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.

Following the success of the Capcom Fighting Collection and Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle, Capcom has finally bundled all of their Marvel fighters onto modern platforms as Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. And what’s more, the 1994 co-op beat ‘em up The Punisher is included as well. ...

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

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.

Time to Morp from Team Halfbeard and Yogscast Games is a charming colony sim and automation game that's set on an alien planet. The game is still in Steam Early Access, so it has lots of room to grow. It just grew a lot, actually, thanks to the arrival of the "Double the Fun" update. With the addition of the new farming system, abilities, and toys for co-op, the game really has grown a lot since its debut.

Back in 1990, Rainbow Arts released a well-liked shoot 'em up for Commodore 64, Amiga, and other computers called X-Out (pronounced "Crossout"). The game had an underwater theme, an R-Type-like visual style, and a robust in-game shop - but no co-op. That omission will finally be fixed in the upcoming remake, X-Out Resurfaced, from ININ Games, Ziggurat Interactive (which bought Rainbow Arts), and Kritzelkratz 3000. The new game will have 2-player local co-op, and it's coming to all platforms this winter.

At least to the surprise of us, 7 Days to Die finally reached version number 1.0 in July. After twelve years of public development, the open-world zombie survival mix is finished - at least on paper. Even after reaching the milestone, the devs don't show any sign of stopping after all. Meanwhile, our review is now over seven years old. Maybe it's time for an update? 

Since it arrived on Steam Early Access at the beginning of the year, Enshrouded has developed a very enthusiastic following. Keen Games continually publishes updates to add more content and refine the game. Case in point: the "Back to the Shroud" update adds difficulty configuration options, more character customization options, and a host of decorative items for the player's base. This should all help the game's 16-player online co-op experience be even more engaging.

Two years ago, Arc System Works released River City Saga: Three Kingdoms, a game that combined the famous Three Kingdoms story with characters from the River City/Kunio-kun franchise. Now it's getting a sequel called River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next. The sequel promises more historical drama and beat downs, the ability to ride a motorcycle, and 4-player local and online co-op.

Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game is a spinoff of the Mudrunner and Snowrunner series from Focus Entertainment. This one launched as a single-player game, but online co-op was always a promised feature. That promise has come to pass in the latest update for the Steam version, adding 4-player online co-op. PC players can now explore mountains, forests, and other exotic locales together as a driving team.

Crime Boss: Rockay City from InGame Studios and 505 Games finally arrived on Steam not long ago, and it seems to be doing well there. Crime Boss famously debuted last year in somewhat rough shape but has since recovered thanks to a series of updates. The latest such update recently came out on all platforms, adding a new layout for bank heists, raising the player level cap to 155, improving game balance, and more.

It's a big year for the Karate Kid franchise, with the final season of Cobra Kai debuting on July 18 on Netflix and a (probably way less good) film coming to theaters in December. GameMill Entertainment, makers of TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants, is getting in on the karate action as well. Today, they discreetly announced The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, a beat 'em up based on the first three Karate Kid films. It features 4-player local co-op, and it's coming in September!