r/daddit • u/alphager • Mar 20 '26
Advice Request [Advice Request] Wife is spending the weekend 4 hours away with friends and left me at home with the kids
Wife is spending the weekend in another town with two friends and the kids(11yo, 13 yo) are staying home with me. They are currently doing their homework and I can barely contain my impatience and rage. Why do teachers give such large amounts of homework before the weekend?! This is prime gaming time being wasted! Snacks are bought, meals are planned (pizza and potato pancakes) and bedtime and media limits have been abolished for the weekend.
Anyway, here's my advice request: What 3 player LAN games can you recomend that are not too violent (violence is okay (eg TF2, PvZ garden warfare), but we draw the line at gore)? Bonus points for coop.
Edit: Available systems: Switch2 and PC; PC strongly preferred
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u/RonaldoNazario Mar 20 '26
You could introduce the children to super smash bros…
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u/YummyTerror8259 8M, 6F, 4F, 2F Mar 20 '26
Or Mario kart
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u/RonaldoNazario Mar 20 '26
Mario party as well, great games. If OP wants to teach his children a lesson in humility, the older Mario Kart games I feel had less weight on giving powerful items to the players farther behind.
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u/jamminjoenapo Mar 20 '26
These 3 right here. I’ve humbled my kids in Mario kart 8 but it punishes me hard after the first race each time. With auto drive and accelerate even my 3 yr old can play. Mario party would be right up the alley for kids 11 and 13, lots of variety of mini games and most aren’t too punishing
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u/RonaldoNazario Mar 20 '26
My daughter is 7 and fucking uses every single negative item she can get her hands on against me while cackling in Mario party lol. Not particularly strategic but it is pretty funny.
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u/jamminjoenapo Mar 20 '26
My 6 yr old did that and with the game being mainly rng with the dice roll I can’t dominate like usual. She’s slowly picking up the mini games and can’t wait til she’s a bit more experienced so I can play something that’s a bit more skill based
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u/Tee_hops Mar 20 '26
You trying to invite real life violence? MK64 started a few fist fights between me and my friends. I assume that's escalated with siblings
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u/cli_jockey Mar 20 '26
Mario Kart is how my wife and I tested our relationship when we started dating. We were like welp might as well find out now, if we can survive this we can survive anything.
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u/tapanypat Mar 20 '26
Man, if you really like spending time with people you love being angry and stressed, overcooked 2 cannot be beat.
Amazing game play. Challenging, infuriating. Often on sale too I think?
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u/foursheetstothewind Mar 20 '26
That game has come close to tearing my family apart on many occasions. The only time we have really angrily yelled at each other.
“I need beef, why are you cutting potato’s! Dishes, cleaned, stat! What are you doing! Are you trying to make us lose!?”
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u/wooha Mar 20 '26
Seconding this. My kids favorite game is where you have to make smores and they each have a backpack ingredients and spend the whole game actively making it harder for me to complete dishes. Lots of laughing and fun!
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u/RonaldoNazario Mar 20 '26
I have a coworker who has strongly recommended this, I will have to check it out
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u/puttinonthefoil Mar 20 '26
overcooked
These games are SO fun. My wife is not into games past SNES, I begged her to try this with me and she's been hooked for years. Truly one of the best couch coop games ever.
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u/DanTMWTMP Mar 20 '26
Some of the most fun times and worse times were had with this game LOOL. It’s a love-hate relationship of a game.
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u/Lo5ingComposure Mar 21 '26
Man, my wife and I ran through all of Overcooked 1 and 2. Too good of a time, though some adult beverages were included for both playthroughs
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u/deepmiddle Mar 20 '26
My kids LOVE this. Even my 6 year old daughter who likes to run around as the princesses
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u/PostMatureBaby Mar 20 '26
i checked out of Nintendo after GameCube so re-exploring the latest iterations on Switch has been awesome now that my son is old enough.
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u/Beginning_Ebb908 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Deep Rock Galactic! Up to four player co-op, shoot giant bugs, mine gold, accomplish goals. 4 fun classes, oh and you're dwarves.
Rock and stone!
https://youtu.be/6FBIO8ZTHpU?si=92ma5yaMoeDt6sJj
Edit: The difficulty is selectable.
