Games for the Suddenly Isolated Family or Roommates due to COVID-19

With everything that has been happening in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, you may find yourself not only working from home but having your entire family at home as schools are closing and making the switch to online only. Many families are canceling their spring break travel plans. On top of that, many events, concerts, and sports have been canceled as well, limiting typical entertainment options. Us gamers have a slight edge in the battle against boredom with a big selection of games to choose from. However, with the entire family at home, it isn’t always appropriate to play your favorite first-person shooter or violent action game. This is the perfect time to seek out and play games that bring everyone together.

As a self-titled “Daddy Gamer” who has a youtube channel dedicated to family-friendly content and looking at games through that perspective, I’ve decided to curate a list of possible options that bring the family together. I’ve broken them down into different categories to accommodate lots of different situations for lots of families including those with more mature members.

BACKSEAT GAMES (GAMES THAT ARE FUN TO WATCH)

Back seat games are those games that are simply just fun to watch others play. Whether it’s because of the silly factor or an engaging story these games provide entertainment to more than just the person playing. These are also good for the classic “pass the controller” mode of play.

UNTITLED GOOSE GAME

Untitled Goose Game was definitely a favorite of the entire family last year, providing hours of entertainment while watching the goose terrorize a small village with its antics. The slapstick style humor had all of us laughing as my daughter created her own goals and narrative above and beyond the given goals in-game. Untitled Goose Game is available on pretty much everything.

UNCHARTED SERIES

The high-action adventures found in the Uncharted games are reminiscent of classic adventure movies like Jewel of the Nile and the Indiana Jones franchise. These titles provide engaging 3rd-person cover-based shooting mechanics, as well as some of the most thrilling moments in gaming. High-speed chases, narrow misses, encounters with the supernatural, and literal cliffhangers are staples of the series and promise to entertain everyone in the room. The series has four titles in it so far and each one is a ton of fun so there’s plenty there to go through! The Uncharted games are exclusive to Playstation and a great place to start is with the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection on PS4.

DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN

Quantic Dream is known for creating engaging and powerful stories. Their latest, Detroit: Become Human, follows the story of multiple androids as they navigate their daily lives in a world that is quickly changing. Society treats them as second-class citizens yet their feelings and processes are becoming more and more human. Requiring players to make quick on-the-fly and impactful decisions with multiple possible endings, Detroit: Become Human is like directing a movie. It’s certainly for a slightly older crowd as some of the scenes can get intense, but a family could spend hours upon hours exploring all the possible decisions. You can play Detroit: Become Human on PS4 or on PC through the Epic Games Store.

WHAT REMAINS OF EDITH FINCH

The walking simulator What Remains of Edith Finch puts players in the perspective of someone exploring the old home of their distraught, broke, and possibly cursed family. Exploring the house reveals memories and clues into the various tragedies that befell each family member. It’s somber, reflective, and perfect for experiencing as a group. It’s also very playable in one sitting, only clocking in at a couple of hours. You can play What Remains of Edith Finch on Xbox, PS4, and PC via Steam.

JOURNEY

A game that challenged even the most stubborn denier that games are art, Journey is an interactive art experience that is also a joy to watch. The beautiful scenery, the charm of the character, and the accompanying music all come together to offer an unforgettable experience and for a moment turns your TV into an actual work of art. Experience Journey on PS3, PS4, and PC.

TABLETOP GAMES

Tabletop games are an excellent way to bring the family together and interact with each other in a tangible way. The best part is tabletop has never been better; there are so many options now. There are certainly more than when I was a kid when we basically only had Scrabble, Monopoly, and Life. 

D&D STARTER SET OR NO THANK YOU, EVIL

Dungeons & Dragons and other Tabletop RPGs are a wonderful way to work collaboratively with your family to tell a story together and experience an adventure. It’s a blast pretending to be various characters and experimenting with voices and silly choices as well as explore some serious topics and teach about the consequences of actions in a safe environment. The D&D starter set provides everything a family would need to get started for their first adventure: rules, dice, and characters. There are also Stranger Things and Rick and Morty inspired starter sets available if that is more your style.

