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!
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! ;)
Slimes are a beloved type of monster that appear in Dragon Quest and many other games. Soon, they'll even be getting their own game courtesy of Pancake Games and Whitethorn Games. Slime Heroes is a "Soulslike" action adventure with 2-player local co-op support. That's twice as many slimes! Players will be able to get their hands on all that double slime action on February 13.
Arcade-style basketball games like NBA Jam are good, but how do we make them better? With robots, of course! It's a formula as old as time itself. Jollypunch Games has used this common knowledge to create RoboDunk. The robotic basketball game has just arrived on consoles and Steam, and it even features 2-player drop in, drop out local co-op.
Forever Entertainment's The House of the Dead: Remake was a pretty good new version of the classic Sega light gun shooter, even if the modern graphics lost some of the original's Japanese charm. Thus, we're glad that Forever will be releasing THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2: Remake in the spring of this year. The Dreamcast version of HotD2 was terrific, so hopefully, the new version will pack a similar level of gory fun.
Everything's better in co-op, and that includes 3D platformers. Boti: Byteland Overclocked from Purple Ray Studio and Untold Tales is one such game, a robot and technology-themed platformer that debuted on Steam last year. Now Boti is getting ready to head to consoles in January, and it will include both 2-player local and online co-op.
Gal Guardians: Demon Purge was one of my favorite games of 2023, featuring tight Castlevania III-style gameplay and great local co-op. This must be my lucky day, as Inti Creates and PQUBE have just announced a sequel called Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark. The new game will be a full-fledged Metroidvania platformer with support for both local and online co-op, and it's coming to all platforms in March.
The holiday season is a great time for two things: playing video games and petting cats. What better way to combine those two beloved activities than by playing Cat Quest III, the cat-themed cooperative action RPG? But there's only so much Cat Quest III to go around, so you can't just play it forever. That's where today's free update comes in. The Steam version of the game has just gotten a bunch of new content, and that content will come to consoles before long as well.
If you like the Kingdom series of 2D strategy/resource management games, you're in luck. Kingdom: Two Crowns recently got a DLC expansion, and now a developer called Brain Seal has released a similar game called Monarchy. In Monarchy, one or two local players will work to build a base, gather resources, and fend off raiders in a colorful 2D setting. It looks easy and the controls are simple, but there's a lot of depth behind this crown.
People still love SNK's Neo Geo system after all these years. The arcade and home hardware produced games with a memorable and unique look. Nalua Studio is keeping the dream alive, then, by launching Vengeance Hunters on both Neo Geo hardware and modern systems. This all-new beat 'em up definitely looks the part, and it supports 2-player local co-op as well.
