Check out some of the best cooperative games on the Nintendo Switch to play with friends in local multiplayer from the comfort of your couch.
The Nintendo Switch has several multiplayer games in its catalog. The titles available for the portable console can be a great choice for playing cooperatively with friends, especially locally, from the comfort of your couch. There are lots of strange minigames in series like Snipperclips and WarioWare, as well as adventures in the company’s iconic franchises like Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. We’ve put together a list of 12 of the best cooperative multiplayer games to play on the Nintendo Switch with your friends.
A big advantage that the Nintendo Switch has over other consoles when it comes to multiplayer is that the two factory controls, the Joy-con, are already included, functioning as simple joysticks when separated from the screen. They can be used in games that don’t require many buttons, as they have one analog stick on each, four face buttons, and two more on the shoulders. However, for more complete games, each player may need an extra pair of Joy-cons or a Nintendo Switch Pro controller per user.
12. Snipperclips Plus: Cut it out, together
One of the Nintendo Switch’s launch games is, to this day, a great option for players looking for a fun cooperative experience. Snipperclips is a game about little creatures made from paper that can cut pieces of themselves when they overlap, allowing them to use the shapes of their bodies to solve a series of physics puzzles.
The challenges and possibilities of multiple solutions make the game incredibly addictive and inviting for players, as well as competitive modes and stages for up to four people. The Snipperclips Plus: Cut it out, together edition has even more content about the game at launch.
11. Minecraft
When it comes to multiplayer, few games offer an experience as versatile as Minecraft, an independent survival and block-building game that has become a phenomenon in the last decade. Up to four players can adventure in a large open world as they collect resources, obtain food, fight enemies, and build shelter to survive the monster-filled night.
One of the advantages of the game is that each user can dedicate themselves to what they find most interesting such as exploring, cultivating, fighting, or progressing in the campaign, but they can also team up to fight together as necessary. It is worth remembering that the game also has crossplay with other platforms and online multiplayer.
10. WarioWare: Get It Together!
The WarioWare franchise is known for its bizarre “microgames”, minigames that last just a few seconds and the player needs to quickly figure out what to do to complete them. The series gained this new chapter with a focus on cooperative multiplayer in which two players can participate in the campaign against more than 200 microgames. These one-second games can have various types of simple objectives such as unblocking a bathtub drain, knocking apples from a tree, squeezing a tube of toothpaste, picking a nose, and more.
The story begins when Wario and his team create a new game, but they are sucked into it by bugs and need to fix them to get out. The more stages the player completes, the more characters are released, such as Ashley, Jimmy T, or Mona, each with different abilities to face the microgames. There are also extra cooperative and competitive modes for up to four players.
9. Vampire Survivors
An independent game that has become a sensation in recent years, Vampire Survivors is an addictive game in which the challenge is to survive extremely numerous hordes of enemies. By defeating their opponents, players receive experience points and can level up to obtain new weapons and accessories that increase their chances of survival.
In one of its updates, the game received a cooperative mode in which up to four people can play at the same time. However, there are fewer weapons and a system in which new weapons and accessories are offered alternately to each participant, which demands new strategies. Despite its simple look, Vampire Survivors is an incredibly addictive game full of secrets to keep users interested. The game even won the “Best Game” award in 2023 at the British Academy’s BAFTA Game Awards.
8. Cuphead
In this friendly action game with a 1930s cartoon look, users will face difficult battles against bosses that will require a lot of training, dedication, and luck to win. The game tells the story of two children who lost their souls in a bet and now need to work for the Devil collecting souls from other debtors.
In addition to learning the strategies necessary to defeat each boss, it is also possible to obtain different weapons and artifacts that slightly alter the gameplay and their special moves, which allows you to experiment with different ways of playing. Cooperative mode can make battles a little less arduous, mainly by allowing one player to resurrect another when they die, as long as they hit them with a well-aimed blow.
