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King of the Couch: The Best Local Multiplayer Games for PlayStation

Some things in life are better when they're shared.

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A semi-regular couch co-op club of ours has recently led us to much furious Googling and research as we looked for the best games to play with friends (specifically four friends in our case). There's plenty out there for duets, but when it comes to larger parties it can be quite tricky to find suitable titles.

Well, after lots of searching and subsequent playing, we've managed to identify some of the most enjoyable local multiplayer games out there, and to save you trawling through the internet in order to find them, we've collected the best for you here. So, grab a friend (or two) and a controller (or four) and get downloading, because these are the best games you can play with a friend from the comfort of your own couch.

Soul Calibur V

We could have put any fighting game here, so we opted for our personal favourite and that series' most recent entry, Soul Calibur V. Whatever your tastes, there's an option for you. We personally like the weaponised battles and the combat system in Bandai Namco's brawler, but if you prefer 2D fisticuffs then go with Street Fighter or King of Fighters, or if you lean towards gore and extreme violence try Mortal Kombat, for superheroes there's options for both Marvel and DC. The list goes on and on, so pick your favourite flavour and get ready for a knuckle sandwich.

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King of the Couch: The Best Local Multiplayer Games for PlayStation
Fighting games let you legitimately hit your friends in the face. What's not the love?!

Splinter Cell: Blacklist

If you've got a shady friend, one who likes to slink in and out of the shadows, garrotting their enemies from the cover of darkness, then the split-screen co-op in Blacklist makes for a really nice change of pace. It's tense stuff, so much so that it'll often have one player shouting at the other to sit still, while both anxiously watch a heavily-armed patrol walk by, hopefully oblivious. Certainly worth a look if you want some co-op stealth in your life.

King of the Couch: The Best Local Multiplayer Games for PlayStation
For a change of pace, check out the co-op in Splinter Cell. It's sneaky but fun.
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Call of Duty: Ghosts

Whether venturing online as a cadre, or just hitting a map for a local game of 1v1v1v1, there's still much to be said for local multiplayer in the shooter space. It's a sadly neglected area these days, since online stole the show and became the norm, but it wasn't long ago that we were playing all our multiplayer shooters on split-screens, huddled around chunky 12inch televisions. If you were particularly organised you could hook up two consoles (we did, having versus tournaments of Doom on PSOne), but it was such a faff that it was hard to arrange with any frequency. So, the modern equivalent is four-player split-screen CoD, online as a team, local in a match, and even co-op against zombies or aliens.

King of the Couch: The Best Local Multiplayer Games for PlayStation
Call of Duty still lets up to four players huddle around the same screen.

Trine 2

This one's specifically for three players (although two can play). It's a beautifully realised platformer with puzzle elements, with each player taking on one of the three available roles (Amadeus the wizard, Zoya the thief, and Pontius the knight). Visually it's stunning (especially the PS4 version), there's plenty of fiendish challenges, and the characters all handle very nicely. The avatars are a bit bigger than would be considered standard, but there's plenty of charm to the story and characters that star within, and a trio of friends would have great fun taking on the challenge here.

King of the Couch: The Best Local Multiplayer Games for PlayStation
Not only is Trine 2 absolutely stunning, but it also offers three-player co-op.

FIFA 14

Versus or coop, FIFA is an absolute beaut of a game when played in the company of friends. Our personal favourite is two or more friends playing together on the same team, passing and moving the ball and trying to engineer the perfect goal. It's one of those endlessly repayable games, with a huge database of players, teams, stadia, and a plethora of customisable settings to tinker with. It's also a great way of entertaining larger number of football-minded players, with versus matches and tournament modes. If you like kicking balls around, this is certainly an excellent option for fans of couch play. (If football isn't your thang, you can always swap this out for your sport of preference; NFL, NHL, NBA etc etc).

King of the Couch: The Best Local Multiplayer Games for PlayStation
Football fans can play together against the AI, or each other. Perfect for sports fans.

Spelunky

Derek Yu's fiendish roguelike platformer was first born on PC, and was playable for free. Then it got a graphical overhaul and a bunch of improvements and was released on Xbox 360, then again on PC, and finally it appeared on PlayStation. The reason it appears here rather than in subsequent instalments of this feature is because of the options within the PlayStation ecosystem. First there's the standard console edition, with PS3 already available and a PS4 version on the way, but there's also the Vita option, allowing friends with multiple handhelds to set up a local network and play together (and link up with PS3 version). Regardless of how you play (and on which platform), Spelunky is undoubtedly one of the finest platform games ever made and we heartily recommend you pick up a copy. The solo spelunking is a fine way to while away a few minutes, but buddying up and adventuring with friends opens up additional possibilities (and pitfalls) and is so absorbing that it can eat up a whole evening. There's so much to discover, and so many nuanced gameplay elements; if you're looking for some great couch co-op we recommend making this your first port of call.

King of the Couch: The Best Local Multiplayer Games for PlayStation
Spelunky is superb platforming, whether that be alone or with friends.

Diablo III

For longer sessions of pure co-op then look no further than Diablo 3. You can check out either the standard release (old-gen only) or go for the Ultimate Evil Edition which recently landed on PS3 and PS4. There's more content in the latter and it's the one we'd recommend, but ultimately it's the same formula. Bashing the crap out of demons, upgrading and tinkering with your build, chaining together combos, grabbing new loot. It's a popular blend to be sure, and while initially we weren't sure whether we'd like the controller over the traditional mouse and keyboard combo, we actually PREFERRED playing with a DualShock. Four-player action can fill the screen up with lots of effects and make it harder to know exactly what's going on, but it's a small inconvenience against the thrill of hacking away at evil minions with multiple friends in tow.

King of the Couch: The Best Local Multiplayer Games for PlayStation
Diablo III on console allows for four-player local co-op, and it's great fun.

Honourable mentions: Army of Two (the clues in the name, even if this one's a bit of a meathead), Borderlands (get comfy, there's a whole lot co-op game here, especially if you've got the sequel to hand too), Little Big Planet and all the Lego games (child-friendly local multiplayer), Dead Space 3 and Resident Evil 5 (both underwhelming on their own, but experiences that benefit from co-operative play), and Beyond: Two Souls (a unique application of local play, with one player controlling the character, and other playing as her spectral companion).

Something we missed? Add it in via the comments section below. The more the merrier!



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