I’m not going to recommend many because you’ve got a lot to go at there (and above!) but I’ll second @LockerK’s Snipperclips suggestion. 2-player, quirky, easy-to-get-into, weird, artsy, puzzles and cute! :-)
I think A Short Hike could be a good fit for some Animal Crossing lovers. It’s a quirky, cute and relatively short 1P game but with a story and a lot of heart. My girlfriend watched me play through this in a few sittings and she really enjoyed it.
Katamari Damacy is old but gold and if Reroll (the remaster) is going cheap, then that’s a great deal. There’s nothing quite like it and rolling stuff up into a giant ball is still a ton of fun.
Overcooked and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, as amazing as they are, they’re firmly in the ‘stressful co-op’ category for me, just in case that’s a potential problem!
Stardew Valley is supposedly pretty great co-op, but I think you each need a copy I’ll also recommend Lego City Undercover - it’s light but had tons of hidden stuff to collect if that’s your thing. My buddy and his wife played through Fire Emblem where he did all the tactical battles and she did all the relationship management and questing in between - that might work for you.
Y’all, Snipperclips looks nuts. I’m 90% sure I’m too dumb to actually do well at it, but it def could be a lot of fun. Onto the list! Boxboy + Boxgirl seems to have similar energy. Will likely snag one of those.
Paper Mario was on my list, @CraigM, we both think it looks delightful. Neither of us were ever huge Lego people, and I’ve somehow never played one of the myriad Lego games. If I did, I’d almost wanna go for the Harry Potter pack, but, ugh, giving Rowling money -.-
We thought Katamari Damacy was pretty funny back in the PS2 days, but, that may be behind us. Unsure. Will see what she thinks.
I do think that Overcooked-style frantic games might be too stressful; neither of us has great reaction times, haha
Thanks, folks! Not leaving till tomorrow, so will keep an eye out in case anyone else has thoughts.
I played a bit of Knights and Bikes, with my daughter. She got bored because there’s a lot of story and not a huge amount of game (that might change later in the game?). It is definitely meant for two-player (co-op, although sometimes there are challenges where you compete with each other, but it doesn’t seem to matter much to the game who wins them). Each player controls a teenage-ish girl who are having adventures on a tourist island during off-season.
It might be a good match for you, if you like the art style. I don’t think there’s a demo, but you can check out the trailer video, that should give you a decent idea.
How about Untitled Goose Game? It had 2-player patched in a while back, and it’s the only game my wife specifically asked to play again after our first co-op session.
I’ve played 3D World + Bowser’s Fury a bunch, and I’ve barely even touched the 3D World part. The open world of Bowser’s Fury is just so much fun! Definitely recommended, if only to see what future Mario games will probably look like.
Switch update landed in, and I had my heart stop for half a sec when I noticed it allowed Bluetooth audio connection… But of course, no Bluetooth mike connection. Issue still not solved, @Chaplin!
I have a wired headset in the bedroom nightstand that is essentially my Switch pair currently. I have a Bluetooth set for docked play, which has a mic, but as @Left_Empty points out, I can’t use the mic that way. Unfortunately the Switch, while super cool, is at least a decade behind for social gaming elements. On a Switch, it takes some wonky setups and/or high tech solutions to do what could be done on an Xbox 360 or PS3.
I had to play Rise with my phone connected to Discord with an earbud mic while listening to reduced (and hopefully noise canceled) game audio via speakers.
I haven’t done any meaningful amount of online multiplayer on Switch since about a month after Splatoon 2 came out, so I don’t really care about the microphone issue.
