I’m a high school English teacher, writer, and ninja. My co-op gaming life started with the original Double Dragon arcade game in 1987. As I only owned an NES back then, my Sega Master System-owning friend used to get tired of me wanting to play through Double Dragon with him all the time. I still love cooperative beat-em-ups, including Final Fight, Castle Crashers, and Scott Pilgrim. I was once a competitive Saturn Bomberman player, but otherwise I have always been about the co-op.
My first experience with writing about games came in 2003 when I wrote a full walkthrough for Bomberman Land 2, an amazing Japanese Bomberman RPG. Over the next several years, I continued to write FAQs and Achievement guides for various games, culminating in an award-winning Bionic Commando Rearmed guide. I finally joined the gaming press after Windows Phone 7 launched, covering and reviewing games for Microsoft’s fledgling mobile platform. Now I’m on the console scene at Co-Optimus, one of the coolest and most unique gaming sites around.
It's unusual for bullet heaven games (à la Vampire Survivors) to feature online co-op. That's part of what makes Entropy Survivors, the "bullet heaven roguelike" from First Break Labs, so exciting. Not only does the game have 4-player online co-op, but it has just gotten a Hard mode in celebration of its first anniversary. Now a team of four can face extra-tough challenges together and unlock new skins for their trouble.
The founders of Coffee Stain Studios, the team behind Goat Simulator, have a new studio called Feeble Minds. Their minds might not be as strong as yours or mine, but these guys do have an interesting game in the works. Serpent's Gaze is a cooperative Souls-like action RPG that's coming to PC in 2026. There's already a demo, so the game must be pretty far along.
During the cold winter months, sometimes you need a game to match the season. Wendigo Blue is a beat 'em that's currently in Steam Early Access, and it might just fit that bill. Indie developer EndlessFluff published the game early in 2025 and continues to develop new content for it. The game already features 4-player local co-op, so it's right up our alley.
Tribute Games and DotEmu struck gold with TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, one of the most popular beat 'em ups in recent memory. After years of updates, the team has finally released their big follow-up: MARVEL Cosmic Invasion. The new brawler promises all the style and charm of Shredder's Revenge but with a fantastic lineup of Marvel heroes and villains. It's out now on all current-gen platforms.
Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is a really cool skiing game from Megaton Industries that arrived on Xbox, Game Pass, and Steam at the beginning of the year. A PlayStation 5 version was due to arrive this week, but unfortunately, Sony players will have to remain lonely for a little longer. The PlayStation version has been delayed at the last minute. When, oh when will Team Sony get to climb the lonely mountains?
We've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Double Dragon Revive, the first 3D Double Dragon in a long time, since Arc System Works announced it last year. Well, the game officially launches on October 23, and players who preordered the Deluxe Edition already have early access as of today. How's the co-op? We'll tell you soon, but Revive's final developer diary reveals juicy new co-op details that are sure to get series fans excited.
Me oh my, it's a good season for beat 'em ups. Arc System Works' Double Dragon: Revive is just around the corner, and Dotemu's Absolum recently landed on all platforms but the beleaguered Xbox. Not only is Absolum garnering piles of critical praise, it has also sold over 200,000 copies in its first week of release. That's an impressive debut for Dotemu's first game that isn't a remake or a sequel to an existing franchise. It certainly helps that the game is a gorgeous 2D beat 'em up with 2-player local and online co-op.
Are we alive here at Co-Optimus? Yes, we're alive! We've just been super busy with work and saving the world and stuff. But no matter how busy we are, we still appreciate a good deal. That's what caught my eye with Humble Bundle's Momcore Games For a Busy Life Bundle. The bundle includes up to ten Steam games for $10, including the cooperative APICO and Onsen Master from Whitethorn Games. Not too shabby!
If there's one thing that PC gamers and keyboard users in general can agree upon, it's that cleaning keyboards is a pain. Air dusters are expensive and won't remove some of the debris, plus, the longer you use the duster, the more it feels like the can is going to explode. Am I the only one who worries about that? The can gets so cold, dude! Well, the folks at FurZapper have an alternative that can clean keyboards and clothing alike: LintZapper.
Windblown is the game that answers the question, "What would a Hades-style game from the makers of Dead Cells be like?" Since debuting on Steam Early Access last fall, Motion Twin's latest roguelike has already received several updates. Today's "Gift Update" overhauls the game's Gift (passive upgrades) system, adds new gifts and weapons, and more. From the sound of it, the update doesn't blow!
When it comes to video games, people tend to think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a beat ‘em up franchise, but the heroes in a half shell have appeared in many other genres as well. A few years ago, a mobile game developer called Super Evil Megacorp had the brilliant idea of making a TMNT roguelike. After first releasing it on Apple Arcad...
We always love when a game is listed as "co-op" on the digital store. Sometimes, however, games with the co-op tag end up not actually having cooperative multiplayer. This can happen when the game's developer or publisher mistakenly considers all multiplayer to be co-op, or when they consider team-based competitive multiplayer to be co-op. When that happens, we'll say the game is Not So Co-op.
