Why does nobody talk about the co-op game section at the Portland Retro Game Expo?

I went last weekend and the whole area was packed with people playing old SNES and Genesis beat 'em ups on CRTs. It made me realize modern games have totally forgotten how to make a simple, fun 4-player brawler. What's the last new couch co-op game you played that actually felt like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

val4062mo ago

Remember when my buddy tried to get a new 4-player game going last month? He bought that new dungeon crawler everyone was talking about. We spent an hour just setting up accounts and downloading a day-one patch. Then the tutorial was so long we lost interest before we even got to play together. It just made us dig out the old Sega and play Streets of Rage 2 instead. What modern game has gotten that pick-up-and-play feeling right for you?

ray_king2mo ago

But did you guys ever actually go back and try that dungeon crawler again, or was it a one and done thing?

mila_craig41mo ago

Towerfall has been the go-to for my group. No account nonsense, no long tutorial, just pick a character and start shooting arrows. We tried that overcooked game once and it took us fifteen minutes to figure out who was hosting. Towerfall boots up and we are fighting each other within sixty seconds flat. If you want a modern game that respects your time, that is the one.

sammurray1mo ago

the tutorial was so long we lost interest" - man that hits home. My crew bought that exact same dungeon crawler, the one with the huge hype behind it, and we never even saw the first level. We sat there for like an hour while three different people had to sign in, update their controllers, and sit through a forced tutorial that wouldn't let us skip ahead. Meanwhile my buddy kept saying "just give it a minute" and we were all scrolling our phones. Eventually someone just went "screw it" and we put in River City Ransom on the NES Mini. Within sixty seconds we were beating up punks and stealing their food money. That experience is the whole reason I still drag my old consoles to every gathering.