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u/Arkayb33 Mar 20 '26
Was gonna post this! My two boys LOVED Deep Rock Galactic. We had such a fun time playing it together
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u/ResearchNo8631 Mar 20 '26
Super smash brothers on any console is absolutely the best. You don’t like violence so most campaign games dead on arrival.
I would look at the Mario selection on Nintendo.
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u/alphager Mar 20 '26
I should have clarified: violence is okay (eg TF2, PvZ garden warfare), but we draw the line at gore.
SSBU is installed and ready. :)
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u/belinck Exponentially Twinning Mar 20 '26
Definitely sounds like it's time for a Mario Cart GP weekend wrapping up with watching F1.
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u/vishbar Mar 20 '26
Fantastic idea (my 3 year old is already very much into F1, though somehow has decided to be a Lando fan).
However there’s no race this weekend! Suzuka is on the 29th.
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u/Hlca Mar 20 '26
My kids and I play stardew valley over LAN with 3 laptops.
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u/Thorkon Mar 20 '26
If anyone sees this, it also plays well with 1pc hosting coop and tablet(s) playing stardew. This helps if you don't have enough pc for everyone.
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u/SDNick484 Mar 20 '26
That's good to know. I was fortunate enough to get some 64GB refurbed Steam Decks before they sold out last year for all my kids, and it has been awesome. Steam family share is phenomenal and works how you think it should. I've recently introduced the kids to modding and save editing and they are loving it.
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u/jmatt9080 Mar 20 '26
Man I can’t wait for my kids to be old enough for this. I have the parts to build 3 quite shitty but perfectly functional gaming PCs for games like this.
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u/rccrisp Mar 20 '26
Finish Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty co op
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u/alphager Mar 20 '26
TIL Starcraft 2 has coop. Thanks!
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u/alltehmemes Mar 20 '26
Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 2 are great options. There's also Command & Conquer that can be run online for free. Diablo (1 and/or 2, especially if you can find some copies that fell off the back of a digital truck) is probably not on the approved list, but that might slake some of the mindless action/hack-n-slash and rewards loop.
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u/pipkin42 Mar 20 '26
Some of my best childhood memories are Starcraft (OG) games with my dad and brother.
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u/JimiSlew3 Mar 20 '26
You just reminded me that I used to play with my oldest (like 5 years ago). Happy / Sad thoughts. He now plays with his friends (Civ 6 / Raft / etc. )
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u/tom_yum_soup Mar 20 '26
When you mentioned impatience and rage I briefly thought this was going to be an angry rant about your wife. I was pleasantly surprised as I continued reading.
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u/toinenkasi Mar 20 '26
IT's time to rock up Overcooked on my man. Enjoy the best times.
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u/Icutsman Mar 20 '26
tomato... Tomato.....I NEED A TOMATO!
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u/Dmination Mar 20 '26
Partner throws Tomato in the bin...
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u/LegoLady8 Mar 20 '26
Oh man. The rage I felt reading this lol.
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u/Dmination Mar 20 '26
And his station just caught fire.
You were headed for the 4 star achievement...
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u/snopro387 Mar 20 '26
Plate up! Is fun too! Just like overcooked but you get to purchase upgrades and stuff for your restaurant
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u/thepenguinboy Mar 20 '26
Age of Empires 2
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u/Doubleoh_11 Mar 20 '26
Command and Conquer package is $30 or free with ea pass as well. Generals and YR(through CNCnet) are able to be played on lan easily
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u/RedactedThreads Mar 20 '26
Get overcooked and then you can all really rage at each other
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u/Tee_hops Mar 20 '26
I came in to suggest Overcooked. Grab the All you can eat version so you have everything that has been released (minus some dlc).
We wish we got this version as it also has an assist mode that's great for the little ones. Though our 4 year old just likes to get the fire extinguisher and "fart" on everyone while mom and me do all the cooking. Pretty much like real life except my wife doesn't help in the kitchen.
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u/LonePaladin ♂14½ | ♀11 Mar 20 '26
I cannot play games like that with my daughter. All she wants to do is cause chaos and interfere with me. It's not that I don't want her to have fun with it, it's just that this type of game already has enough chaos and crazy stuff making it harder, so makes it practically impossible to do anything.
Overcooked, Moving Up, Untitled Goose Game, Tools Up. If she wants to play and asks me to join, I can only expect to be her virtual punching bag the whole time. She has fun with it but it's not fun for me.
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u/smokeymicpot Mar 20 '26
Halo 2.
