5 two-player Nintendo Switch games to play

Who said games can’t be romantic? I started weekly Nintendo Switch OLED date-nights with my partner, beginning this past New Year, and haven’t had this much fun gaming in over a decade. I went through my biggest gaming eras when N64 was all the rage, Roller Coaster Tycoon was the only reason to use my family’s shared computer, and when Dance Dance Revolution took over the at-home gaming mats in the 2000s. I hadn’t felt a pull or that the industry was really all that interested in women playing new games since then.

As hindsight is 20/20, I’ll admit that I was ignorant of more modern gaming, and once I started talking to friends about my renewed interest, nearly all of them came out of the woodwork (regardless of gender) to recommend their favorite games. Based on what I used to enjoy with gaming, I aimed to test out games with world-building, movement, and problem-solving. The most important baseline was — does it have two-player or online multi-player options? I enjoy the community chatter between long-distant friends and quality time spent with family that video games can enhance.

I spent the last three months playing, problem-solving, and laughing with my partner over tons of Nintendo Switch games, but five co-op (two-player) games rose to the top as my favorite date-night games. If you’re interested in getting back or jumping into gaming for the first time, these two-player games are the ones that hooked me, a practical beginner, into kicking my partner off the breakout PS5 Helldivers 2 game, and (kindly) demanding we turn on the Switch.

1 It Takes Two (2021)

Did we accidentally sign up for extreme-comedy-couples-therapy?

A married couple with one daughter on the brink of divorce, are changed into dolls of themselves after their young daughter cries over them. Cody and May have to work together, with each character having specific skills needed to collaborate to get back to their daughter, and their bodies. The visuals and world-building are awesome, the plot is genuinely funny, and I can’t say enough about how well the game scaffolds skills for new gamers to learn as they go.

While it is based around a married couple as the two players, I think it could be just as fun if I played with some friends too. We worked on a level a couple of times a week for a month to beat the game and had a blast working together to solve the problems, enjoying the stylized characters, and chatting through some real-life conversations these scenarios prompted.

I wish they went in a different direction with the Book of Love character, which feels tokenized, and I would love to see greater inclusion in the married couple options. While they slightly buck traditional roles with May as a full-time engineer and Cody as a stay-at-home dad, I would have loved to see a character selection screen at the beginning in which you could choose gender, to be more inclusive to LGBTQ+ players to play as a married couple too. This would make it a bit more of a ‘choose your own adventure’ style story and would need more development to succeed, but if Hazelight Studios is listening — that’s my biggest feedback.

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2 Overcooked! All You Can Eat (2020)

Yes, chef — no, chef. Oh my god, why chef?

I played this with my partner and online with friends and I get why Overcooked! is all the rage. It’s fun, fast-paced, low steaks (har-har), and simply a fun way to dip your toes into gaming. You work to complete orders in a themed kitchen, where there are various tasks to complete in order to get the food out the window.

We beat the game only after we made sure to fully max out points/stars on each level, and it felt like I was truly mastering a game for the first time. Working through gaming communication, juggling tasks, and figuring out the steps to crush a level had us gleefully giggling and kicking our feet.

However, if you work or have worked in the food service industry, it might hit too close to home. You’ll see memes and videos of couples and friends absolutely losing it playing Overcooked! comparing them to the characters in Hulu’s The Bear. So my advice is to remember it’s for fun. You’re not running a kitchen in Chicago, but then again, when someone comes into your side of the prep station kitchen when they should obviously be washing dishes, I understand why you might let the profanity fly.

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3 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (2017)

I beg you to watch the highlight videos

It’s a classic for a reason. Mario Kart holds up, and with some fun additions in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, it’s even better than ever. Another game that’s great for local two-players and for online multiplayer, so like Overcooked!, you’re getting more bang for your buck. Tons of the courses are pulled from older Mario Kart versions, making things fresh but still nostalgic for players who haven’t been hitting the blue shell trigger in decades.

When playing at home on the same system, our favorite part of local play is that you can watch the highlights from a race. If you’re able to laugh at yourself, this is the game for you. My partner and I have been in stiches on multiple nights, rewatching in slow motion as I fly into a wall, drift off the path, then immediately hit a banana. I never knew that with the tap of a button, Baby Bowser would turn around and drum on his little belly and smack his butt in midair until I saw my partner’s game slowed-down, and I was in tears laughing.

When playing on local, not online, after each course you have the option to watch highlight reel and even change up the video to focus on specific characters, change the video length, and specify content such as drifts, action, and items. I can’t recommend bringing this classic back into your rotation enough.

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4 Unravel Two (2018)

Weave a magical story together

Unravel Two was recommended by friends who loved playing this two-player problem-solving-based game. It hits a lot of the same areas that It Takes Two did for me but with a different and less strict storyline for the married couple characters. You play as Yarnys, magical beings made of yarn that are attached in the two-player version. Like It Takes Two, you’ll be doing problem-solving scenarios and puzzles together to explore a world and move along to new areas.

As a fantasy and science-fiction fan, I adored the visuals, which bring an imaginative, child-like wonder to the storytelling. This is another game that I recommend playing one chapter per night and enjoying it as you go.

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5 Just Dance (2024)

Two can tango, shimmy, and shake

For the nights you’re looking to stretch your legs and move around, Just Dance is still the best on the market, especially during the winter months when doing something active together gets a bit more difficult. The song selections, dance styles, goofy moves, and sometimes buckets of sweat from this game make for a fun way to mix up your time at home and can lead to a hilarious or spicy date-night — depending on how good your dance moves are.

If you have a few friends over, it’s also one of the best party games, giving you more uses and excuses to break out Just Dance and break it down for the entertainment of your friends and family.