7. Pokémon Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Pokémon Let’s Go, Eevee!
A remake of the classic Pokémon series on the Game Boy, more precisely Pokémon Yellow, in Pokémon Let’s Go it is possible to relive the first adventure in the saga when there were only 151 monsters with new 3D visuals. Something that many players don’t know is that the game also has a cooperative mode in which two people can explore at the same time.
The adventure is a little limited since the movement is up to one player while the second user just accompanies him, however, both can participate in battles. Due to the limitations, Pokémon Let’s Go’s cooperative mode appears to be aimed at younger players or users with less gaming experience who wouldn’t mind participating in the journey without having full control of their character.
6. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
The famous action RPG series Marvel Ultimate Alliance had its third chapter developed exclusively for the Nintendo Switch by Tecmo Koei’s Team Ninja team, best known for titles in the Ninja Gaiden and Nioh series.
In this game, users will be able to assemble a team of superheroes made up of members of the main Marvel super-teams such as The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men, among others, with Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Captain Marvel, Man-Spider, Wolverine and more. Up to four players can control the heroes through action phases against hordes of enemies sent by Thanos and his Black Order.
5. Luigi’s Mansion 3
In his third solo adventure, Mario’s fearful brother once again finds himself involved in a ghost hunt. But this time in a haunted hotel where each floor holds a different surprise. A new feature of the third game is that Luigi does not need to explore these terrifying locations alone.
In both single-player and cooperative multiplayer modes, the plumber can count on the help of Gooigi, a kind of clone of himself made from a strange slime. Gooigi is capable of doing everything Luigi does, such as sucking up items and ghosts with his Poltergust vacuum cleaner, as well as reaching places inaccessible to the flesh-and-blood character.
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
The latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is a great choice for nostalgic fans of the characters as it harkens back to the heroes’ classic arcade games from the 90s, complete with high-quality 2D visuals and cooperative multiplayer for four people (or six online).
Players can choose between the four turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo, as well as their Master Splinter, the reporter April, and secret extra characters or purchased through DLC. Together, players can face various Foot Clan ninjas through several beat’em up style stages and also face classic villains such as Bebop, Rocksteady, the Destroyer, and more.
3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
Originally released on the Nintendo Wii U, Super Mario 3D World is a 3D platform game that expands on ideas from Super Mario 3D Land on the Nintendo 3DS by introducing multiplayer for up to four people controlling Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach. The stages mix linear sections with more open parts, full of secrets, new ideas, and power-ups, like Cat Mario, which keep the gameplay from getting monotonous.
The game also includes a second completely original adventure called Bowser’s Fury, in which Mario and Bowser Jr. come together to help the villain Bowser who has been overcome by an uncontrollable rage. In this mode, Mario can explore more freely, similar to Super Mario Odyssey, and a second player can help him control Bowser Jr., the villain’s son who uses a magic brush to defend himself, but with less freedom of action than Mario.
2. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Kirby series games have always been great opportunities to play cooperative multiplayer with friends and Kirby and the Forgotten Land is no exception. In the game, the cute pink character ventures through 3D levels of a forgotten land to rescue Waddle Dees who were captured by a mysterious enemy, but is surprised to find ruins of an ancient civilization, similar to Earth.
During the campaign, users can ask for help from a second player who will control Bandana Waddle Dee, Kirby’s Waddle Dee companion who uses a spear to attack and can help during combat. If the 3D adventure is too complex, players can prefer chapters with simpler 2D gameplay such as Kirby Star Allies and Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe.
1. Super Mario Bros. Wonder
One of the newest additions to the Nintendo Switch’s library of classics is also one of its best games to play cooperatively. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a 2D platform game that takes us back to the classic Super Mario World from the Super Nintendo but uses the power of current consoles to create several surprises in each stage.
Up to four players can venture together through traditional stages from the Mario series that can become completely different at any time thanks to Wonder Flowers, items that temporarily change the rules of a stage. The game also introduces new power-ups, including the most notable, an apple that transforms Mario and his friends into heavy elephants.