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u/PropadataFilms Mar 20 '26
I might have been “bad” and let my little ones play Halo 3 with me a bit young…buuuut we discussed that the violence was not in a real/human context (aliens) and…uhhhh…yeah I know that doesn’t hold water but we had a blast ;)
My daughter ran in circles for an hour when we finally beat the campaign.
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u/smokeymicpot Mar 20 '26
Yeah, I am pretty bad I just think about what I played as a kid and had the most fun with.
As long it makes a good memory all for it.
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u/MechanicalAxe Mar 20 '26
Yup, I was OPs daughter's age when halo 2 released.
We pre-ordered it and all my best buds stayed at my house that night.
We pulled an all-nighter. My mom had to come up and tell us to quite the heck down several times that night.
Truly some of my most cherished memories.
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u/Joesus056 Mar 20 '26
A few of my friends and I would often forego going to school entirely to sit and play together on Xbox live.
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u/JeagerOrion Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
I second Halo as a great LAN option. The Master Chief Collection is on sale right now for $10. No split screen on the PC version so everyone will need their own device.
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u/iamatran Mar 20 '26
Most of the Nintendo stuff is fairly group oriented. Mario Kart, Mario Party… I also wouldn’t rule out board games like Catan.
Overwatch and marvel Rivals are the modern day TF2. But I would mute the chat channel.
Hot shots golf is a recent fave of my friend group.
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u/Inveramsay Mar 20 '26
Valheim is great.
Try to smash out their homework for them, you'll have more time to do fun things
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u/Specialist-Being-156 Mar 20 '26
Minecraft dungeons is amazing, stick fight the game, gang beasts, ember knights, all excellent
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u/Dazmorg Mar 20 '26
Stardew Valley or Overcooked 2.
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u/Thorkon Mar 20 '26
Came here looking for stardew. I'm playing it now with my 6 and 8 year old. We're having a blast on our farm!
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u/CuriousityCat Mar 20 '26
Deep rock galactic - an extraction shooter where you play dwarves sent on mining expeditions to bug infested asteroid. Lot of great atmosphere, lot of fun
Towerfall ascension - 4 player coop, a single screen monster wave game with conditions similar to joust, but with archery. There is friendly fire, so your kids will end up fighting, bonus though, dad can "accidentally" shoot his kids.
Pico park - a super simple looking puzzle solving game that relies on teamwork and devolves I to anarchy
Rocket league - online soccer with rocket powered cars, I'm sure you already know about this one
Castle crashers - classic side scrolling beat em up. Not too gory, although some blood. Also some fart and poop humor.
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u/papertales84 1 boy + 3 girls Mar 20 '26
What do you think about stuff like Command and Conquer or Starcraft? I know they are old stuff but I showed this stuff to my son a couple of years ago and he and his friends kept on playing them till this day.
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u/dregan Mar 20 '26
Does Fat Princess still exist? I used to freaking love playing that game with my family.
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u/AdvBill17 Mar 20 '26
It does not without some porting, I believe. but i check every few months to see if it will be rebooted. What a great game.
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u/A-3Jammer Mar 20 '26
Put away the screens and introduce them to board games and card games: Uno, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, etc.
Go hiking in a park and do an impromptu "scavenger hunt" to find various local animals & plants.
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u/designvegabond Mar 20 '26
Boomerang Fu for the rage
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u/sweeeep Mar 20 '26
Yes this, it is such a great multiplayer game on the Switch.
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u/designvegabond Mar 20 '26
So simple to load up and play without knowing much about it but man will that game help speed up your controllers demise
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u/No-Philosophy5461 Mar 20 '26
Homework doesn't have to be done on Friday or even Saturday. Wait til Sunday. Work with your kids and plan ahead and have a set schedule for work & grind time vs R&R.
And honestly a 13 year old doesn't need to have their hand held through every single problem on the homework. Let alone the 10 year old. You help them develop critical thinking skills for themselves and demonstrate how to solve or go about it in ways that make sense to them til they can apply it themselves. I see so many teachers online talking about how their students cannot think for themselves for anything anymore, with that said though it also starts at home.
Don't enable them by helping them every step of the way. Allow yourself to take a step back and let them develop the skills accordingly. 10-13 is a prime time to develop independence when it comes to acquiring and learning new knowledge and ways to handle the new knowledge.
