The Best Family Friendly Four Player Games: Nintendo Switch

With things like online play and multi-Nintendo Switch local connectivity, it can sometimes be hard to tell how many people can play together in the same room on one console (aka couch co-op or couch versus).

Because of this, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite games that we know for sure can be played with four players on one Nintendo Switch console. Please note that to be able to play these or any other games for the Nintendo Switch with four players, you’ll need to have at least one controller or set of controllers for each person playing.

Moving Out

In Moving Out, you and your friends can become Packmore’s “best” moving team and save the world (along with everybody’s stuff). The concept is fairly simple; carry everything from one place to another as fast as you can. Of course, you’ll have to avoid ghosts, guava-lava, giant crushers, oil slicks, and oncoming traffic while you do it! You’ll also occasionally have to chase down your cargo and keep it from escaping the truck while you load everything else on! We have a more in-depth review of Moving Out. We also have a gameplay guide that lists out all the levels, and we have an achievements guide that tells you how to get 100% on every level in the main campaign.

Moving Out 2

Moving Out 2 is the sequel to Moving Out, and it includes even more locations than the first. In this game, the F.A.R.T.’s (Furniture Arrangement and Relocation Technicians) will be traveling to new dimensions and will leave no box unmoved. This game also has more types of levels, such as score attack, and moving in, which is now a type of level rather than a mode like it was in the first game. You can read more about what we think of the game here in our review of Moving Out 2.

Overcooked!

In Overcooked! You save the world by cooking! Chop, scrub, dash, and deliver orders as fast as you can to curb the hunger of the Ever Peckish! Master the many challenges that each dynamic kitchen has to offer as you cook your way to victory. You’ll have to make orders such as soup, fish-and-chips, hamburgers, and pizza, in some of the most unimaginable places like outer-space, inside volcanoes, and even in multiple trucks driving alongside each other on the highway! You can read more of our thoughts about this game in this review of Overcooked! right here on Family Game Squad.

Overcooked! 2

An amazing sequel to Overcooked, Overcooked! 2 takes the principles established in the first game and manages to refine and improve upon them. It even introduces new mechanics, such as the ability to throw ingredients! This game has some of the same recipes as the original, but it also adds in sushi, cakes/pancakes, and more! This time in the Onion Kingdom, the Onion King has accidentally unleashed a hangry horde of Unbread monsters! While you don’t really need to have played the first game to understand the story of this one, I still recommend getting both since they’re both great games.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Just like most other installments in the Mario Kart series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe offers lots of high-speed fun and madness for all. Up to four players can participate in Grand Prix, Battle, and VS Modes with just a single console and four controllers. It’s our number one most played game on the Switch, so all of us here at Family Game Squad can highly recommend this one! We’ve had plenty of fun times with this game, and you can about some of our best moments in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe here.

Super Mario Party

With a whopping eighty two mini-games that support four players on a single Nintendo Switch, there’s lots to do in Super Mario Party! Not to mention all the game modes, such as Mario Party, Partner Party, River Survival, Sound Stage, Mariothon, and Square Off. As a side note, this game does not support Pro-Controllers, meaning that you’d need four individual Joy-Cons to be able to play with four players.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Go for gold in these super-powered sports events starring your favorite characters from the Mario and Sonic universes! Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 features real-life olympic sports events such as equestrian, relay, rugby, football (soccer), table tennis, and many others. In Addition, there are “Dream Events”, which are events that are somewhat based on real life events, only with some unique twists thrown in, and some of them even take place in iconic locations from Mario’s and Sonic’s other adventures, such as the Mushroom Kingdom from Mario Odyssey or Metropolis from Sonic Forces!

Disney Tsum Tsum Festival

Play as the adorable Tsum Tsum versions of characters from popular Disney movies in lots of fun mini-games! In Disney Tsum Tsum Festival, there’s mini-games like Tsum Maze (Pacman), Tsum Curling, Spinner Battle, and more! Plus in each mini-game you can choose to play in either co-op or competitive mode, which completely changes how the game works! This game also includes challenges for each mini-game via Bingo Challenge Cards which provide more opportunities to earn coins (which you use to unlock characters), adding just that much more to the already fun-filled mini-games!

Team Sonic Racing

How could you go wrong with a game where the fastest thing alive teams up with his friends and drives some of the fastest race cars on the planet? In Team Sonic Racing, you don’t just share your points in grand prix. You can also send your items to your teammates to help them take down the competition, or help them with a slipstream boost if they’re going a little slow by driving near them, or they can follow in your tracks to build up a small speed boost! All of which adds points to your Team Ultimate meter that, once full, lets your whole team perform a Team Ultimate speed boost that makes you all invincible!

Carnival Games

Have a fun day at the carnival without ever leaving your living room! In Carnival Games, you can take part in twenty fun mini-games, ranging from flying mini-rockets through outer space tunnels to bouncing around collecting bananas! You even play each game as your own custom made avatar! And if you want to just jump into the action without having to make a character the first time you play, the game comes with some premade characters ready for you to choose from.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

Race the clock together in these purr-fect 3D platformer games! In Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Bowser has captured the seven Sprixie Princesses, and up to four players can team up and play as either Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, or (later) Rosalina to save the day! In Bowser’s Fury, Bowser is on a rampage that even his own son, Bowser Jr., can’t stop alone! Explore the various islands around Lake Lapcat to find and collect Cat Shines to clear the goop and calm Bowser down!

