The latest "shooter looter" to hit the scene - Nexon's The First Descendant - wraps up its open beta later today, and after spending 12 hours with it I've got a few thoughts...

A few months ago, Sega launched the Astro City Mini V in Japan. The Astro City Mini V is a miniature arcade cabinet with a vertical screen, so it excels at playing vertically-scrolling shoot 'em ups. 23 games are included on the unit, including several co-op shmups like Raiden, Out Zone, Gunbird, and more. Classic gaming fans no longer have to import the Astro City Mini V from Japan, as Limited Run is now offering the unit and accessories for preorder!

iiRcade is a home arcade cabinet/console for which gamers can legally purchase hundreds of classic arcade games. Sales are infrequent on the platform, which makes this week's sale all the more special. Right now, iiRcade has knocked 30 percent off of tons of games, including over 40 co-op classics! It's a great time to pick up games like Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga III, Elevator Action Returns, The Combatribes, and many more.

The OneUps are a video game music cover band that has been around for 20 years now. That's a long time! To celebrate their anniversary, the band is releasing a limited edition vinyl album called 20. It will feature 8 of the OneUps' best songs, including one from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game! Check out our quick impressions before you preorder the super limited-edition record.

Bandai Namco’s Taiko no Tatsujin series of drum-based rhythm games has appeared on every major console this generation, but none more than Nintendo Switch. Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival marks the franchise’s fourth Switch entry. This installment kicks things up a notch with the new 4-player co-op DON-Chan Band mode, the addictive G...

Aksys Games recently conducted an event called "All Aksys" on Twitch.  During the event, the publisher announced several new Nintendo Switch games. Of those titles, Spooky Spirit Shooting Gallery will support 3-player local co-op! A port of a Japanese light gun arcade game, Spooky Spirit Shooting Gallery lets players team up to blast all manner of Japanese yokai (spirits and monsters). It's due for an English release in 2023.

We recently had a blast with Spidersaurs, a colorful run-and-gun shooter from WayForward. That game is a bit clean cut, though, especially when compared to Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef from Rogueside and Games Workshop. Shootas, Blood, & Teef lets up to 4 local or online players team up as gun-toting Orks on a rampage i...

On November 5th, Co-Optimus will be joining thousands of other gamers for a day full of gaming and fundraising for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Donations through Extra Life go straight to the participant’s chosen CMN hospital to help kids in need. You can help our cause by joining or donating! The Co-Optimus team is open to all co-op fans, and we’re always happy to have more teammates!

Star Trek has experienced a resurgence lately thanks to an arsenal of new shows on the Paramount Plus streaming service. Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are the clear cream of the crop, but the animated Prodigy show stands out as the first Star Trek series aimed at kids in many years. Now kids and other fans can experience the show in a whole new way, as Outright Games and Spanish developer Tessera Studios have released Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova on consoles and PC. The game features 2-player local co-op, so aspiring captains can bring along a first officer to share in the fun.

ROCCAT is back with a new keyboard in their Vulcan line, the Vulcan II Max - a full sized keyboard with plenty of bells and whistles set to compete with the likes of the Razer Huntsman and Corsair K100. 

Our spooky month of streaming continues, this time diving into the Early Access version of Phasmophobia, a co-op ghost hunting game in which you and some friends get to peace out...cooperatively!

It has been a while since we shared iiRcade news, but that's mostly because there haven't been many new co-op releases for iiRcade lately. That will change soon, thankfully! Starting with last Friday's release of Toki (a cool single-player run-and-gun platformer starring an ape), iiRcade will release a total of four arcade games from TAD Corporation, a Japanese game developer. The next three releases include Blood Bros, Cabal, and Heated Barrel, all shooters which feature 2-player local co-op!