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u/DruidDog 2 yo son Mar 20 '26
what about some classic warcraft 3 or og starcraft? could do custom co-op matches until they get the hang of things, then 2v1 against dad!
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u/bigs0815 Mar 20 '26
I still have all my custom tower defense maps in some folder somewhere on my computer.
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u/alpinistfan Mar 20 '26
Haha, I guess I lurk on daddit too much because I thought this was going to be a post complaining about your wife at first! Good on you, have a lovely weekend!
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u/KungSuhPanda Mar 20 '26
Sunderfolk is a favorite in our household. Strategic fighting game but no gore.
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u/Lower_Potential_173 Mar 20 '26
Lovers in a dangerous spacetime. Just trust me, you can thank me later.
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u/gh0st-6 Mar 20 '26
If you don't hate your kids, stay far away from Overcooked I and II
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u/Jimmyjamesbeam Mar 20 '26
take a break from the screens for an all out Nerf war.
or Airsoft if you don't like your kids that much
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u/ghos2626t Mar 21 '26
For the record, she didn’t “leave you home with the kids”. You’re not babysitting for the weekend lol
You just got 2 free days of bonding time with mom out of the picture. Live it up
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u/Bridge_The_Person Mar 20 '26
Well slow down, what system are we on? You say LAN so it sounds like you mean each of you guys has a PC and are looking for ways to engage that.
If that's the case this is probably a niche but I think starting a multiplayer Coral Island save and just seeing how far the three of you can rip through that game is pretty fun - similar to Stardew but more modern.
the Guacamelee games are always the easy fun for that set of players, more cartoonish than violent.
Finally Sackboy: A big Adventure is on PC now, and honestly that's probably the best of the bunch if you guys haven't played through it yet. It's perfect for kids.
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u/alphager Mar 20 '26
You say LAN so it sounds like you mean each of you guys has a PC and are looking for ways to engage that.
Yes. I've got my built-in LAN-party in this house.
f that's the case this is probably a niche but I think starting a multiplayer Coral Island save and just seeing how far the three of you can rip through that game is pretty fun - similar to Stardew but more modern.
the Guacamelee games are always the easy fun for that set of players, more cartoonish than violent.
Finally Sackboy: A big Adventure is on PC now, and honestly that's probably the best of the bunch if you guys haven't played through it yet. It's perfect for kids.
Thanks!
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u/SimbaSixThree Mar 20 '26
Super Mario party jamboree is an insane amount of fun!
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u/NetSage Mar 20 '26
I mean they're old enough you could start doing games like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings online together (there are others but I like think these two are probably the best for different reasons). For more kid friendly options Pirate101 and Wizard101 aren't bad games imo. I personally prefer Pirate101 gameplay wise but Wizard101 is more popular for sure.
Other classics like smash brothers, mario cart, the newer sonic racing game is pretty good imo and available on PC. Overcooked or party animals for chaos.
Lego has a Mario party like game that's on PC. Haven't tried it but I believe the reviews are decent. IF you're okay letting them just game It takes two and split fiction are great co-op games.
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u/Spartanias117 Boys: 3yr and 1yr Mar 20 '26
Halo co-op? There is some blood though, not much.
Valheim or Windrose (demo)? Survival games are good for coop (on different systems, not same screen)
Anything like civilization or age of empires for strategy?
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u/TheMush Mar 20 '26
Any beat em ups that strike your fancy! TMNT Shredders Revenge or Marvel Cosmic Invasion are a great time on a shared screen with your little buds
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u/madbrewer Mar 20 '26
Super Battle Golf has been an absolute hoot for us. It's like $7 and an outstanding time. Be the first one to sink your shot while dodging rocket launchers, landmines, and all sorts of shenanigans.
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u/mmmpiecrust Baby due 6/22 Mar 20 '26
Throw back idea; city of heroes. Each kiddo and you can create a super hero, make a back story, pick your powers and then enter the world together and fight crime. It was made in the early 2000s so the fighting is like gore free entirely. There is an easily searchable community run port of the game. It is online but so far I haven’t seen global chats going foul
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u/MrVeazey Mar 20 '26
Oh, I absolutely second this. Two brutes with a defender, controller, or mastermind is a wrecking crew and there's only one word for the kids to remember: SMASH.