Kirby Star Allies

Make friends wherever you go in this side-scrolling adventure! In Kirby Star Allies, player one plays as Kirby, while the other players control Kirby’s friends and enemies-turned-allies. All players can harness elemental abilities that affect the environment and enemies in unique ways, and each player can combine their powers to get new abilities, such as combining the sword ability with Burning Leo’s fire breath to get a Sizzle Sword that can slice and burn obstacles at the same time!

Kirby Fighters 2

Battle for glory with (or against) your friends in Kirby Fighters 2! Win battles to level up and unlock more stages, abilities, and headgear to choose from! With four players, you can do either free for all battles or team battles where you could do two versus two, two versus one versus one, or even three versus one! And if you have save data from Kirby Star Allies (listed earlier in this post) or Super Kirby Clash (a free download on the Nintendo Switch eShop that can also be done with up to four players on one console), you can even unlock exclusive headgear for some of the abilities!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Build the island paradise of your dreams in Animal Crossing: New Horizons! Amass a fortune to decorate and upgrade your home and island to make it a nice place for you, your family, and up to ten animal neighbors to call home! Time in the game is synced up with your Nintendo Switch’s system clock, so you can watch the seasons and time of day change on your island at the same time as your own backyard! You can even catch two hundred different kinds of bugs and fish that can be donated to your island’s museum where you can learn some interesting facts about the real-life counterparts!

Snow Moto Racing Freedom

Pull off crazy stunts as you zoom through gorgeous snowy landscapes on your snowmobile in Snow Moto Racing Freedom! You can choose between three different modes when doing four player split-screen mode; Snocross, Sprint, and Leisure. Each of which can take place on one of the three expansive maps where you can even set things like the time of day and weather!

Mario Tennis Aces

Tennis just got a whole lot more intense in Mario Tennis Aces! Fill up your power gauge to pull off impressive feats like Zone Speed to slow down time, or Zone Shots that can weaken or even break your opponents’ rackets if they don’t counter it right, or save up all your power to do your character’s Special Shot and send the ball rocketing toward your opponents’ side of the court with enough force to instantly break their rackets if they counter it wrong, if they can even get there in time!

Snipperclips Plus – Cut it out, together!

Work together to cut the paper pals Snip and Clip into keys, gears, hooks, and whatever else you can come up with to solve lots of challenging puzzles! In Snipperclips Plus – Cut it out, together! You catch creatures, pop balloons, and more in Party mode. Or get competitive in Blitz mode with mini-games like hockey, hoops, and territory! There’s also a relaxing Stamp mode where you can use your characters as stamps to make beautiful masterpieces!

Sonic Mania Plus

Sonic Mania Plus is a retro-styled 2D pixel art platformer where you race through vibrant levels going for the best time and most points. Collect rings, destroy robots, and break power-up monitors to help you in your quest to save the world from Dr. Eggman’s (Robotnik’s?) latest evil scheme! If you have the Encore mode DLC (included in the “Plus” edition of Sonic Mania), you can race with up to three other players in Competition mode, where you can play through most of the levels available in the main story mode! Each playable character has their own set of unique abilities that open up possibilities for different routes, even in Competition mode!

Super Mario Maker 2

Ever wanted to design your own levels for a Mario game? Well, now you can! In Super Mario Maker 2, you can make your very own courses inspired by games like Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Bros. 1 and 3, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and Super Mario World! Even if you’re not the creative type, if you have an online membership, you can play courses made by Nintendo and other players from all over the world! While you can’t make courses or do story mode with four players at once, you can still play already made courses with four players.

Game Builder Garage

While actually making games is limited to single player (though multiple controllers can be connected to control the pointer on the screen, we find that it’s a bit hectic to try and collaborate on making a game in that way), the number of players in the games you make is essentially only limited by your creativity and skills. In Game Builder Garage you can make basically any kind of game you can dream up if you have the imagination, problem solving skills, and patience required to make it a reality. You don’t even need to have any coding experience! All the logic and visuals are created by placing and connecting things called “Nodon”, and there are several helpful lessons that teach you how to make good use of them to make the game of your dreams.

Hello Kitty Kruisers With Sanrio Friends

In Hello Kitty Kruisers With Sanrio Friends, you race in adorable cars, boats, and planes in this game starring Hello Kitty and her friends! This is a great first racing game for younger players who might have trouble with a more complex game such as Mario Kart or Team Sonic Racing, as this game has fairly simple controls and straightforward courses.

Pretty Princess Party

Experience a day in the life of a magical princess in Pretty Princess Party! Race your horses, pick flowers, dance, and more to restore magic to the kingdom! You even get to dress up your own pretty princess and make her look however you want! While story mode is only single-player, all the mini-games can be done with up to four players on one console. Chickadee especially loves this game, and has even written a guide on it!

I hope that this list has helped you find some games that you and your family can enjoy together.