The best co-op puzzle games let you tackle some real head-scratchers with your pals, working together to come up with creative solutions and combining brain power across equally-weighted challenges. Single-player puzzle games can be a great way to unwind after a busy day, but if you’re craving a bit of company, these multiplayer puzzle games have you covered for big brain activity.
Many of the games in this list are also great indie games, offering something a bit outside of the ordinary and a place for you and your friends to reinforce the view that you’re smarter than everyone else.
Aloof
- Released: 25 March, 2021
- Developer: ButtonX
- Platforms: PC
Kicking things off with a hidden gem indie game, Aloof is a puzzle-fighter hybrid in the style of games like Puyo Puyo Tetris. It’s got a beautifully soft art style, and the rounds take place across a selection of small islands that you’re attempting to defend with your blocky towers. Aloof’s simple nature makes it an ideal game to pick up and play with people of all gaming abilities, and allows you to play side-by-side in the co-op campaign, or against each other across 23 levels–both in on or offline modes.
If you’re looking for a sweet and whimsical puzzle game full of tactical play and tactile rewards, you can’t go wrong with Aloof and its island-hopping Tetris-inspired magic.
DYO
- Released: 14 February, 2018
- Developer: Team DYO
- Platforms: PC
Not only is DYO a great puzzle game, it’s also one of the best free co-op games around. You’ve really got nothing to lose. With a gorgeous mythical theme that combines classical aesthetics with a modern platformer, DYO excels beautifully at two-player collaboration. The screen is split, but you and your buddy can hop between both sides, changing the layout and making the path fit where you want to go. As adorable little minotaurs in a gorgeous environment filled with ancient statues and Greek iconography, you both need to manipulate the labyrinth across 30 levels so that you can leave.
Ibb & Obb
- Released: 26 May, 2014
- Developer: Sparpweed
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch
Ibb & Obb is almost a meditative experience. It’s one of the chillest cozy co-op games around, in part due to its rounded, almost Bauhaus-inspired aesthetics and gentle electronic soundtrack, but also due to the steady flow state you’ll enter once you get started. It’s a platformer with a twist–gravity works both ways, up and down. You and a friend will need to navigate a world that pulls you in two directions, jumping and falling to reach the end of each level and finding hidden worlds along the way. Two players can join forces either online or in couch co-op.
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Pico Park 2
- Released: 12 September, 2024
- Developer: TECOPARK
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S
Pico Park 2 is the sequel to the award-winning original, and offers a tighter experience with more content and even better collaborative play. Made specifically for co-op, the game requires you to work together with two to eight players in a chaotic puzzle platformer adventure. There’s cross-play support, too, and you can use your phone as a controller if you’re playing locally, so there’s no excuse not to grab your pals for this one.
Pico Park 2 is a simple game to understand, you’re solving environmental puzzles that rely on collaboration–whether that’s turning yourselves into stairs for another player to run up, pushing or pulling your buddies, or bouncing other players across the screen–there’s always a solution to the puzzle and usually it involves using multiple lil’ guys to get there.
We Were Here Series
- Released: 14 September, 2023
- Developer: Total Mayhem Games
- Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5
If you’re in the market for a great two-player co-op game, the We Were Here series will keep you busy night after night. So far, there have been five titles in the series, with the first being completely free to play. The original We Were Here takes place in a frozen wasteland where you and your partner are separated and unable to see each others’ location, but you can communicate through walkie-talkies and collaborate to solve environmental puzzles.
The other entries are paid games, but expand on the concept, taking you on perilous puzzle-filled adventures through castles, blizzards, and strange prisons. The latest instalment in the series is a stand-alone title: We Were Here Expeditions: The Friendship, and takes place in an abandoned amusement park.
Out Of Order
- Released: 16 March, 2022
- Developer: Follow the fun
- Platforms: PC
Out Of Order has all the fun of your classic chaotic party games, but doesn’t pit you against each other. Instead, you and your friends have to speed around sorting colours as they spawn into a sweet animal-filled land, running back and forward to adjust spawner towers so colours don’t end up in the wrong one. If you manage it in time, you’ll collect more coins, which can be spent on items and pets. Items make things easier, and the challenges progress as you try to stick around for just one more round. Perfect for voice chat silliness, Out Of Order is a frantic yet simple concept for up to 4 players with a fondness for funny co-op games.
Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy
- Released: 31 August, 2023
- Developer: Frozenbyte
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
The Trine series is famous for integrating co-op play in its whimsical fantasy puzzle structure, and Trine 5 is the most polished of them all. If you’ve never played before, or if you’re a series loyalist, you’ll get just as much out of it. It’s gorgeous, complex, responsive, and makes every player feel crucial to the success of the team.
As the name suggests, it’s the fifth outing in the Trine series, bringing Amadeus, Zoya, and Pontius back for another adventure through 2.5D landscapes and increasingly challenging puzzles. It feels like fighting through a fairytale with your besties, using your powers to stop the evil Clockwork army and bring peace to the land. Fans of old-school platformers looking for unique combat and an epic journey will find hours of enjoyment in Trine 5, and might even want to dive back into the older entries in the series as a result.
Degrees Of Separation
- Released: 14 February, 2019
- Developer: Moondrop
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Another game made for two, Degrees Of Separation is a sweet romance tale of two contrasting elementals who fall in love. Separated by their differences, Ember and Rime each use their varied powers to overcome any obstacles that stand in the way of their union.
Degrees Of Separation is a classic 2D platformer enriched with a fairytale-style narration and storybook art style, taking you through Norse-inspired realms filled with fantastical creatures and magic. It’s a beautiful, intimate experience that might best serve couples looking for a game to play together for a cozy date night.
Escape Academy
- Released: 28 June, 2022
- Developer: Coin Crew Games
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
You might have exhausted all the local escape rooms, but Escape Academy offers the same experience, just in a virtual space. The story goes that you and your friends have been inducted into the Escape Academy, a school for promising students to train and become the ultimate “Escapist”. Each room has been designed by real-life escape room designers, and should tickle that same part of your brain. What’s great about this style of puzzle is how it lets every player offer something unique. You may have a cryptographer or a skilled mathematician amongst your pals–here’s their chance to shine.
If you’re stuck on any of the puzzles, we’ve got a full Escape Academy graduation guide for you to follow and emerge top of the class, but we’d recommend trying absolutely every possible avenue first. Sometimes the solution is hiding in plain sight. Keep an eye out for the sequel Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, which was announced last year but doesn’t yet have a release date.
Unravel Two
- Released: 9 June, 2018
- Developer: Coldwood Interactive
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
You really only want to invite friends you trust to play Unravel Two with you, as the main concept–the pair of you being tethered together–can be frustrating with the wrong person. You’ll be in danger of getting dragged all over the place and falling off bridges or down holes endlessly. However, with the right person, Unravel Two is an immensely rewarding and enjoyable experience, where two puzzle-solving minds can lend themselves to two woolen bodies to traverse all manner of complex terrains.