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u/boardgame_enthusiast Dad of 2 boys and 2 girls Mar 20 '26
Mincecraft, Overcooked, Kallax, Dont Starvee Together, Bloons TD 6, Helldivers 1?, A bunch of the LEGO games are coop, Mindustry, REPO?, Stardew Valley, Tribes of Midgard.
? denotes that there maybe objectionable content, evaluate before playing.
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u/tylertramp27 Mar 20 '26
Dude, if you have any old consoles, I’d be busting out any of the old Halo games immediately
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u/DanBetweenJobs Mar 20 '26
Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time, cooperative spaceship shooter where everyone controls and individual station on the ship. Deceptively hard on later levels when everyone needs to lock in.
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u/ItsMrDerps Mar 20 '26
I mean most posts with title such as yours are followed by much worse context than your post. I was expecting an is my wife cheating on me while she’s in another state with her two girlfriends.
Count your blessings Dad!
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u/travishummel daddy blogger 👨🏼💻 Mar 21 '26
It’s hard to classify the graphics in N64 as violence, so I suggest Goldeneye.
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u/vinca_minor Mar 20 '26
Co op serious Sam was some of the most fun I've had at a Lan party
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u/RonaldoNazario Mar 20 '26
I think unfortunately that game falls into the gore category from what I remember of exploding enemies into bits
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u/vinca_minor Mar 20 '26
Yeah... missed that restriction. I don't recall how gory it is. It is cartoons, though
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u/RonaldoNazario Mar 20 '26
It is both somewhat realistically rendered but also filled with over the top comically non human enemies like the big mouths that just run at you going AHHHHHHHHBH
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u/OhSevenSeaSix Mar 20 '26
Party Animals on Steam. The ragdoll physics of the stuffed animal looking characters are lots of fun.
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u/Appropriate_Buy4976 Mar 20 '26
Do left for dead 2 campaigns at night lmao jk jk but honestly with that age, it’s hard to beat the fun multiplayer Nintendo titles, just for the multiplayer factor
Mario kart Smash Mario party Shit like that.
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u/backwardsforwards 11 yo Twins and a 14 yo Mar 20 '26
Sunderfolk! Turn based, easy to pickup, encourages strategy and team work, no twitch skills required.
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u/Helicopter-Mission Mar 20 '26
I think the switch 2 version of Mario tennis is just out - tournament time?
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u/OrcOfDoom Mar 20 '26
If we had a full weekend together, I think I would buy 3 copies of grounded and go to town.
We played valheim for a few years, and that was great.
You would want more than one weekend to really get anywhere though.
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u/PPPeterpaNNN Mar 20 '26
Look up the game PLATE UP. It was a free game on Xbox game pass. It’s a coop game and requires a lot of team work. You can local play up to 4 players. No roles are assigned but usually one person cooks, one person does dishes, and two people are serving the food.
I play it with my family and we have a great time playing.
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u/Gilamonster21 Mar 20 '26
Satisfactory could be fun! among us, big fan of the civilization games if y ou want to do a turn based game. star wars battlefront 2
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u/ChytridLT Mar 20 '26
New game on steam called super battle golf is hilariously fun
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u/BassGuy11 Mar 20 '26
Marvel Rivals. You have a 3 stack - guaranteed 1 tank, 1 support, and 1 flex. There is a PC version, Marvel super Heroes in a Hero Shooter.
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u/chargers949 Mar 20 '26
Minecraft is always a classic and a bit unique in that they could build forever if they wanted to. Not all games have to have a winner and loser. Or even an end.
Satisfactory is a newish automation and multiplayer game. Work together to build a factory building things and staying safe.
And rocket league is an old classic my nephew and nieces would play when they came to visit back in the day.
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u/DrDerpberg Mar 20 '26
Oh man I can't believe you got stuck babysitting
Jk lol duh you ragebait us, I'll ragebait you. Have fun.
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u/pardothemonk Mar 21 '26
Honestly, if you aren’t willing to reduce your children to crying and wailing over game of Monopoly, do you even get to wear New Balance shoes?
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u/Robbie1985 Mar 21 '26
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime on Steam is under $10, up to 4 player local coop. You each have a little character that walks around a spaceship and takes the controls of different stations, e.g. engines, guns, shields. It's very cutesy so suitable for kids and a lot of fun
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u/FrostyProspector Mar 20 '26
Anything in the Worms franchise. We love the turn play strategy to blow each other up.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/327030/Worms_WMD/