This Week's Gaming Picks: A Short Hike, Kid-Friendly Co-op & Heading Out

This week’s picks are all about low-stress adventures and good vibes: a tiny treasure of an indie you can finish in one sitting, a handful of co-op games that are perfect for playing with kids, and a stylish road-trip roguelike that turns anxiety into an enemy you can outrun. If you want cozy, collaborative, and a little bit weird, we’ve got you covered.

Welcome back to our weekly roundup of what’s been glued to our thumbs. Between short-and-sweet exploration, split-screen shenanigans, and a noir-drenched drive across America, this lineup is tailor-made for anyone who wants games that respect your time and dial up the charm.

A Short Hike: Big heart, small runtime Sometimes you just need a game that wraps you in a warm hoodie and hands you a thermos. A Short Hike is that experience. You play as a small bird with a simple goal—reach the top of Hawk Peak to make an important call—but the magic is in the meandering. You’ll poke around beaches, cliff paths, and little secrets tucked off the beaten track, meeting quirky characters and snagging golden feathers that expand your climbing and gliding.

What makes it sing is how frictionless it feels. Movement is joyous from the first flap, the writing is quietly funny without trying too hard, and there’s zero pressure to min-max anything. You can beeline to the summit or let curiosity tug you elsewhere, and both routes feel rewarding. Best of all, it’s genuinely finishable in a single evening. There’s something refreshing about a game that trusts a short, complete arc—no filler, no stress, just a gentle exhale and credits that roll before your tea goes cold.

If you’re in a season where free time is scarce, or you want a game that leaves you lighter than when you started, this is an easy recommendation. It’s a palate cleanser between epics and a reminder that small games can have sky-sized vibes.

Kid-friendly co-op: Couch chaos and clever teamwork After wrapping a story-driven co-op like Split Fiction, the next challenge is finding something you can enjoy with a younger player that doesn’t overdo the grit. The good news: there are plenty of great options once you filter for readability, kindness, and mechanical clarity.

A few favorites that balance cooperation, creativity, and chaos:

• Unravel Two: A beautiful, quiet puzzle-platformer where two yarn pals solve physics puzzles together. Clear communication, gentle stakes, and satisfying “aha!” moments.
• LEGO games (any recent entry): Lighthearted slapstick, simple controls, and drop-in/drop-out co-op. Collect-a-thons that let kids lead without pressure.
• Overcooked! All You Can Eat: Maximum laughter, occasional kitchen fires. Excellent for teaching roles and timing, but be ready to turn down the difficulty and take it slow.
• Minecraft Dungeons: Straightforward, colorful dungeon-crawling with accessible gear systems and generous checkpoints. Easy to onboard and fun to grind together.
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure: A charming 3D platformer with tactile levels and flexible difficulty. Great for honing platforming fundamentals in a forgiving space.
• Moving Out: Cooperative chaos with slapstick physics and bite-sized objectives. Think Overcooked, but for furniture removal.

If you want to keep the split-screen flow going, set expectations early. Pick games with:

• Clear roles: It’s easier to learn when each player has a job.
• Short levels: Quick loops mean frequent high-fives and less fatigue.
• Adjustable difficulty: More time, extra lives, and generous assists keep things fun.
• Shared wins: Co-op that rewards teamwork rather than punishing failure hard.

A quick tip to keep the energy right: swap roles every couple of levels. If one of you is normally the “platforming lead” or “puzzle solver,” switch hats to keep both brains engaged and growing. Also, don’t sleep on accessibility options—larger text, colorblind modes, and aim assists make a big difference for younger players.

Heading Out: Roguelike drifting through a monochrome myth Heading Out feels like someone distilled all the romance and fear of a late-night highway into an interactive road movie. It’s part driving game, part roguelike, and part choose-your-own-monochrome-adventure. The hook is powerful and poetic: you’re trying to outrun your fear, literally, by crossing the country to face the fastest driver alive. Along the way you pick routes, read the road, and deal with the consequences of your choices.

On the map, every road forks into small decisions—do you take the scenic stretch that eats fuel but lowers your stress, or the risky shortcut that raises heat? Do you stop to help a stranger and earn a perk, or blow past to conserve energy? Encounters branch in delightfully messy ways, feeding into a run-based structure that rewards improvisation. It’s roguelike in the best sense: failure isn’t a dead end, it’s a new story seed.

Behind the wheel, Heading Out is meditative more than twitchy. You’re threading through traffic, watching the horizon, and riding the beat of the soundtrack as much as the lanes. When the game hits top gear—sirens in the mirror, needle nudging too high, the world flipping from calm to chaos—it’s exhilarating. And when it drops into quiet, that stark black-and-white art style turns every overpass into a postcard.

What surprised me most is how well the vibes and the mechanics reinforce each other. Managing fatigue, fuel, and heat isn’t just “more meters to maintain”—it tells the story of a road trip where every choice leaves a mark. The result is a game that’s stylish without being hollow and systemsy without being clinical.

Why this trio works together This week’s picks orbit the same star: meaningful play that doesn’t demand your whole weekend. A Short Hike reminds us a game can be complete and satisfying in one sitting. The co-op suggestions focus on laughter and growth over grind and frustration. Heading Out proves you can wrap roguelike systems around a soulful premise and get something that lingers.

If you only have a single evening, take the hike. If you’ve got a buddy on the couch, grab a co-op from the list and embrace the chaos. And if you want a journey that’s as much about the headspace as the destination, point your headlights at the horizon and head out.

What have you been playing this week? Got a kid-friendly co-op we missed or a short gem you love to evangelize? Drop your favorites into your group chats and game nights—you might just make someone’s week.