Recommendations for Co-Op Games

I want a game where a friend can come and sleepover at your house and beat it (or have enough fun.)
It should either take from midnight to 5/6am or take two of those session to beat.

(PS3 or PS2 or be able to do it on PC)

I'm not sure if it meets your length requirements (never finished), but Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest for the PS2 is the first mulitplayer to come to mind. I remember it being very fun.

There are a lot of Co-op games but beating them in a specific time frame?

Divinity: Original Sin is the best current 2-player co-op game but it's a PC game that's much longer.

Some other random ones I thought were ok-to-good co-op games: Shank, Castle Crashers, Shogun 2, Magicka, Dungeon Defenders, Lego games in general, I don't know. It really depends on what you are looking for. There's also every FPS ever made, every RTS game ever made and every Diablo-clone ever made, basically.

Old arcade/NES/SNES/etc has tons of co-op.

Lord of the Rings: War In The North!! ....Unfortunately it's a little buggy on the PS3 :( For anyone curious, it's the last game made by the team behind the Champions of Norrath games, as well as Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. But it's a completely new realization of that style of gameplay, and it's done wonderfully, and I'm extremely sad the team got disbanded/absorbed and exists only in name and not in actuality :(

Similar game is Hunted: Demon Forge. Its set-up like a fantasy themed Resident Evil 5/6. Split-screen fun

Might not be able to beat it in a night, but the Borderland games are extremely fun co-op romps. As are Resident Evil 5 and 6, for that matter. In fact, since 6 is 4 short intertwining stories, they can probably be beaten in a day or two each. Only really need to go through one story to get the gist of it

You can get Castle Crashers from PSN which is a blast to play in co-op and not super long. Magicka is a similar option for the PC, it's controller enabled and local co-op

Oh yeah, and Diablo was mentioned. Diablo 3 is available on PS3. It'd take a couple of long sessions, but I would bet it could be beaten in 2 sessions as well

Um, I don't know where you stand on sports games, but, Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey on the NES is a blast in multiplayer; even if you aren't a fan of the genre the game can be pretty enjoyable just because of how ridiculous it is. If that isn't up your alley, Jackal and Contra are both action heavy games with solid multiplayer, neither of which you are likely to finish in a single sitting without cheating.

If you are in the mood for beat 'em ups, Streets of Rage 2 on the Genesis/Megadrive has great controls and difficulty, as does Turtles in Time on the SNES, and River City Ransom on the NES is AMAZING for its humor and leveling system on top of said controls and difficulty.

Look at the SNES, Top Gear, Biker Mice from Mars, and Uniracers are all excellent multiplayer racing games with enough of a curve to them that it should take a while to master and finish them on a high difficulty. Sliding back towards the action side of things, The Great Battle 3, 4, and 5 are all crossover titles that play, largely, differently from each other and might be worth checking out. Wild Guns is another one worthy of consideration:


Other great multiplayer SNES games that come to mind are Pocky and Rocky, a top down shooter with a Japanese theme; Legend of the Mystical Ninja, an alternating top-down and side scrolling action game; Sunset Riders, which is side scrolling western action at its finest; Zombies Ate My Neighbors!, which is another top down shooter with a GREAT horror movie theme and sense of humor; and Goof Troop, which is a top-down action game that is very puzzle focused.

Depending on how good you are at games from the era, you might have to pick two to fill in your timeslot, but that just lets you mix and match. ;)

Gunstar Heroes. Available on PSN for five dollars. You're welcome.