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My Favorite CO-OP game of all time.

Man, this is a hard thing to pin down. There are many, many games that I love for the co-op. I'm not sure I can just pick one. The Resistance 1 and 2 games for the PS3 are probably my favorite shooters for co-op, but I have to tell you, many of my favorite memories involve co-op from different times in my life when I had different types of games that I liked.

I remember playing Contra on the NES and having to rely on the ol'  up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, SELECT, start, code quite heavily. The SELECT button is essential, because that's what moves the cursor over from one player, to two. - Oh I was terrible at the game, I would burn through my lives after a few levels and my friend was always gracious enough to let me steal his lives so we both could continue on. I've always loved playing the contra games co-op whenever someone is willing to play it with me.

We also had a lot of fun playing a super nintendo bomberman game that had co-op through the campaign, and also a lot of fun comp stomping in the death match.. We wasted many hours playing that game with his 5 player MultiTap adapter.

Perfect Dark was the first co-op shooter I ever played. It was pretty fun, but the stuttering frame-rate in the campaign made the main game difficult to tolerate in co-op. Oh, but the Comp-stomping in the death match was AMAZING. It was so fun to get 4 friend and load the game up with bots and try to take them all out. With all the different customization that game offered, we were always able to find new interesting challenges to take on.

That passion for Perfect Dark carried over into TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. It had a co-op campaign, but also featured the same comp-stomping death match that me and my friends enjoy so much. I wish more games had bots as an option in the arenas. TS:FP is one of my favorite games of all time. Sadly, I don't play it very often any more.

When I met my future wife, I really enjoyed when we would game together. We didn't spend huge amounts of time playing games, but whenever we did, it was always a fun experience. We played through games like Gauntlet on my Dreamcast  and  Zelda Four Swords Adventures on the Gamecube. Many games that didn't even offer "Real" co-op we would play together and strategize and take turns playing and stuff. We got married over 7 years ago, and she continues to be supportive of my gaming hobby. Even though I don't have much time to game any more, I still enjoy playing games when I get the chance, and when she joins in, its just so much better. She has recently even played a few First Person Shooters with me. We played through Resistance 2 (This was her first shooter game ever... She is an amazing spec-ops in the game and has saved me and the 8 player group numerous times) and played through the entire campaign of borderlands with me. We had a blast playing through Pixel Junk Monsters together, and I'm always on the lookout for games my wife might be willing to play.

There are some games that my wife is just never going to like, and I have a buddy that occasionally drops by for a Friday night game session. We've plowed our way through Time Splitters: Future Perfect,  Resistance 1, Army of 2, Halo, Halo2, Gears of War, Gears of War 2 (well, part  way so far) You get an idea... we play shooters. Its been a lot of fun and it good to have a friend to share those games with.

Well, this is getting a bit longer than I intended, so let me just finish by saying that I'm not sure I can pin down my all time favorite co-op game. Different people, different game types, different experiences.. Its all great. The point is, that co-op is the center of it all. Its the interaction with the people around you, your friends, your spouse,  and occasionally its even that random dude you just got paired up with. You and these people taking on the challenges in the games and overcoming them while having fun and helping each other out is just something you don't get in non-co-op games.

I've always loved co-op, and I'm very glad that co-optimus.com is around. It has made my continuing quest to find great co-op games, (and co-op players for that matter) so much easier, and I just appreciate the type of people that are drawn to this site. Its a breath of fresh air in the otherwise ugly landscape you sometimes find out there in other game sites.