Today’s topic is fun games to play in bed at night with your partner. Specific? Yep, it sure is, but it’s also a common activity. When you’re just kind of hanging out with your partner and neither of you are ready to fall asleep just yet, you want something to do other than stare at the ceiling.
Why not a game? Seems like a pretty good solution to the problem.
Just to be clear, we’re focusing on video games here. If you’re looking for other kinds of games, you’ll have to find another resource, although we’re sure you and your partner can think of plenty of fun things to do together at night.
Now let’s talk about some important things we considered when putting the list together.
First and foremost: the games need to work well with two players. Seems pretty obvious. It might mean a co-op experience or just a couch multiplayer kind of deal.
Next: the gameplay can’t be super deep or convoluted. In other situations, it can be kind of fun to learn a game’s many complicated systems and strategies, but that wouldn’t be a good fit for this kind of situation.
Lastly, the games need to be playable, well, in bed, without requiring weird control schemes or accessories.
With all that in mind, we worked up the list you’ll find below. We hope you find something that both of you like!
It Takes Two
Well, basically any discussion of co-op games or games for couples from now until the end of time is going to include a mention of It takes Two, which is easily one of the greatest co-op action-adventure games ever made.
Couch co-op is built into the game from the get-go, so as long as you have two controllers and a system capable of running the game, you’re good to go.
From there, you’ll start to explore a fascinating and creative take on everyday environments, all to make up as an in-game couple and be there for your despondent daughter. But at least for us, the story is the weakest aspect here.
Environmental design, platforming, game mechanics, and puzzles are the actual stars of the show, and it seems like the team knew exactly how to create an experience based around variety and momentum.
You’re not going to get stuck on a puzzle for 20 minutes and end up having to look at a guide. At least probably not. Solutions are intuitive, and puzzles also make great use of the various powers your character gets throughout the story.
Also, since each character gets a different power for each section, you might feel inspired to play through a second time, swapping roles.
This game is no joke, and if you’re already on the fence, just go for it.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mario Kart is already one of the most famous and successful couch multiplayer series in the world, and the extra bonus with 8 Deluxe is that it lives on the Switch, which lets you play without having to stay connected to some big screen.
You can also just use the two attached Joy-Cons for two-player rather than connecting two full controllers. They’re not great controllers, but hey, we’re talking about playing in bed here.
Not much else to say, honestly. If you have a Switch, you probably also have Mario Kart, and with some nice assist features, even the most inexperienced player can still have some fun with it.
Minecraft
Well, what do we really need to say about Minecraft? It’s one of the most popular and best-selling games of all time, and it still carries a massive audience even years after release.
It’s also just a darn good game, especially because it lets you play how you want to play. You can get into combat and work through the story, or you can switch to creative mode and spend lifetimes building intricate structures for yourself and other players to inhabit.
When playing with a partner, you can choose to work together or go your separate way and see how you each fare against the bad guys. Similarly, you can work together to build something crazy or go about your own building projects.
Minecraft has been ported just about everywhere, including to mobile platforms, so if you’d rather play on phones than on some kind of console or big screen, you have a great option.
Overcooked 2
Overcooked is a wildly popular party game series known for hectic gameplay and delightful visuals.
Overcooked 2 isn’t necessarily the definitive game in the series, but it does offer a lot to players while also just delivering the core gameplay that made the series popular in the first place.
Unlike some other games that include couch multiplayer merely as an additional feature, the Overcooked games are 100% built around multiplayer, which might be why the gameplay feels so perfect for parties or cozy night-time play sessions with someone else.
Castle Crashers
We could have gone with Cuphead here, but to be honest, unless you’re some kind of hardcore gaming couple, co-op Cuphead in bed is probably not the best way to strengthen a relationship.
So instead we’ve gone with Castle Crashers, a Newgrounds game that’s very easy to understand and get into.
You move from left to right, hacking and slashing enemies along the way to rescue various princesses and dispatch bosses. Pretty classic fare, overall.
Thankfully, the game has been ported to a bunch of different systems, and it’s also cheap to begin with and goes on sale pretty regularly.
Fun powerups and stat allotments make it just deep enough to hold your attention.
Snipperclips
This was actually one of very few launch games on the Nintendo Switch, whole years before the console became an insanely popular port machine.
Snipperclips might not be Breath of the Wild, but it’s excellent at doing its job: delivering fun and funny co-op puzzles that will get you to hash out possible solutions with your partner in real life.
There’s a healthy number of levels here, and if the gameplay clicks with you and your partner, you’ll have a lot to mess around with.
Glitterati*Lobotomy 