If you’re looking for the best video games for couples, you’ve come to the right place! Gaming is an incredibly rewarding hobby to enjoy with your partner, and playing games as a couple opens up some amazing multiplayer games that you may not be able to enjoy by yourself.
What are the best video games for couples?
Whether you’re after a cooperative game to get stuck into, a classic Super Mario game to pick up on the Switch, or a puzzle game to enjoy on date nights, there are a lot of interesting, fun, and unique games to try out together, in person or online. Here’s my list of the best video games for couples:
Table of Contents
It Takes Two
It Takes Two is an obvious first game for this list! It tells the story of Cody and May, a struggling couple dealing with the breakdown of their marriage, fighting to find their way back to their daughter after being inexplicably transformed into toys.
Thematically, it’s a good choice for couples, and it tells a heartwarming (and relatable) story about how a relationship can fall apart over time under the strain of modern life.
However, what makes It Takes Two remarkable is the unpredictable and incredibly fun gameplay. It’s a co-op game, and players need to work together to overcome a range of obstacles, with each player having their own unique skills to bring to the table.
The settings (from a bog-standard garden shed to a snow globe inhabited by adorable creatures) are beautifully imagined, too. The bosses, in particular, are chaotic, fast-paced, and super fun to defeat, and the mini-games are pretty moreish, so you’ll want to keep coming back to them.
It’s a total joy to play from start to finish. This doesn’t mean it’s a perfect game – Cody and May’s griping may start to get to you eventually, and some of the puzzles are pretty tricky – it’s hugely popular for good reason, and it won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021 (just one of a whopping 82 awards it won that year).
While the puzzles may cause the occasional argument, mostly, it’s a game about learning to work together and communicate clearly while having a blast. It’s a truly unique game, one that you literally can’t experience alone (it’s a multiplayer-only game, although you can play online as well as using local co-op).
It Takes Two is a brilliant game and should be on every list of the best video games for couples. Totally worth a try, especially if you want to get stuck into a longer game with a good story.
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Overcooked (1 & 2)
Overcooked may cause a few arguments, but it’s hilarious, so it’s worth the risk in my opinion. A co-op game that is one of the best video games for couples but also great to play with friends, Overcooked will test your communication styles to their absolute limit.
Players need to work together to serve hungry customers at a restaurant, and the orders come flying in thick and fast. Quickly, couples need to figure out the optimum setup in terms of tasks: which one will deal with plating up, and which one will clear up the dishes? It moves super quickly, and there’s a lot going on at once, which means a delay on the part of one person can cause serious problems for the other.
Overcooked is a noisy and frenetic game to play together. It’s got a pretty silly premise: a spaghetti monster is ravenous, so the Onion King sends you back in time to prepare food in advance. The story isn’t the point, of course, but it’s pretty cute.
There are 6 worlds, each with multiple levels, so there’s plenty to get stuck into. It gets progressively tougher (and more surreal) the more you progress, with the last few levels needing total co-operation to beat.
Overcooked 2 brings a whole new set of challenges, including 36 new levels and some new gameplay mechanics. The throw button stops you from having to scurry around to collect food from each other, making it quicker to finish levels.
The levels themselves are pretty imaginative, including a particularly manic white water rafting level. It’s familiar, but the gameplay improvements make it a good upgrade if you’ve completed the first one.
It’s one of those ‘just five more minutes’ games and it’s super easy to accidentally while away the hours on a quiet evening. You can easily dip in and out of it too, and you don’t need to worry about forgetting where you are or how to play if you accidentally leave it for a long time between sessions.
It’s also particularly chaotic after a couple of drinks, especially on Valentine’s Day, but don’t ask me how I know that.
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Her Story
This is a bit of an unexpected entry: it may not be the most obvious choice if you’re hunting for the best video games for couples. However, Her Story (by Sam Barlow, writer and designer of Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories) is a pretty chilled experience for couples. It’s a single-player game, in which players have to hunt down video clips to solve a mystery, but the nature of how you connect the dots can make it an interesting alternative to watching a movie together.
