It’s always more fun to play platform games with a friend.
Platform games are some of the best games ever made. With a focus on tight controls and well-designed worlds, there aren’t many games that are as fun to run around in, beating up bad guys and collecting, well, collectibles. Platform games are generally more fun with a friend, just like most other fun things.
There are a lot of great single-player platformers that don’t need co-op to be great, and the games on this list are some of them. But having the choice to play these mechanically brilliant games with a friend would give you even more ways to spend time with them and give the experience a new dimension. Here are some single-player platform games we’d love to play with a friend.
Dead Cells
The popular rogue-lite game Dead Cells is hard to put down. Your main character, who doesn’t have a head, is always getting new tools and skills as you fight your way through dangerous worlds and try to get further each time you die and start over.
By adding co-op to Dead Cells, you and a friend would be able to work together on some of the game’s hardest parts and race to the end goal of each level. With its many pick-ups and paths that sometimes split off, two players could start a run on the same road but end up with very different builds and ways of playing.
Ori And The Will Of The Wisps
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a platform game in the style of Metroidvania that every fan of the series should play. In this game, just like in Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori explores a huge, beautiful, and full of personality natural world.
Both Ori games are fun to discover and go on adventures in, but the second game, in particular, is a real show the whole way through. Even though you can race other players in The Will of the Wisps, it would be nice to play this calm, interesting game with a friend.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
The Ratchet & Clank series has been going strong for many platform generations, and Ratchet the lombax and Clank the robot’s adventures have changed in many ways over the years. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart adds a lot of new characters, weapons, and a fun new way to play called “rift holes,” which let you move through them seamlessly to get to new places and worlds.
Rift Apart is a great single-player adventure, but a co-op mode could make the crazy weapons and powers even more fun. The series has already tried out the idea in games like Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, so it’s not as crazy as it might seem, especially since the game introduces us to Rivet and Kit, who are both great friends.
Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight is one of the most beautiful, atmospheric, and difficult platform games ever made. It mixes parts of rogue-lites, souls-likes, and Metroidvanias to make a memorable experience. As The Knight, you will go deep into Hollownest to find secrets and improve your skills until you are strong enough to take on the strongest enemies.
Hollow Knight is a gem, but it can be hard to play. Having a second Knight with you could not only help you beat some of the tougher enemies, but it would also give you someone to share the beautiful world with.
Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair
The Yooka-Laylee games have never tried to hide where they got their ideas from. Instead, they show them off with pride. While it’s clear that Banjo-Kazooie was the inspiration for the first game in the series, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is clearly based on the Donkey Kong Country games. It’s a side-scrolling platformer with great gameplay, tricky puzzles, and some of the brightest and most colourful worlds out there.
The Donkey Kong Country games that inspired The Impossible Lair are fun on their own, but they’re even more fun when played with other people. We think Yooka-Laylee would be similar in this way. Taking control of your own powerful duo of animals and joining in the platforming fun would add more depth to an already fun game.
Celeste
Celeste is a very different kind of game in a lot of ways. The game doesn’t have any combat. Instead, it’s all about exploring and moving around in a world that’s brilliantly created. It’s also one of the most story-driven platformers ever, focusing on the main character Madeline’s battles with her mental health and her own personal goals.
Even though Celeste is a great journey that makes you think, you can’t deny that it is also a masterpiece of game design. Basket Random game is a lot of fun to play, and as you move up the mountain, the jumps and runs get more complicated. It would be a lot of fun to try to get to the top with another player who is also on an adventure.
Rogue Legacy 2
Rogue Legacy 2 is the sequel to one of the most important roguelike platformers, and it plays a lot like its predecessor. Your character walks through a procedurally-generated castle and fights through waves of enemies, just like in the first game. After your character dies, you can choose from one of his or her children, each of which has random genetic traits that can change your run in different ways. In the second game in the series, new classes and powers are added to the mix. This gives you even more choices for each run.
But who says that the person you list as your next of kin has to be an only child? If more than one player could join a run, each of you could choose a different heir, and the effects and skills you bring with you as you move towards your goal would be even more different.
