Indie studio BitMaverick recently unleashed Pushmasters on Xbox Live Indie Games, a co-op arcade game that's all about love and flowers and cats and stuff. Kidding, it's actually a game about shoving everything off of rooftops, rockets and frozen mountainsides, which sounds like way more fun than those other things. Although, full disclosure: there's at least one reference to cats.

It's co-op dungeon fighting time! Jochum Skoglund and Niklas Myrberg's Gauntlet-inspired Hammerwatch is still under heavy development, but the duo has already released a demo to make sure we stay excited. The teaser includes the entire first act of the game, complete with secrets, money, shops, a bonus level and a boss. Three of the four classes are currently playable, and co-op play for up to four players (online, local or LAN) is ready to roll.

While watching hammers might be an exciting hobby, indie dev team Jochum Skoglund and Niklas Myrberg have something a bit more flashy in mind with their upcoming title. Hammerwatch is inspired by classic arcade games such as Gauntlet, providing players with dungeons to crawl through, multiple character classes, and swarms of enemies to crush. The best news is that in addition to single player mode, Hammerwatch will support online, local and LAN-based co-op games for up to four people!

Exciting news comes from Japan with leaked information and pictures of Mario Kart: Arcade GP DX. Nintendo is teaming up with Namco Bandai again to bring us the continuation of the karting classic. It seems the two monoliths are becoming rather well acquainted as they are also bro'ing up for the next Super Smash Bros. title. The catch? It is an arcade title currently exclusive to Japan. Previous installments in the Japanese arcades include Mario Kart Arcade GP and Mario Kart Arcade GP2.

If you've never heard of Total Carnage, it's the sequel to the co-op arcade game Smash T.V.  It's also one of my favorite co-op games ever.  It takes the twin stick formula of Smash T.V. and adds in heavy doses of comedy and continued over the top violence.  I've logged countless hours on this game over many different versions since it was released to home consoles on the SEGA Genesis.  One thing that's always bugged me, at least I thought, was that I never received the true ending to the game.  It turns out that's the result of a bug that's been there since the game was in the arcades in the early 90s.

After months of patiently waiting for some sort of news of its Xbox 360 debut, Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson, Larry Hryb, has finally given us some form of relief and announced the long awaited Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition release date, also including a handful of other upcoming XBLA titles along with it.

This past weekend I packed my bags and headed south to Washington, DC to check out Magfest - a festival that celebrates videogames and videogame music.  The show has plenty of stuff for folks to do including a free play arcade with many classic cabinets (including my favorite Moon Patrol).  There's also a LAN party area, table top gaming area, and plenty of independent artists selling their wares.  

The Darius series of shoot-em-ups has long featured 2-player co-op play. While Darius originated in arcades, it’s far more likely that Co-Optimus readers first played Darius Twin on Super Nintendo/Wii or Darius Gaiden on Saturn/etc. The last home release, Dariusburst for PSP, sadly didn’t see release outside of Japan (but it was single-player anyway). When the arcade sequel, Dariusburst: Another Chronicle debuted in Japanese arcades last year, nobody expected it to receive a worldwide release. Now, quite surprisingly, Taito has started taking orders for an English language version of the machine.

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You'd think that a game based on Superman would be great. After all, who among us doesn't wish we had super powers like the Man of Steel? The game isn't quite as indestructible, with all manner of odd decisions. I can't think of a more bizarre way to adapt a character into a video game.

It's the sequel to the mother of all twin stick shooters, Smash T.V. Total Carnage took gamers out of the arena and into the battlefield. We take a look back at the over the top title and its fun, quarter sucking, co-op experience.

Co-Op gaming may have its roots in the Arcade. To many the concept of an arcade is long gone, but there's a thriving industry there, though it's somewhat different. We take a look at the history of co-op gaming in the arcades, the present, and where it's going in our latest guest editorial.

A few weeks ago, I was flipping through Arcade Fever, a nice guide to the golden age of video games. In a list of odd games, a strange old game from 1978 called Fire Truck was mentioned. Not only was it older than all other co-op classics, it was far more cooperative in nature than most of them!