10. Gang Beasts
Gang beasts is by far one of the funniest local multiplayer games available on the PS4. It’s a local multiplayer party game where you play simple blobby characters, competing to be the last one standing in a series of increasingly hazardous slapstick minigames. Although it is a lot of laughs - games can quickly get competitive, and the super simple controls are easy to pick up, but hard to master.
9. Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania
Released for the Super Monkey Ball series’ 20th Anniversary, Banana Mania is an enhanced remaster of the first three console entries in the Monkey Ball series. If you’re not familiar with monkey ball, it’s a physics-based puzzle game that involves rolling a little monkey in a ball across various different stages - a description that does not do justice to how infuriating, satisfying and addictive this game series is. Plus, three games in one? That value is too good to pass up!
8. That’s You!
This game is ingenious in its simplicity. Everyone in the room can join in using their smartphones or tablets. Your smarmy computer-controlled host asks provoking questions about the players, and you’ll privately vote on your answers. Depending on your friendship group, this tends to devolve pretty quickly into hilarious personal jabs and character assassination. An ideal way to find out what your friends really think about each other!
7. Team Sonic Racing
Team Sonic Racing is a kart racing game featuring the characters of Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series, and it’s a ball to play with your mates. It supports up to four players in local split-screen multiplayer, and things get chaotic fast. The gameplay feels speedy like you’d expect a Sonic game to feel, and the level/zone designs and usable items all make reference to things you might remember from the main series games.
6. Knowledge is Power!
Easy to play for up to six people thanks to some terrifically simple smartphone and tablet compatibility, Knowledge is Power is the pub quiz you’ve always wanted to have at home. The graphics are pleasingly wacky, there’s plenty of ways to sabotage your fellow players, and there are more than enough questions to surprise you game after game. You’ll know who your real friends are when Power Plays come out.
5. Overcooked 2
Few games in recent memory are more delightful to play than Overcooked, and the sequel is even better. You and up to three more friends control small chibi characters as they run back and forth cooking increasingly tricky recipes in increasingly wacky kitchens. Local co-op is the ideal way to play, and bumping into each other is bound to cause some rifts in the room. With timed missions, the busy kitchen quickly gets chaotic - and hilarious.
4. Just Dance 2021
With hits from Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift and more, the Just Dance series offers a fun and addictive way to exercise while also monitoring and improving your performance across a wide range of pop hits. As the game shapes itself around the player with customised content according to your dancing habits and performance, this calory-burning romp is a must for those who like their gaming a little more physical.
3. Little Big Planet 3
Simply one of the most pleasant platforming series out there, LittleBigPlanet is a masterwork of game design. Adventure Mode offers plenty of satisfying gameplay, but the 4 player local co-op multiplayer and creation modes are where this game really comes alive. You’ll get in each other’s way just as much as you’ll help each other out, and the chaos of the busy screen makes this help/hindrance balance oh so fun to play with.
2. Worms W.M.D
Worms is a quintessential local multiplayer, and an ideal game to bring out at parties. W.M.D Doesn’t do a lot to change the gameplay, because it doesn’t need to, but it does give it a fresh lick of paint. There’s a good reason that this series has stuck around since 1995 - the core gameplay is simple and fun. If it ain't broke, don’t fix it! There are so many weapons, so many gadgets, that throwing your friends’ worms around the map never gets tiring.
1. The Jackbox Party Pack 1
Jackbox are the absolute masters of party games and this edition has some fine examples. Like YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, a comedy trivia game to show off your pub quiz knowledge. Fibbage, a game based around bluffing to your friends. Drawful, a Pictionary style game which lets you draw using your phone or tablet. You can spend the whole night laughing your heads off at the stuff it’ll make you all get up to - a sound investment for a night in!