Her Story presents the player with a puzzle: a man is missing, and police are interviewing his wife, Hannah Smith, to figure out what happened to him. Using a database, you can search for tags, which will bring up new video clips.
These clips won’t be presented to you in order, so it will be down to you to piece together the story while trying to find new nuggets of information.
This makes it an excellent game for a quiet date night. Two heads are better than one, after all: sometimes one of you may make a connection that the other one wouldn’t have thought of, and it helps to bounce ideas off each other as you go along.
If you’re a note-taking kind of person, you can do that while the other person takes care of the controls, or just take it in turns. It’s the kind of game that can be completed over a few evenings, and it’s fun for couples to work together to solve the mystery.
If you solve Her Story, you can move on to Sam Barlow’s other games: Telling Lies, the story of four unlikely people whose lives have intertwined in an explosive way, and Immortality, a new release for 2022 about the fictional movie star Marissa Marcel and her unreleased movies. The games share dramatic moments, interesting characters, and unconventional gameplay, and are a good choice for couples wanting to try something different.
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Portal 2
The massively popular follow-up to the original video game, Portal 2 is considered by some to be one of the best video games for couples, and it introduces couch co-op, which works amazingly well. It’s incredibly fun, with each player taking on the role of a robot solving puzzles.
Wielding portal guns, you’ll work together to place portals strategically, helping the other to complete each level. Players can ‘ping’ areas to place portals, creating a marker for the other player to see, which is vital, as you’ll mostly be separated from each other in split-screen mode.
Portal 2’s puzzles are genius, and couples will only solve them by communicating very clearly. It also has excellent prank potential. Even hours into the game, it’s still funny to purposefully send the other person sailing into the abyss, although of course, you’ll be doing this at your peril (especially if you’re tackling a particularly difficult section of the game together).
The deadpan humor from the main game translates to the two-player mode. There are plenty of quips and sarcasm, and GLaDOS takes great joy at mocking you when you fail. It’s a fun game to try out with your partner, with the occasional frustrating moment dwarfed by the sense of satisfaction you’ll have when you finish it.
It lasts for at least 5 hours (depending on how good you are at figuring out the levels/how often you like to prank each other along the way). It’s joyful to play, both hilarious and smart, and you’ll feel like a genius for working it out, even when GLaDOS tries her hardest to make you feel stupid.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
If you enjoy high-tension party games, then this is the one for you! Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is, in some ways, a pretty good relationship test: can you and your partner diffuse a bomb by working together, without getting furious with each other in the process? That’s the key question.
This is a game that, like many others on this list, requires crystal-clear (and efficient) communication. One player will take control of the Bomb Defusal Manual, which can be downloaded here and either printed or viewed on a tablet. The other will handle the bomb, following instructions to defuse it, quickly, before it explodes.
The bombs are procedurally generated, made up of a series of modules (up to 11 of them) which need to be solved as quickly as possible. Some of these are what you’d expect – cutting a series of wires in the right order, for example – and others are a little more complex, involving mazes, passwords, and extremely stressful games of Simon.
The setting isn’t that exciting to look at but to be honest, you won’t have time. You’ll be too focused on trying to understand what your partner is saying.
The secret of this game is not to panic. If you start panicking or shouting, the other person is more likely to get confused or make mistakes. It’s by no means a relaxing game for couples, but it’s very fun.
Return of the Obra Dinn
Return of the Obra Dinn is not a co-op game, but it’s one of the most unique games to play, and it works pretty well for a couple if you enjoy solving puzzles. Set in 1807, the player’s job is to inspect a merchant ship, missing for several years. Nobody on board has survived, and your grisly task is to figure out each person’s name and cause of death. You’ll do this using the Memento Mortem (essentially a magic watch), viewing each person’s moment of death.
It’s a stunning, unique game, revolutionizing the detective/puzzle genres by bringing you something completely new. It’s also fun to play together. It’s easier to work out puzzles if you can consult each other, and it’s satisfying to unravel the mysteries of the Obra Dinn with another person alongside you.
Together, you’re more likely to remember small details and make connections that can make solving each mystery much easier.
