There are plenty of Vampire Survivors-style "Bullet heaven" games in the sea, but it's hard to care about the ones that don't have co-op. If you don't at least bring the same features to the table as the game you're inspired by, what's the point? Well, Survivor Mercs from Wandering Wizard is already out in Steam Early Access, and it's coming soon to consoles as well. Having tried the single-player demo on Steam, I'm excited for it.
A couple of years back, Ocean Dive Studio released a roguelike shooter called Blackout Protocol on Steam Early Access. During the Early Access period, the developers made some big changes, enhancing the single-player experience, overhauling gameplay, reworking co-op, and even renaming the game. Now titled Section 13, the game has fully launched on Steam and also debuted on Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles (albeit without co-op support at present).
Cthulhu's Reach from The Fine Arc and First Break Labs is a Steam Early Access roguelike shooter based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. It features a unique retro art style and isometric graphics, plus the all-important 4-player online co-op. While the game had some good foundations when it debuted, it was somewhat lacking in content. The latest update goes a long way to rectifying that by adding a map editor, not to mention some balance and bug fixes.
Sega's Crazy Taxi is an arcade driving classic. It introduced the concept of picking up fares in a taxi and then delivering them to a destination at a breakneck pace. A few games have been inspired by Crazy Taxi, the most interesting of which has to be the upcoming Castle Cab from new indie Australian developer Royal Reign Studios. Not only does Castle Cab take place in a fun medieval setting, it will also feature 4-player split-screen co-op.
A big part of being a cat pirate is sailing the seas and traveling from place to place. What better way to do just that than by playing Cat Quest III on the go? Soon, aspiring kitty pirates will be able to enjoy the charming cat-themed action RPG on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. That should be a purrfect option for gamers who don't have the game on Switch or Steam Deck. The iOS version will still support 2-player local co-op, thankfully.
Back in the innocent days of 2010, A World of Keflings was a fairly popular successor to A Kingdom for Keflings. I even wrote about it a few times in 2012! But the world of humans moved on, and NinjaBee's city-building/adventure game was last seen on the ill-fated Wii U in 2014 (there was also a single-player VR game in 2018). Fast-forward to the dark year of 2025, and not only is A World of Keflings coming to Steam, but there's already a playable demo! Perhaps the cheerful, no pressure gameplay that the Keflings bring is just what we need nowadays.
First-person roguelikes like Gunfire Reborn and Roboquest can be quite fun when done well. Another such game is MythForce, which comes from Beamdog, the developer that brought Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 to modern platforms (while mostly ditching the co-op). MythForce features cartoon-like visuals and a fantasy theme, making it quite different from most of its peers. It will soon reach its "final form" via the upcoming Version 1.2 update.
The Nintendo Switch 2 finally launched last week, and with pretty good availability to boot. The console comes with 2 Joy-Cons, a Joy-Con holder, a dock, and a charger. It does not come with proper screen protectors, a case, and other things that are nice to have for a portable system. That's where PowerA comes in. They've got three types of accessories that might just cure what ails new Switch 2 owners like me.
It could be said that Brain Seal Ltd, the developer of the Dark Quest series, is wishy-washy on co-op. Every other game is either single-player or co-op. Thankfully, the upcoming Dark Quest 4 will be one of the co-op ones. In fact, it looks like this will be the biggest and best game yet in the board game-style dungeon crawling series. A demo has recently arrived on Steam, and the game will come to both consoles and PC later this year.
Railway Empire 2 from Gaming Minds Studio and Kalypso Media is a game about trains. More importantly, it's a train game that supports 4-player online co-op. Now we're talking! And one thing about train games is that you can never have enough trains in them. Well, there will soon be more trains and more empires to build. The "Industrial Wonders" expansion is due out on June 24, and it will bring the Industrial Revolution with it.
Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase was light on big franchise updates this year, but Activision can always be relied upon to announce a new yearly Call of Duty. This year's entry is Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and it looks to be a landmark installment. What's the big deal? Campaign co-op! Oh, Black Ops 7 will still have a cooperative Zombies mode, but the chance to experience the game's big-budget campaign with a friend(maybe even friends?) should be a rare treat. The last Black Ops with campaign co-op was 2015's Black Ops 3.
All the way back in 2023, Thunder Lotus Games announced 33 Immortals for Xbox and PC. The game launched in early access on March 18, but only on Xbox Series S|X consoles and Epic Game Store. What about the aging Xbox One, you ask? What about Steam? Well, one of those questions has finally been answered. As of last week, 33 Immortals is now playable on Xbox One. Hopefully those pre-SSD loading times won't affect other users!
