I’m building a tabletop/“barcade” style emulation machine as a gift.
It’ll be two players and emulate everything up to the PS1 era (hopefully)
I’d like recommendations on your absolute favorite 2+ player games, with a focus on co-op but versus is fine too.
Ideally games meant for an arcade button/joystick control scheme, too.
Right now I have a couple of the classics in mind, like the Double Dragon games, TMNT arcade game, some Mortal Kombat, those kinds of things, but I’m really out of my depth when it comes to “good arcade/retro coop games”, so please list as many fun multiplayer games as you can think of (up to the PS1 era preferably).
Edit with a little more detail:
Emulator system is a Pi4 running RetroArch. It’s capable of running games up-to the ps1/ n64 era, but that’s where it starts to run into problems with the more demanding, usually 3D games. For a reference example, it can run SM64 smoothly enough, but really struggles with Goldeneye. I know goldeneye is a bit of a special case, but that’s roughly the era I’m looking to stop at with this, if anyone has experience with this kind of emulation I’m all ears!
My familiarity is mostly Sega 16 bit. Toejam & Earl (1 more than 2, for me, but many love both), Bonanza Bros, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage series would be my picks... couldn't hurt to have some head to head puzzle games on there, maybe Puyo Puyo 2 for 16 bit/arcade or Bust-a-Move 2 (emulate on PS1, Saturn or arcade for that I think), maybe Super Puzzle Fighter.
This vid seems to have its head screwed on right for megadrive suggestions, since all my favourites are in there, at least, although there's tons I haven't tried. I notice it also includes WWF Raw as a recommendation. This made me realise that for some of the best coop games ever, it would be great if your device could run the N64 AKI developed wrestling games, 'WCW vs NWO World Tour', 'WCW/nWo Revenge' and 'WWF WrestleMania 2000' - pick any one of those (they're very similar; I posted the release order, so in theory they improve slightly with each release but I spent most of my time with either the first or second game). Ofc as you noted, N64 emulation is quite uneven, so you'd have to test how they run. Also for games that utilise the entire N64 pad, it might bump up the number of buttons you include. 6 face buttons, 2 bumpers, an extra stick besides the dpad... that's a lot of buttons that might not even be covered by a stick + 8-button arcade setup. Shame, but those wrestling games are great games - not just competitive in coop, you can do friendly tag, royal rumble, create-a-wrestler, etc.
Since you have TMNT arcade in there, the sequel Turtles in Time as well as the Simpsons arcade beat em up (konami I think) are other great games in that vein. There's a wealth of arcade sidescrolling beat em ups which you could pad out the library with and it's difficult to know which ones to pick. You could start with the games listed in the Capcom Beat Em Up Collection on Steam:
I've played a few minutes of most of those but I only know Battle Circuit and Final Fight. Battle Circuit is fondly remembered. Another one that gets a lot of love is Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. Then there's Sunset Riders, but I can't vouch for it personally.
Only problem is that a lot of games in this arcade beat em up vein accommodate 4 player and 4 player party style play is where they shine. The best ones are probably great with just 2 people but some of the more mediocre ones might feel a bit hamstrung without the option of 4 player madness.
If your gift recipients don't mind getting their asses kicked then you can't go far wrong throwing in all the Metal Slug series or even some of the Contra games.