 unlockable characters!

You can count on summer for two things: horribly inhumane temperatures and the Steam Summer Sale. When the Summer Sale comes 'round every year, Steam slashes prices on hundreds of PC games. This year's sale includes steep discounts on  games like Starship Troopers: Extinction, Sea of Thieves 2023 Edition, Monster Hunter Rise, and many more. To make things easier for cooperatively-minded gamers, we've assembled this list of co-op highlights from the sale.

Taito Milestones 2 is a Switch-exclusive collection of 10 arcade classics from Taito. The collection will feature a quality assortment of games, including three co-op shoot 'em ups: Darius II, Gun Frontier, and Metal Black. The first Taito Milestones didn't have as strong a games lineup, but collectors might still want to own them both. Hence, Strictly Limited Games has opened preorders for a bundle with physical editions of both games. For even more physical goodness, a new collectors edition and an upgrade for owners of the Taito Milestones 1 collectors edition are also up for grabs.

A couple of years ago,  Finnish developer 10tons released DYSMANTLE, an action RPG with mild survival elements set in a zombie apocalypse. The studio is following up with DYSPLACED, a similar game in a new setting. This one sees players transported and displaced to a mysterious new world where they will battle Fortnite: Save the World-like mon...

Asterix the Gaul is a long-running French comic series that has been translated into English and numerous languages. French publisher Microids has released numerous video game adaptations, the most recent of which is the 4-player action game, Asterix & Obelix XXXL: The Ram From Hibernia. Microids also published a beat 'em up game called Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! a few years back, and now it's getting a sequel. Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! 2 will arrive on consoles and PC in November, complete with 2-player local co-op.

The first Smurfs game from, Microids, The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf, slipped under our radar back in 2021. Perhaps it was the weird subtitle? Still, Mission Vileaf was actually a really solid 3D platformer and a treat for fans of the franchise. Fast-forwarding a bit, The Smurfs 2: The Prisoner of the Green Stone will attempt to recapture the magic when it arrives this November. Like the first game, it will feature 2-player local co-op.

The first few years after a new console generation present some challenges to game developers. When should they stop supporting the previous generation and move on to the current one? Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed launched on Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 5, and Steam at the end of August last year. Earlier this year, Black Forest Games and THQ Nordic announced that the previous generation versions would go forward without multiplayer modes. Nearly a year after the current gen versions, Destroy All Humans 2 - Reprobed Single Player is finally available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Picture this: you're going for a swim in the ocean and a fin pops out of the water. Oh no! But fear not, this isn't a bloodthirsty shark. It's Baby Shark! The good folks at Outright Games (makers of such adaptations as Star Trek: Prodigy Supernova and Paw Patrol World) have sensed blood in the water, and so they're releasing Baby Shark: Sing & Swim Party onto consoles and PC on September 15. It promises lots of family-friendly, musical fun and 4-player local co-op.

Atari's "Recharged" series has produced numerous sequels/remakes of classic Atari games, often adding co-op in the process. The latest such game will be Quantum: Recharged, which promises a new take on the 1982 arcade game. Atari and developer Sneakybox haven't shared any screenshots or footage yet, but we do know that the game will feature 2-player local co-op when it arrives on consoles and PC later this year.

Look, the market is crowded with beekeeping games nowadays. It takes a lot to buikld a buzz when there's so much competition flying around. Still, APICO from Whitethorn Games and TNgineers has continued to grow and pollinate since it debuted last year. After arriving on practically every platform under the sun, APICO has now made it onto Xbox as well. At last, Xbox gamers can keep buzz-y with the game's 4-player online co-op. Oh, and the other versions just got a big update as well.