Shoulda been co-op

Reading IGN’s review of Beyond: Two Souls, I was a little disappointed that the game wasn’t receiving higher praise.  I was intrigued by reviewer’s disappointment that the spirit (“Aiden”) wasn’t a fully cooperative second player.  That would be an extremely interesting direction for Quantic to have taken (though asymetrical co-operative gameplay is not always a lot of fun).  It does make me think about other missed opportunities; games that would have been a lot more fun with a co-operative mode.  Here are five games that should have been co op:

Lost Planet

The entire Lost Planet series feels like it should be more famous than it is.  Lost Planet 1 released very early in the lifecycle of the 360 and had some very positive reviews at the time.  Lost Planet 2 added cooperative gameplay and seemed like a fun game to play even though its overall ratings were lower.  Lost Planet 3 was looking like it might build on the strengths of the first and incorporate the cooperative gameplay until they jettisoned the cooperative gameplay completely.  Crazy!

State of Decay

Okay, I admit I have not played State of Decay for XBLA.  I love zombies and zombie games.  I love survival games too, so this should be a natural fit (aside from the glitches).  It does sound like a great game but a little intimidating for going it alone.  Having someone on your side to help keep you alive would be a great addition (it certainly has seems popular among other zombie franchises).  The game itself involves surviving in a zombie-infested world while building a place to live and locating supplies.  Help would be great, and cooperative sounds like it could be a great combination of Left 4 Dead and Minecraft!  Aw well, here’s hoping for Class4.

The Walking Dead: Survival Edition

Speaking of zombies, I didn’t want to leave off The Walking Dead: Survival Edition.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of the show and the actors.  But let me get this straight.  This is a game about two brothers who fight zombies across post-apocalyptic Georgia on The Walking Dead, but there is no cooperative gameplay?  That’s like having a Batman and Robin game in which you couldn’t play as Robin.  Oh wait…

Ghostbusters

I was extraordinarily disappointed when Ghostbusters debuted on the Xbox360.  I really enjoyed the arcade Ghostbusters back in the day and I had high hopes for this game.  Many of the original cast returned to record their voices (here’s Bill Murray speaking about recording his lines with David Letterman).  The game itself was a lot of fun and interacting with the other ghostbusters was a blast, but how much cooler would this game have been with coop?  The Wii version has coop, but with its shortened length and reduced graphics, it’s not the same experience.

Double Dragon

The number one missed opportunity of all time, however, has to be Double Dragon for the NES.  If you’re of a certain age, you may remember the buying this game and, if you’re like me, you were hoping that there was some kind of cooperative option.  Alas, no, there was a two-player competitive mode where both players played as the same character in one-on-one combat (BONUS, you get to learn the names of all of the thugs in Double Dragon, like the Abobo, the muscular brawler who appeared here and then disappeared for decades until reappearing in leading roles twenty years later, making him the Mickey Rourke of video game characters) but none of the co-op play that made the arcade game such a hit.  Still, though, you have to love the music…