40 – The Family Gamers Podcast – Gaming Cooperatively or Collaboratively
We were inspired by our recent experiences playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild to talk about playing games collaboratively or cooperatively. We often talk about cooperative board games, but did you know there are many options for playing together with video games, too?
What we’ve done in the last two weeks:
Andrew went to PAX East.
We played Fight for Olympus from Mayfair Games. Fun, well-balanced, two-player game.
Andrew brought home Suspend Jr. from Melissa & Doug – we highly recommend it. Easier than the original, less frustrating for kids.
Batman The Animated Series Dice Game from Steve Jackson Games – like Zombie Dice, but with a few twists.
Wise Alec – a trivia game designed to level the playing field among family members with various difficulty levels. Review coming soon!
Tried out Extraordinaires Design Studio. Really great! We will have a video soon.
We tried some Hoyle Play kids’ games. Verdict is out, we will try them again before they are available to the public this summer.
Check out our contributing writers’ review of Sushi Dice – when school kids played it, their opinion was very different from our first impressions.
We dipped our toe into playing Potion Explosion via the iOS version (which is only $3), and now we are hooked.
Anomia continues to prove itself as a great adult party game.
OutFoxed is one of those games that is great for kids and at least some fun for adults playing with them.
Andrew and Anitra have both been playing as much Zelda: Breath of the Wild as possible. The kids are playing Zelda: WindWaker, as well as their usuals: Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. and NintendoLand.
Cooperative gaming:
Zelda games is surprisingly rewarding as a collaborative game; extra eyes help solve puzzles, and the world of Breath of the Wild is so large and non-linear that there’s not much risk of “spoiling” key moments of the game. It has really brought us back to our childhood/teenage years, when it was more common to play a one player game but ask your friends for help.
Our kids are doing the same sort of thing with Super Mario 3D World, although it can also be played cooperatively (up to 4 simultaneous players).
Games designed to allow “couch co-op” (two or more players playing together in the same room):
Standard first person shooters such as Gears of War, Call of Duty, Halo
Our personal favorite: Portal 2, in which the 2-player co-operative campaign was completely different than the one player campaign.
Games specifically designed to be played co-operatively:
Never Alone, a gorgeous game with an Inuit girl and a wolf spirit animal. It is so well-researched, it is literally an educational game for adults.
Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time
Think of the Children! (coming out on Mother’s Day – here’s an interview Andrew did with Jammed Up Studios at PAX East.)
Team play games:
Trivia games, music games like Rock Band, racing games like Mario Kart. One of Andrew’s favorites is Rocket League.
Cooperative board games! Some of our favorites:
Forbidden Island & Forbidden Desert
Zpocalypse if you want even more challenge.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill for a horror theme.
Don’t forget about role playing games! You could try Mice and Mystics, which provides everything you need to play, or Robit Riddle (here’s our review) for a heavy emphasis on telling a story together. We also recommend Hero Kids (which we talked about way back in episode 5). Look around at drivethrurpg.com for more options.
What games does your family like to play cooperatively or collaboratively?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:46 — 31.4MB)
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Reading this post just made me want to go play minecraft, weird.