For families with younger children, a great option is the TTRPG No Thank You, Evil which has simpler rules and endless silliness.

D&D Starter Set and No Thank You, Evil can both be purchased on Amazon.

STUFFED FABLES

Interested in the idea of an adventure game, but not keen on running an entire world or don’t have the creative muscles to build a living world from nothing? Stuffed Fables is perfect for you! Providing an RPG experience where an included Storybook is what runs the game, Stuffed Fables brings a cozy approach to tabletop play. Pages provide the maps to play on as well as the story beats to read as certain things happen.

It also comes with a pile of adorable minis just begging to be painted. Start your oath of protection after buying at Plaid Hat Games.

HARRY POTTER HOGWARTS BATTLE

The mechanics of the Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle will be familiar to anyone who has played a deck-builder game before like DC Deckbuilder or Dominion. Using a set start of cards to buy more cards to strengthen your ability to gain points, or in the case of Harry Potter defeat enemies. The major difference is Harry Potter is a cooperative game allowing players to plan and strategize together to defeat what the game throws at them. It can be difficult but it is a fun experience to play through all seven years of Hogwarts as new cards and challenges get added each year. Once that is conquered there is an expansion that offers even more challenges and a new character to play as.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle is available on Amazon.

TOKAIDO

This might be the perfect option for the family that found themselves canceling their vacation plans. Tokaido is all about having the best vacation. Viewing beautiful vistas, meeting strangers, relaxing in hot springs, and shopping gain players the points they’ll need to win. With a variety of characters to choose from each with unique abilities, Tokaido offers lots of replayability. Fantastic artwork and charming character design add a layer of personality to the experience. This game also has two expansions to further enhance the gameplay and adds even more options to strategize with. Also available is a Collector’s Set that provides minis of the characters, metal coins, and a CD of music to listen to while you play.

You can purchase Tokaido on Amazon, along with the expansions Crossroads and Matsuri.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT

Put all this time at home to use by learning a bunch of trivial facts and then crowning the best mostly useless fact-knower with the classic Trivial Pursuit. There are endless versions of the game to help isolate specializations of useless knowledge. Does the family love Disney movies? They got it. Sports? They got it. Create brand new family rivalries and maybe learn some trivial facts along the way.

The Classic Edition of Trivial Pursuit and countless other versions are available on Amazon.

COUCH CO-OP

In the age of online communication, online gaming is massive, offering people the ability to play games together despite being distanced, which is amazing! The feature is certainly useful now as people are encouraged to practice social distancing. But what do you do if the person you want to play games with is sitting right next to you because they live there too? A lot of games don’t have Couch Co-op even when they do offer online. These are some of the best couch co-op games out there that are great for the whole family. I also tried to focus on some less mainstream games to give some options people may not have heard of and therefore haven’t played yet.

OVERCOOKED 1 & 2

Ever wanted to work together with your family (up to 4 players on this one!) in a chaotic kitchen preparing and fulfilling orders to hungry customers? How about doing it in a kitchen that exists on the back of two flatbed trucks? Or on a boat that sways back and forth? Challenge your family’s ability to communicate as you frantically try to navigate the wonderful world of the food industry, but you know… together!

Overcooked and Overcooked 2 are available for pretty much everything.

KNIGHTS AND BIKES

This adorable tale from Double Fine and Foam Sword offers a fun cooperative adventure that captures the essence of childhood and the power of imagination. Featuring adorable characters and fun creative gameplay, Knights and Bikes could also easily also fit under the “Backseat Gaming” section of this list.

Knights and Bikes is available on all current consoles aside from the Xbox One and PC.

DON’T STARVE TOGETHER

Craft, fight, survive, and most importantly DON’T STARVE in Don’t Starve Together. This version of the survival game adds the ability to survive with a friend and in Couch Co-op. Managing food, supplies, hunger, health, and sanity can lead to some frantic and fun gameplay as you try to survive as many days as possible in an increasingly dangerous world. Featuring a Tim Burton-esque art style keeps this game more family-friendly than other survival games, and the little instrument sounds that play to represent characters talking is adorable and funny.

