My partner expressed an interest in finding a game for both of us to play. She doesn’t play many games, and I generally prefer single player games so I find myself at a loss for what’s out there that we might like. Hoping the community here can help!

We have played some retro platformers together. Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, that kind of thing. And I know she plays puzzle match games on her phone. Which isn’t a lot to go on.

It needs to be a multiplayer PC game that runs on Linux/Proton (if unsure, please suggest your game anyway. It probably does). One machine is a mid-range PC from about 5 years ago. So probably no recent AAA games with high system requirements.

I’m thinking:

  • Easy to pick up and play and can offer a satisfying play experience with short play times.
  • Cooperative play would be a plus.
  • Being able to play with just two people (not forced to play with random people online).

My particularities:

  • I won’t play a game that requires creating/signing in to an account to play it at all. I can tolerate that requirement for multiplayer play, but I’d rather it just use a Steam account.
  • I’d prefer if it didn’t install a launcher.
  • I’d like it to either have a built in server and/or be selfhostable.
  • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    11 hours ago

    I know its kinda crazy for me to.suggest this, but hear me out:

    Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition runs nearly perfectly in emulators on pretty modest hardware. Its not very difficult, but has a Games Journalist level Easy mode as well if thats needed. Its a Musou/Warriors game, so its basically mindless button mashing with the flavor of Zelda.

    Its a splitscreen game, so you only have to have it set up on one machine. The game has a story mode and a bunch of challenge modes as well to keep things interesting. Wide range of upgradeable charaacters with different weapons that change up their playstyles. And a lot of unlockable costumes.

    Downsides:

    • Nintendo
    • Have to use a controller (not a downside to me, but for sosme it is)
    • Getting the game can be a little challenging if you don’t know where to look
    • Setting up the emulator can also be challenging if you don’t know where to get the important parts
    • Can get stale after really long sessions of play

    Upsides:

    • No account or extra launcher required, boot the emulator and play the game
    • Most emulators have decent to great Linux compatibility
    • Fully offline - no randos joining or server outages when internet drops
    • Only two players can play, meaning nobody else can join after your partner, and Player 1 controls when Player 2 joins

    The only issue could be if you aren’t using a Nintendo controller, the buttons won’t match up, but there might be a mod for that. I know there are input mods for other games.