Now that you’re finally able to be back on the same couch with your friends and family, people are looking to local multiplayer games more now than they have in the last few years. Back are the nights of gathering friends in your living room and going through a grand adventure together!
2022 was a pretty good year for games of the sort, too. Games with good local multiplayer spanned consoles, genres, and series, meaning there was definitely something for everyone in the mix. We’ve rounded up our favorites from the past year for you below.
Nintendo Switch Sports
A spiritual successor to Wii Sports, which remains the fourth-bestselling video game of all time, Nintendo Switch Sports launched in April 2022 to bring low-impact sports into your home once again. This game has three new sports, three returning from Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, as well as three newcomers to the series, and the total number of games was bumped to seven when golf arrived in a November 2022 update.
Classics like tennis and bowling return from the first installment of the series, and chambara, the swordplay game from Wii Sports Resort, are back again. In the Switch title, they’re now joined by soccer, volleyball, and badminton as well, meaning you and your friends will find no shortage of things to play at Spocco Square.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
With kart racing games remaining a popular genre, and with Nintendo practically having invented the said genre, there’s no way we couldn’t include Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a continual classic, in our list. While the game came out initially in 2017, so we realize this is a cheeky entry, consistent DLC keeps it feeling fresh even this long after launch.
Nintendo announced in February 2022 that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would receive a series of DLC packs via the Booster Course Pass. For a nominal fee, new waves of tracks from older Mario Kart titles are slowly but surely drizzling into the game, and with an ever-changing selection of courses, it’s hard for Mario Kart to ever feel like it’s getting old.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me
Certainly a departure from the other, more wholesome titles on our list, The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me gives fans of the series another chance to try to save a group of people from something horrific. In the final game of the first season, you and your friends follow a group of filmmakers as they arrive to shoot a documentary at a recreation of the famous Murder Castle, where “America’s First Serial Killer” H. H. Holmes is said to have killed up to 200 people.
With local multiplayer, your friends are able to control some of the characters, and the decisions they make as their survivors can and regularly will impact your character later on. The game is gory and certainly not for the faint of heart, but Dark Pictures games are always a great way to see if your friends would sacrifice your life to save their own.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
Borderlands is a long-running space western FPS role-playing series renowned for its quirky sense of humor and fascinating storytelling, and it’s seen many spinoffs from the main series. One such spinoff was Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, which is set inside a tabletop RPG with the titular Tiny Tina as its DM.
Players make a custom character and get to decide their class, skills, and weaponry, and then proceed through the overworld of the game in an action RPG adventure for the ages. Engage in hand-to-hand combat, brave your way through gunfights, cast spells, and collect loot as you and up to three friends play together in local multiplayer to defeat Tina’s epic campaign.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
While Lego has more than earned its place as a classic toy, its ventures into the gaming industry have been met with considerable praise. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga might be the sixth Lego Star Wars game, but it’s also arguably the most ambitious – the game combines all nine of the films from the original Skywalker Saga into a single Lego adventure.
No longer are you forced to tackle said adventure linearly, either – players can choose with which story they’d like to begin. Each story has five missions for an impressive total of 45 missions throughout the game, which you’ll experience through the eyes of a whopping 380 characters from the Star Wars franchise. The game is an absolute must for any Star Wars fan!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Our Turtle Boys have had their fair share of video games throughout their 35-year stay as everyone’s favorite Heroes in a Half Shell, and their newest, Shredder’s Revenge, seeks to bring all the fun of TMNT arcade cabinets of yesteryear to home console. The original voice actors from the 1987 release of the series have returned to reprise their roles, making this game feel like an instant classic the second you hit "start."
Take control of the Turtles, April, and Master Shredder, and progress through the mean streets of New York City to take on the baddies that emerge from the sewers as you progress through this side-scrolling adventure. With each character having their own stats and strengths, there’s bound to be someone for everyone as you team up to take the fight to Shredder himself. Cowabunga, dudes!
Kirby And The Forgotten Land
Serving as lucky number 13 in the overall Kirby series, Kirby and the Forgotten Land has been heralded as one of, if not the best Kirby game to date. Jump into the ovular shoes of everyone’s favorite cheerful pink boy once again and explore through numerous fully 3D levels – a first for the series – in the New World to save Waddle Dees and repopulate Dream Land again.
Our favorite little copycat has always been able to replicate the things he sucks up to change his powers on a whim, but The Forgotten Land introduced even more things Kirby could consume. Now capable of using “mouthful mode,” Kirby can become anything from drills, to vending machines, to working vehicles. The game took the title of Best Family Game at The Video Game Awards 2022, and between its adorable graphics, wonderful sense of exploration, and seamless storytelling, it’s not hard to see why.
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