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The story
A man in his 40s who’s about to stay over at an old college friend’s house asked 5ch for recommendations on PS5 or Switch 2 games the two of them could enjoy after a few drinks. Given that his friend’s place has two TVs, suggestions ranged from split-screen co-op titles like It Takes Two and Split Fiction to online co-op games like Earth Defense Force and Ghost Recon. It remained unclear, though, whether there were actually two consoles as well, leading to some crossed wires between recommendations that assumed two screens and those that assumed two systems. Plenty of posters also pushed nostalgic picks like Monster Hunter and Momotetsu, and the thread got lively with tangents about why certain titles don’t come up more often and why others tend to start fights.
What people said
On PS5 or Switch 2.
be better than video games?
Earth Defense Force on PS5.
Chances like that don't come around often, kind of jealous honestly.
I've actually been in that exact situation — we ended up playing Street Fighter II and Momotetsu.
make for a nice, relaxed time.
There was a recent update, and calling out to each other in buddy co-op is fun.
Is that really a game that gets 40-somethings fighting?
What kind of game is it?
You dump the Poverty God on each other, right?
That gets tense.
Split Fiction
Absolum
Mario Kart World
Probably because you need two consoles to even do it, no?
No game is this fun.
You get to grin to yourself every day (lol).
Even something as simple as Mario Kart gets tough once you've had a few.
Going with minigame collections like 51 Worldwide Games or Rhythm Heaven is a good call — the simpler the rules, the better.
🤔
no, I'm not playing anything that fun.
It really depends on your generation so I can't say for sure,
but as a guy in my 40s, in the same situation I'd bet Monster Hunter gets the most hype — though the latest entry needs more than one console.
You have to progress through the story and learn increasingly complex, fighting-game-like weapon controls before you can actually play together.
…It's easy to see why Monster Hunter's popularity has faded.
Added complexity just drives newcomers away.
I think Capcom put out a compilation of those.
Beat-'em-ups work, or a fighting-game compilation like Street Fighter II would be fine too.
Background and Key Points
What stood out was that even though it’s all lumped together as “two-player games,” split-screen co-op titles (like It Takes Two and Split Fiction) and online co-op games that only work with multiple TVs and multiple consoles (like Monster Hunter and Ghost Recon) are actually two very different conditions — and that distinction never quite got sorted out amid the replies. The original poster only mentioned “two TVs” and never confirmed whether there were actually two PS5s or two Switch 2s as well. As one reply points out, having two screens and having two consoles are separate issues, and mixing them up leads to recommended titles that can’t actually be played the way suggested. Another key thread is the view that sequels to titles played back in one’s college days end up being the most fun after all — Monster Hunter comes up by name, while another reply notes how the series has grown harder for newcomers to jump into as its combat controls have become more complex, showing this isn’t just simple nostalgia. Momotetsu getting singled out as a “game that starts fights” also comes down less to competitive balance than to its distinctly personal mechanic of dumping the Poverty God on your opponent.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “Any recommendations for a game two guys in their 40s can enjoy for one night?“
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