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The 12 best 2-player NES games

Go stay inside.

Multiplayer was a lot harder to pull off on the NES than you may imagine. While the system was designed with two players in mind, the limitations of the hardware threw up a lot of obstacles, and there was never an🌃 elegant way around them. Elegance is overrated.

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So, while multiplayer was better in arcades and would only start catching up in later generations, anyone who experienced the console in its prime probably has some great m𒉰emories of sharing the unit with a chum. So, if you’re looking to recapture that feeling, or if you’re new to the console and want to explore it with a friend, then I’ve got some picks for you, in no particular order.

Note that I’m only covering titles that launched in North America. This list would be a lot easier if we were talking about the Famicom as well, but since that’s a whole different world, I’ll stick with the rivers and the lakes most people are used to. For picking games, I’m looking for ones that engage both players successfully, so while there are other great games with two-player modes, I’m mostly showing off ones where a second player feဣels like they add something.

Micro Machines NES Breakfast table
Screenshot by Destructoid

Micro Machines (1991)

As a single-player game, Micro Machines kind of sucks.🦄 It’s awesome for a while, but the AI gains such an unfair advantage later on that it becomes almost impossible. Brutal. Not a problem when it comes to multi-player, where it’s absolutely amazing.

Racing wasn’t an easy genre to fit with multiplayer on the NES since split-screen isn’t really possible. I’d say it’s completely impossible, but programmers can find some pretty funky tricks and workarounds sometimes, so I’ll just say it’s not possible according to my understanding of the hardware. It’s not important; Micro Machines worked out a solution. It placed four competitors on sc🌃reen at one time, and the camera always follows 💮the frontrunner, and anyone who falls too far behind and hits the edge of the screen gets eliminated.

Put this on a bunch of interesting tracks like a bathtub or kitchen table, then keep swapping out the vehicles to fit the theme, and you get something consistently fun. You can even kick t🦹hings up to four-player if𝄹 you can find the folks to join you.

River City Ransom Retro
Image via Nintendo

River City Ransom (1989)

One of my very favorite NES games is also one of the best two-player experiences. Beat-’em-up is a genre that the console could do reasonably well, but River City Ransom is more than just your standard belt scroller. It also has RPG stats that you co༒uld increase by cruising the mall. Enemies drop coinage that you can fill your pockets with. You then take that cheddar and stop at restaurants to down a few courses to pump up your kicks. Actual kicks, I mean. Not shoes. You could also buy new shoes.

Anyway, it’s a lot of fun with another person as you hit the shops and compare notes on what increases what stat. Plus, if your friend gets knocked down, you💮 can pick them up and wielꦜd them as a weapon. It’s a unique experience to share.

Contra NES Two Player
Image via Nintendo

Contra (1988)

One of the console’s absolute classics, Contra is one of the seminal games in the run-and-gun genre. When it was ported from arcades, Konami was able to retain the two-player cooperati🔴ve. Aꦍnd it works. It still manages to keep the pacing without too much slowdown. It doesn’t feel compromised at all.

With its one-hit deaths and limited continues, it’s a pretty difficult game unless you cheat. It’s less that any part of it is tricky, it’s that it’s hard to avoid fumbling occasionally, wearing you down. However, if you and your partner have the patience, learn the patterns, figure out all the tricks, and finally topple the last boss, it’s fulfilling in a way that most games can’t match.

Double Dragon 2 player
Screenshot by Destructoid

Double Dragon 2 (1989)

Technos’ Double Dragon was a pioneer of the belt-scrolling brawler genre and a massive success in its own right. However, when the game was ported to the NES, it dropped the two-player coop entirely. While it’s still a beloved title for the console, I’ve always felt beat-’em-ups work best 🐲with a buddy, and the lack of this is a pretty large detriment.

Truthfully, Double Dragon 2 on NES diverges in quite a few ways from its arcade roots but comes away better for it. Most importantly, it reinstated the two-player coop and, as a result, is one of 💯the best titles on the system. It’s a dumb, fun brawler. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you get to the level where you throw dudes out of a helicopter.

Bubble Bobble NES Two Player
Screenshot by Destructoid

Bubble Bobble (1987)

As an arcade game, Bubble Bobble bends pretty hard in a coop directio🐬n, and the NES version retains that entirely. You and a friend fill th♏e shoes of bubble-blowing dragons who encase their foes before popping them, turning them into snacks for some reason. You battle through 100 screens (not counting bonus stages) and take on a disturbing elf-thing.

Bubble Bobble is so geared toward coop that if you complete the game without a partner, it practically chastises you and tells you to play through it again with someone behind the secܫond controller. Way to salt the wound of us lonely folks.

Hollywood Squares
Screenshot by Destructoid

Hollywood Squares (1989)

Hear me out. Game shows typically only translate okay to the video game format. This is because you often need to type in the answer, which takes a while and demands that you input it perfectly, otherwise it’s counted as an incorrect answer. This is true in games like Jeopardy and Family Feud. The game shows that don’t rely o🍌n this, on the other hand, fare much better. 

Wheel of Fortune is a good example of this. The only reason it’s not on here is because it’s better with three players, and substituting one for a computer sucks. Instead, I think Hollywood Squares stands out due to its simplicity. If you’re unfamiliar, celebrities sit in a 3×3 grid, and you pick one. They get asked a question, they answer, and then you either agree or disagree. If you agree and they’re right or disagree and they’re wrong, you get a marker on that square. The goal is to get three squares in a row a la Tic-Tac-Toe. Nothing to slow you down, nowhere to slip up with a typo, just good, quick competit𒁏ion. I kind of wish there were more questions, but any amount will always run dry eventually.

Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers NES
Image via Steam

Chip ‘N Dales Rescue Rangers (1990)

Capcom was pretty legendary for its collection of Disney-licensed stuff, and while licensed games have a bad reputation, and this was especially true in the early days, Capcom had some pretty solid consistency. Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, and even The Little Mermaid were great at best and decent at worst. But only one of them allowed for two-player coop, and that was Chip ‘N Dales Rescue Rangers.

Rescue Rangers feels a lot like Super Mario Bros. 2. Dealing with enemies is largely a matter of picking up sturdy objects and hurling them. The 2-player mode doesn’t feel necessary (aside from allowing both title characters to exist at once), but it is a lot of fun. Theඣ game is combat-heavy enough🐷 for a second pair of hands to feel useful, but simply sharing the joy of a solid game is enough.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 NES
Image via Nintendo

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game (1990)

In the ‘80s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the hottest package around. Konami managed to grab the game license and made arcade gold with their four-player beat-’em-up cabs. However, the first NES outing wasn’t based on that. Worse yet, it was single-player. Worser still, it wasn’t very good. Thankfully, instead of trying the formula again with a sequel, they just ported the arcade game. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game is technically not a sequel; it’s exactly what it says on t🍃he tin.

It’s a decent port. It drops the four-player mode, allowing only two, which is, truthfully, is about all the hardware can handle. Beyond that, however, it is pretty faithful to the original. It’s a decent belt-scrolling brawler that still manages to work well in a post-Final Fight world.

There was actually an NES-exclusive follow-up called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project. It’s another decent title to play with a buddy. It feels like a more-of-the-same holding pattern, which might have been what it is. Nonetheless, it r🔴etains what made the previous game successful, so if you’re just looking for something to fill another afternoon, it’s a good fit.

Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo Retro
Image via Nintendo

Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)

As much as it’s not my favorite game on the NES, it’s hard not to look at Super Mario Bros. 3 with wonder. It feels like a game that’s a hardware gen💞eration ahead and still unlike anything else out there. Beyond just being a well-designed and fun game to play, it’s an amazing technical achievement that pulls off incredible feats of hardware strength while making it look effortless.

Anyway, the important thing (at least in terms of this list) is that it’s two-player. Both Mario and Luigi have a chance to shine. The only downside is that it’s alternating two-player, meaning you and your chum don’t play at the same time. Instead, you swap out after a death or the completion of a level. However, the path through the game’s various worlds diverges occasionally, giving some feeling of agency to the players. Also, unlike the original Super Mario Bros., you’re both working together to push further into the game rather than just playing🌱 alongside.

Frankly, if you’re looking to get someone into the NES, Super Mario Bros. 3 is a great place to start. It demonstrates all the possibilities of 🉐the console and surprises at every turn.

Life Force NES Two Player
Screenshot by Destructoid

Life Force (1987)

Scrolling shoot-’em-ups work a bit better than most genres on the NES hardware, but there’s a downside. Allocating a sprite to a second player means there’s less you can put on screen, and a lot of shooters thrive on throwing as much as possible at the player. Gradius, to which Life Force is a sequel (known as Salamander in most other places), used alternating multiplayer, which meant you weren’t playing at the same time as your chum, but Life Force 2 allows you to play side-by-side.

The design works well. A lot of the Gradius formula involves avoiding obstacles rather than just blasting enemies, so the action isn’t affected by having another person on the screen. It’s also creative with HUD elements, which allow🦄s bot⭕h players to view their upgrade track easily. It’s a difficult game for the genre, but if your friend is either already well-versed or willing to learn, then it makes for a great time.

Dr. Mario NES two player
Screenshot by Destructoid

Dr. Mario (1990)

Tetris might be the most beloved and popular puzzle game on the block, but the original NES release didn’t have 2-player (though, Tengen’s version did). But Dr. Mario did and, personally, I prefer it over Tetris.

Dr. Mario was pretty well-tailored for multiplayer. Rather than just having two players race to drain the bottle of viruses, doing well meant dumping trash in the other person’s backyard. This meant that, beyond just trying to eliminate viruses quicker, you were also trying to set up big combos to slow down your opponent. Players could also individually set their difficulty level, which means that if you’re mu🥀ch more practiced, you could crank up your level to make things even.

High-level Tetris play gets a big spotlight and suggests a massive skill ceiling, but have you ever seen someone who is great at Dr. Mario? I didn’t think much about it until I saw my sister play it ♒after she and her university roommates got into a big rivalry. It’s intense.

Tecmo Bowl NES
Screenshot by Destructoid

Tecmo Bowl (1987)

Listen, I’m the wrong person to ask about football. American football, I mean. Actually, football in general. Just don’t ask me. However, I do know that Tecmo Bowl is pretty great. I know this because I had a routine for a while where a friend would visit, I’d pull out an obscure fighting game that neither of us had played before, and then I’d beat him with every character on the roster. Eventually, he got sick of it and reached for a game he figured he could beat me at. The game was Tecmo Bowl.

I won at that, too. It’s like I do this for a living or something. Anyway, it was fun. People tell me it’s not all that much like football, and I’ll have to take their word for it. All I know is that my friend never tried for a rematch. Maybe I should have convinced him that Tecmo Super Bowl was a completely different experience.


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Zoey Handley
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Staff Writer - Zoey is a gaming gadabout. She got her start blogging with the community in 2018 and hit the front page soon after. Normally found exploring indie experiments and retro libraries, she does her best to remain chronically uncool.