2 Player Games

How it works

A 2 player game on one screen is made for two people sitting side by side. There are no online lobbies and no waiting for a match: you share one phone, one tablet or one keyboard, and the person you are playing against is right there next to you. On a phone, each player usually owns half of the screen. On a computer, each player gets a key or two, far enough apart that your hands do not collide.

Rounds are short, often only a few seconds, so a rematch is always one press away and a night of play is dozens of rounds, not three. The controls are kept tiny, sometimes a single button each, so anyone can pick them up straight away: a parent and a child, two friends at lunch, or a sibling who has never played before.

What makes a good one

• Controls you can explain in one sentence, with real skill hidden in the timing.
• Rounds that end fast and restart instantly, with no ad between every round.
• Each player’s touch area or keys clearly separated, so nobody presses for the other side.
• A moment worth laughing at together, such as a replay of the winning move.
• Something to do alone too: bots to practise against and a ranked mode for when your rival has gone home.
• Fair rules, so the better player usually wins and the loser knows why.

Strategies that help

Watch your rival, not your own button. Most one-button games are about timing, and the best timing is a reaction to what the other player has just done.

Do not mash. Pressing as often as you can is the first thing everybody tries, and the first thing a careful player learns to beat.

Learn the arenas. When the ground changes, the right move changes with it. Slippery floors and shrinking edges punish the habits that work everywhere else.

Swap sides. If one of you keeps winning, swap seats or hand over the better key. It is more fun when it is close.

Our take

Our first 2 player game is Tummy Tussle, a one-button sumo game for two people on one phone or one keyboard. Each critter rocks on its own; hold to squat and let go to shove, hop or dodge, depending on the lean. Four arenas change the right move, and when your rival has gone home, a ten-bot Ladder, Hot Streak and a Daily Five keep it going alone. For more games built on wobbly bodies and honest physics, see our physics games.