The gameplay is simple enough to enjoy with someone who doesn’t normally enjoy video games, too. A bonus if you’re trying to get your other half involved in your hobbies.
Mario Kart 8
Mario Kart 8 has to be one of the most iconic Nintendo Switch games to play in a group. However, it works really well for couples, too. If you’re naturally competitive, Mario Kart can make for an interesting date night. The most recent addition to the series, it has 48 courses, and if you sign up for the Booster Course Pass, you’ll eventually have access to 98 courses in total. It looks gorgeous, and it’s a total delight to see your favourite tracks from old games so beautifully imagined this time around.
It feels like a ‘best of’, with some incredibly nostalgic tracks from past games (Waluigi Pinball, anyone?) and the gameplay is, as always, a joy. You can also check out Battle Mode, too, although this is also extremely competitive, and infuriating to lose.
There are a huge 36 characters to choose from, so you should both be able to pick your Super Mario favourite. It’s also good to unlock tracks and characters together by taking turns to make your way through the campaign mode.
Despite the competitive mayhem, a study conducted by Century Link found that not only does playing games together make for a stronger relationship, but one of the best games for couples to bond is, in fact, Mario Kart. So you’ll be having fun and growing closer at the same time, as verified by science. Who knew?
Also, as a side note, if you (or your partner) are not really into the idea of Mario Kart, but you are in a Super Mario kind of mood, Mario Party may be a better choice. It’s a classic party game but one of the best video games for couples, too. The latest edition, Mario Party Superstars, is bursting with fun and sometimes ridiculous mini-games from the Mario Party series and it’s a great pick-me-up game if you need a mood boost.
Rayman Legends
Released in 2013, Rayman Legends landed in the PS3/Xbox 360/Wii U era, but was later released for PS4 and Xbox One in 2014, and landed on the Switch as the ‘Definitive Edition’ in 2017. Rayman is a platforming legend for good reason and is a beloved character by many a ’90s gamer kid (including me). However, Rayman’s back catalogue is a little hit-and-miss, and he’s had a few flops over the years.
Legends, though, is one of the most fun games to play in the series. Fun, fast-paced, and beautiful to look at, it’s a super fun game with fine-tuned controls, and the levels are cleverly designed: challenging, but not too frustrating. It’s a great game to pick up for one player, but multiplayer is excellent too.
Couch co-op mode in Rayman Legends is just as fun as single-player. Like most of the games on this list, it requires good communication and quick thinking and is just incredibly fun to play together. It’s a game that feels so good when everything comes together, and mastering the controls will see you flying through the levels together (and feeling like a genius as you do so). A satisfying choice for date nights, making it perfect for our list of the best video games for couples.
Rayman Legends supports up to four people, but it’s a different experience with a full group of players: fun and silly and perfect for a party, but much more chaotic. It works beautifully for two players, which is why I’d recommend it for couples.
Don't Starve Together
When the original version of Don’t Starve landed in 2013, it had a pretty big impact. An indie game with a loyal following, it’s a survival game set in a strange and magical wilderness. Don’t Starve draws you into its world with its unique blend of Minecraft-esque survival gameplay and dark-but-somehow-adorable art style.
Don’t Starve Together, a standalone expansion followed in 2016. You can play with four players (friends or strangers) online, but you can also enjoy local co-op, which opens it up to couples. There are three modes to choose from: Survival, the most basic mode, Endless, which is a little more chilled, and Wilderness, a hard-core mode where death is permanent.
It’s a hard video game, so not one to tackle with your partner if you’re after a relaxing date night experience, but it’s fun and interesting to work together to, you know, not starve.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The latest game in a beloved series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was massively popular upon its release in 2020, partly due to the Covid pandemic. It’s a beautifully peaceful game, offering a sense of calm (and connection with other players) even when you are physically apart.
In fact, while it’s an absorbing game for one player, I’d say that this series has always been a good choice for long-distance couples (putting the original version on the GameCube aside – visiting a friend’s town back then involved using memory cards, so wasn’t as convenient as later games). On a personal note, my now-husband and I used to visit each other’s Nintendo DS towns on Animal Crossing: Wild World, back in our long-distance days, and have enjoyed these games together ever since.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a beautiful way to game together when you live apart. You can only have one island per Nintendo Switch, so it’s a less convenient co-op choice for couples. Having said that, it does have a two-player local co-op mode, but the second player will be limited in terms of what they can control, so the novelty wears off quickly.
