Enlarge / Mario Kart is a safe standby for any couch co-op session. (credit: Nintendo)

With Valentine's Day on the horizon, we've overhauled our guide to the best couch co-op games, adding several new recommendations for you to share with a loved one.

Video games have gone a long way toward keeping us sane during our pandemic days. But while there's never been more people playing together, finding the best co-op games to play with a partner at home can still be tricky. More and more titles have (understandably) emphasized online multiplayer, leaving the market for quality couch co-op experiences somewhat thin.

If you and your loved ones are looking for some good times for the living room, though, we can help. Below, we've rounded up 26 of the best couch co-op games we've played, with options that should appeal to both hardcore and less experienced players. Whether you're eager for a half-hour session or a weekend-long binge, interested in a platformer or a twin-stick shooter, or playing on PC, Switch, Xbox, or PlayStation, our selection should have something worth your time.

Enlarge / People are complaining about situations like this in Cyberpunk 2077 . (credit: CDPR / Twitter )

On its release day, Cyberpunk 2077 immediately pivoted from one of the holiday season's most hotly anticipated new games to one of this year's biggest debacles, as bugs both comical and game-breaking proved to be so prolific on consoles that Sony even delisted the title entirely from its digital storefront for the time being. Developer and publisher CD Projekt Red has had its hands full for the last few weeks juggling broad mockery and unhappy customers, and now there's a new woe on their pile: shareholder suits.

Two different law firms announced last week they were filing suit against CD Projekt, alleging the company violated securities law by misleading investors (and everyone else) about the state of Cyberpunk 2077 and whether it would be playable on current-generation consoles, the PlayStation 4 and XBox One.

Statements CD Projekt Red made about Cyberpunk throughout 2020 were "materially false and misleading," the complaint ( PDF ) alleges, because the company failed to mention that the game "was virtually unplayable on the current-generation Xbox or Playstation systems due to an enormous number of bugs."

Enlarge / Awkward Thanksgiving portrait, next-gen console edition. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

Kyle Wiens is the cofounder and CEO of iFixit , an online repair community and parts retailer internationally renowned for its open source repair manuals and product teardowns.

There aren't enough game consoles in the world for our upcoming locked-down holiday. Good luck finding a PS5 for Christmas. As Nintendo similarly struggles to keep up with demand, the number of people searching iFixit for Switch repair guides has more than tripled since last year. Traffic to our Joy-Con controller repair page started growing dramatically on March 14—the day after President Trump declared a national emergency. It’s been surging ever since. At a time when so many of us are turning to games for fun, stress relief, and social connection, it is imperative for our collective sanity that we press every game console into service.

But if you talk with expert repair technicians like Bryan Harwell, they’ll tell you that significant obstacles stand in the way.

Enlarge (credit: BioWare)

BioWare today confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets in video games, announcing an HD remaster of the Mass Effect will be coming to Xbox and PlayStation consoles, as well as PC, in 2021. The company also surprised fans, however, by announcing that an all-new Mass Effect game is additionally in the works.

BioWare general manager Casey Hudson revealed the news in a post on the BioWare Blog this morning.

"We really struggled to keep this one a surprise," Hudson admitted, "But now it's official: today we announced the Mass Effect Legendary Edition !"