Test your survival skills on every current platform with Don’t Starve Together.

TALES OF (BERSERIA, VESPERIA)

JRPGs are a fantastic way to pass the time and experience a sprawling epic saga, but unfortunately, most of them are single-player and few of them are fun to watch as they have a tendency to get repetitive. The Tales of series of games, however, offer multiplayer. During combat, each player can take control of a different character and help combo the party’s way to victory, usually supporting up to 4 players. Each game is a standalone story, so don’t be afraid to just jump into the one that appeals to you most. Offering some of the best stories and philosophical ideals and metaphors that gaming has could lead to some solid family discussions as well. My personal recommendations for this franchise are Tales of Berseria (a bit of a darker, more serious tale), Tales of Symphonia, and Tales of Vesperia, both of which are more high fantasy/adventure stories.

Tales of Berseria is available for PS4 and Steam while the recent re-release of Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is available for every current platform. Tales of Symphonia is readily available on Steam.

DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN 2

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an option that is perfect for anyone interested in Tabletop RPGs but lacks the supplies or the desire to plan out a campaign. Original Sin 2 is the closest a video game has ever felt like a TTRPG with its strategic, turn-based combat and countless options for interacting with the environment. This allows for some extremely clever solutions to problems and encounters. It also features entertaining and witty dialogue that will certainly get at least a few chuckles. The couch co-op supports up to two players where players have to decide together who gets what and they can even disagree on certain quests and dialogue decisions.

Playable on everything, including the Switch which has cross-save support with PC and allows for portable adventures. Find all the purchase options for Divinity: Original Sin 2 on their official website.

RIVER CITY GIRLS

One of the most classic genres to offer cooperative play is the beat-em-up. While there aren’t many of them coming out these days, recently a really great one was released by indie developer Way Forward and was reviewed by Alex here on Forever Classic Games.

Enjoy the excellent sprite work and classic beat-em-up gameplay with some modern quality of life improvements as you save the city in River City Girls.

ENTER THE GUNGEON

Enter the Gungeon combines fast-paced bullet-hell gameplay and procedural dungeons with a variety of whacky guns to equip. This looter shooter roguelike is challenging and a blast to play in couch co-op. With how quick some of the runs end up being this is also a good candidate for a “pass the controller” style of play as everyone takes a chance at seeing just how far they can get before being overwhelmed.

Purchase a copy here, and start dodging and slinging bullets in no time!

A sequel called Exit the Gungeon is also available and Alex reviewed the initial release on the Apple Arcade.

THE COLLECTION OF MANA (FINAL FANTASY ADVENTURE, SECRET, AND TRIALS)

Back in the day, the Super Nintendo was the king of JRPGs and one of the staple classics of that era was Secret of Mana which offered options for up to three players to experience the epic adventure that the game held. Adding in some player choice in where to go, certain scenes and areas are completely optional and can be missed. For many years the follow up was never released in the west until this last summer when the Collection of Mana was released which included for the first time Trials of Mana. Unfortunately, this collection only supports up to two players but it is a wonderful collection and the perfect way to experience these classics.

Relive or experience these JRPG classics for the first time only on Switch. Purchase options for The Collection of Mana can be found here.

JACKBOX PARTY PACK

The various packs offered in the Jackbox series are an abundance of entertainment with a variety of styles of play. Be silly as you answer questions in some games, test your trivia knowledge and mini-game prowess in others, and work together to figure out complex puzzles as each person gets a different piece of the bigger picture. All that is required is a copy of the pack of your choice and a smart device or internet browser-enabled device for each player. This way of playing on a device per person also makes for a phenomenal streaming game for those that enjoy playing in full groups.

The Jackbox games are available for everything, and I mean everything, including Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, even Comcast Xfinity. Buy Jackbox products here.

