If you’re open to doing emulation, there’s a multitude of Nintendo games that are amazing couch co-op.

Ballers gate 3? Pretty sure that runs on. Steam deck.

Death road to Canada is pretty solid.

Spelunkey 2 is fantastic, albeit incredibly challenging.

• A Hat in Time
• Trine
• Spiritfarer
• The lego games
• Knights and bikes
• Human fall flat
• Cassette beasts
• Chariot
• Octodad
• Monaco

I don’t remember these being particularly violent but maybe are worth a look:

• Pit people
• BattleBlock Theater

I also liked Moon Hunters and Children of Morta but those are harder.

Divinity Original Sin 1 is also good but definitely falls into the violent category. Its kind of goofy too so it could be worth considering. The second game + BG3 are significantly more violent and serious so are harder to recommend with that criteria.

Edit: hmm it seems the formatting is funky in Voyager, should be fixed now

If you don’t want something too serious, you can try

1. Fling to the Finish
2. Keywe.

Both are cute and kind of funny, doesn’t get too difficult as long as you don’t chase highscores.

Unrailed is less chaotic than overcooked, but can still get a little stressful as tasks pile up.

https://www.co-optimus.com/system/4/pc.html

Brothers: tale of two sons

Me and the wife played a few coop games.

• DERU - The Art of Cooperation is a pretty puzzle game that is satisfying, not too difficult nor does it overstay its welcome.
• We also enjoyed the snake-esque puzzler OmoTomO. Only on itch, not Steam, so you have to install it via the desktop mode. When you’re willing to dig a bit itch grants you some shiny gold nuggets for cheap.
• In Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime you have to run around a spaceship to operate the different parts (engine, guns, shield). More straightforward than it sounds, and the pacing is such that you’re not rushed but do get some tense moments.
• Almost forgot Pode which is a very cute 3rd person puzzle adventure game.

Some games recommended by other people in the thread that we can corroborate

• Trine series is good platforming fun with pretty graphics and dialog that is a little on the nose sometimes.
• Kingdom: Two Crowns is good for a few hours at least, can’t say I cared about beating it because the levels just keep coming with only minor variations. Definitely a unique blend of tower defense and base building.

Personally I agree on Overcooked, once the novelty wears off it gets a bit frustrating because of the difficulty. Its still fun in groups though.

My SO isn’t that big of a gamer but these are the games we’ve played together:

Lovers in a dangerous spacetime Battleblock Theatre Octodad

I don’t know how the tolerance for difficulty is for you guys but I think it’s worth a look

A way out. Two criminals escaping prison, made by the Same studio as it takes two and split fiction. Full of mini games along the way like the other two and my god the story made me laugh with it’s ridiculousness. it’s definitely not as good as it takes two or split fiction but well worth a go imo

Split Fiction is peak, gonna be hard to beat. Too bad you can’t do ‘a way out’ it’s very well done. Might want to look into tweaks for those “unsupported” games, as many of them work fine. Unraveled 2 is a good example.

Otherwise, If this is something that is really becoming your thing, it might be time to hook your PC to the TV or invest in a console. If you go console, you additionally open up the world of games that require individual screens (crossplay games-you on steam deck screen and them on TV screen, but still sitting together OR you on pc and them on TV if same room).

Our couch coop at some points was me with my laptop on a stack of books on the coffee table while she was on a ps4. Played Aragami this way, for one.

They may seem silly, but there are a slew of Lego games that people get really into and are very impressive. Human Fall Flat also has some silliness, but good puzzles at times

My partner and I make a point to occasionally play through a couch co-op game as well. Here are some of the things we enjoyed.

Phogs - Currently playing this. It’s a cute, dog-themed puzzle game thing, where you play as two heads of a single long dog-thing. We’re enjoying it, but we’re not particularly deep in, and I do wonder if it’ll get Ibb and Obb samey, but it’s worth checking out imo.

Cassette Beasts - Couch co-op, Pokemon inspired, adventure RPG with great storytelling, fantastic music and a retro aesthetic. The world is very Zelda-like in exploration and puzzle solving, while combat is Pokemon double battles. Highly recommended, just be aware that one player gets to be the player-made protagonist, while the other is one of an interchangeable series of partner characters.

Sea of Stars - The co-op update did a lot of good for this game. A Chrono Trigger inspired, faux-SNES era, indie RPG. There’s a lot of unvoiced dialogue, which I could see as being a barrier to enjoyment as a multiplayer game, but the game is paced quite well, so I don’t think it’s a huge problem. Also, players do take turns inputting commands, but everyone is responsible for the timed hits/blocks, and you each control a character of equal agency in the overworld, so it avoids the largest co-op turn based RPG folly of having one player and one half-watching “follower.” There are a ton of accessibility options/features (difficulty is VERY malleable), and as an added bonus, there’s a free story DLC coming on the 20th.

Children of Morta - This is perhaps the most “hardcore” of my list, but the girlfriend, despite explicitly not enjoying “hard” games, really really enjoyed this one. An action-RPG with some very light roguelike elements, Children of Morta has you play as a family of hunter-gatherer-warrior types in a fantasy world, working together to stop a malevolent power from corrupting the physical world. Each family member has a different playstyle, their own skill tree, and a lot of personality. The game is very story driven, with a few moments being taken between each run for the fantastic narration to drip feed the narrative, slowly teaching you more about the world, the characters, and their family dynamic.

These are the ones that came to the top of my mind, either because they were particularly good or, in the case of Phogs, is ongoing. If I see anything else worth mentioning when I look at my Steam list next, I’ll add.

Check out Kingdom Two Crowns. Absolutely brilliant

Ship of Fools is -60% on steam right now and I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s a rogue lite where you both need to protect a ship from monsters maning the cannons and it’s an absolute blast! It has good progression and it’s intense but not in annoying sort of way.

My wife and I were having fun doing co-op on the Trine games. Coordinating your character switches to cross obstacles can be pretty fun. The Lego Star Wars games were also fun for us both to just mess around and cause chaos.