Local co-op isn't dead, it just moved to your pocket

Local multiplayer felt like a dying thing on phones — everyone assumes you play alone. Skybound Co-op proved me wrong, at least for an evening.

Handing a friend a controller isn't the only way to share a game. Pass-and-play and shared-screen chaos still work, and when a game leans into the yelling and panic, it becomes a social event. We lost three ships and laughed every time.

The catch is screen real estate. Co-op on a small phone gets fiddly, so a tablet really helps. But the core idea — two people fumbling through a shared disaster — translates perfectly to mobile.

It made me want more developers to try it. There's a whole genre of party games waiting to happen on hardware everyone already carries.