CREATIVE/LEARNING GAMES

These games are perfect for those looking to make learning fun and encourage creative thinking. Whether it's solving puzzles, creating puzzles, or letting the imagination run free and building whatever you want, these games engage brains effectively and most offer multiplayer. While there are a couple of obvious choices in this list, I tried to think of ones that people may miss or not think of when looking for an educational video game experience.

TEARAWAY UNFOLDED

Tearaway is adorable and wonderfully creative in its use of the paper-craft aesthetic, utilizing motion controls, light and shadow, music, and classic platforming to solve puzzles and journey throughout a colorful world. I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this game with my daughter who was 3-years-old at the time. She was able to follow some basic instructions for solving the puzzles that required moving and pointing the controller in specific ways and it was a joy to see her learning to play.

Tearaway Unfolded is a PS4 exclusive and can be found on the Playstation Store, but those that want to see the game on the system it was designed for should look into getting Tearaway on the PlayStation Vita.

LUNA THE SHADOW DUST

Luna The Shadow Dust is a recent release that falls into the classic point-and-click adventure/puzzler genre. Players progress by making their way through each room of a tower by solving the puzzle each has in store. Combining the abilities of a young boy and some sort of mystical cat leads to some really charming and “ah-ha!” moments. I should also mention this game features stunning hand-drawn animation that looks like someone took Adventure Time, My Neighbor Totoro, and Over the Garden Wall and smashed them together into something wholly cute.

Pick up this charming little point-and-click on Steam.

SUPER MARIO MAKER 2 OR LITTLE BIG PLANET 3

Super Mario Maker is a unique learning experience that gives players the opportunity to design their very own Super Mario levels. Some of the things I’ve seen people do with this I wouldn’t have even known were possible which shows just how robust and impressive this title is. The same is true for the Little Big Planet series, offering an abundance of tools to create all sorts of games, not just platformer levels. Both of these also benefit from having essentially endless content to explore and try. Creating levels and challenging your family to conquer them and laughing as they keep hitting invisible blocks could become one of the ultimate gamer dad moves.

Super Mario Maker 2 is on Switch and Little Big Planet 3 is available on the Playstation Store.

PORTAL 2

Portal set a new standard for puzzle platformers. Portal 2 then came along and did it again. Humorous, engaging, challenging, and cooperative, Portal 2 is a must-play title. Both solo and co-op modes offer some of the most satisfying puzzles to solve in gaming and it is chock full of wholesome humor. Now you’re thinking with portals!

Get Portal 2 on Steam.

PBS KIDS, STARFALL

There are some amazing online opportunities available in browsers too. Both PBS Kids and Starfall offer an abundance of games and activities for kids of a variety of ages. Based on education and family-friendly content, you can perhaps distract your kids with some learning while you get done what you need to get done or even a take nap.

MINECRAFT, PORTAL KNIGHTS, DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS

At this point pretty much everyone has heard of Minecraft and its concept of basically being “digital Lego”. People have been able to create some really astounding stuff with it. Lesser known games, however, are similar mechanically that have a bit more structure around them to help guide and navigate that creative process. Both Portal Knights and Dragon Quest Builders encourage creative building through quests and a bit of story to go along with it. Portal Knights has the bonus of also offering couch co-op allowing two people to create away on the same screen!

Minecraft is everywhere. Portal Knights is readily available on everything as well. Dragon Quest Builders is on PS4 and Switch and Dragon Quest Builders 2 is on PS4, Switch, and Steam.

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All of us here at Forever Classic Games wish you all good health and success in getting through this difficult time. A lot of adjustments will be made by a lot of people; it’s going to require a lot of patience and probably some forgiveness in the process. I genuinely hope these suggestions help alleviate even just a bit of that cabin fever and bring people together. It is important to try and connect with each other, be good to one another, and take every opportunity that presents itself to have a little fun.

We can do this, and let us walk away from this more appreciative of each other, life, and of course gaming.

Please note, we don’t get any sort of financial kickback from these links. We just like to point people to the official sources when we can.