It serves as an excellent example of the power of playing video games to connect us, even when we live apart. The perfectly calm setting for a virtual date.
Stardew Valley (Co-Op Mode)
A classic game beloved by fans across the globe, Stardew Valley is a must-play. Combining all the hallmarks of a relaxing gaming experience (farming, fishing, pet ownership) with a fun story, cute pixel art, romance, and a few magical touches, it’s a game you can easily sink dozens of hours into, bringing you into its cozy, happy world and holding you tight.
Stardew Valley offers a split-screen local co-op, and it’s a lot of fun. The multiplayer mode experience is very similar to the main game, but with two players, some of the more time-intensive tasks are made much easier. Mining, chopping down trees and clearing rocks, and painstakingly watering your precious crops are so much easier with two of you involved.
Each player controls a farmer, and you can work strategically in order to level up in key areas. It’s fun to play to your strengths. One of you can focus on leveling up fishing, while the other works on their fighting skills.
It’s not a perfect two-player game (having to read the same conversations with characters twice is a bit trying), but it’s addictive, fun, and wholesome. A warning before you start: there’s a chance that you’ll want to play it every single night for the foreseeable future. You can pick it up on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
Available on PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4, Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime is a frantic co-op video game, and it works well for groups of friends as well as couples. You’ll be launched into a colourful and creative world, steering a giant battleship to defeat the forces of Anti-Love.
Playing Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime is adorable and occasionally frustrating, but the key is to play to your strengths: there are plenty of tasks to keep each person occupied, so you’ll eventually be able to figure out which jobs suit your own personal gaming style. It’s a good entry to the multiplayer game genre, and you can play online as well as couch co-op if you’re living apart.
You can play with up to four players, but it’s a little less chaotic to play with your partner.
Unravel 2
The original Unravel was a hugely popular addition to the puzzle game genre and had a great reception on release in 2016. The follow-up, Unravel 2, opens up the game to two players. Available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4, Unravel 2 is a beautiful multiplayer game for couples to complete together, whether in person or online.
Each player controls a Yarny, a cute character made of yarn, in order to solve puzzles. It’s absolutely beautiful to look at, and it’s also very sweet. Playing this game will leave you with warm, fuzzy feelings about friendship and the power of working together.
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
I’ve played many a Lego game over the years with my other half, and I’d recommend picking any of them up to play with your partner. Go for the franchise you love the most: Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Batman and Marvel Avengers have all been given the Lego treatment, and the gameplay is pretty similar across the board (they’re practically a genre of their own at this point).
Playing the Lego games together will see you solving puzzles and building bridges and stairs to access new areas. Being killed will see you explode into a shower of blocks, but you can respawn to try it all over again.
The Lego games are cute, fun multiplayer games, a little frustrating at times, but still enjoyable. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a loving send-up of the Star Wars franchise, and it’s kind of satisfying to unlock all the characters together.
You can play the occasional prank, too. Sending R2-D2 flying off into the darkness with a desperate ‘rrrreeeeee!’ is particularly funny, although maybe not after the twentieth time in a row.
Playing a Lego game is fun to do, and the multiplayer experience makes it one of the best video games for couples, so it works really well for a particularly nerdy date. It requires communication and cooperation, so it’s a good team-building exercise.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you’ve found a game that suits you both. Gaming is a great choice for date nights, and there are tons of games that are more fun to play with another person, whether online or in couch co-op.
The key is to think outside the box: some video games work well for couples even if they’re not a classic split-screen video game. Puzzle games, games with strong storylines and interesting characters, and relaxing games like Stardew Valley make for super-chilled date nights with your partner, even if you’re in a long-distance relationship.
Also Read: Best Female Video Game Characters
Megan Bidmead
Megan is a freelance writer based in Somerset, England. She writes about videogames, books, and pop culture.
