Pro tip: do not buy Battleblock Theater for couch co-op with a non gamer, my girlfriend quit after 24 minutes
I grabbed Battleblock Theater on sale for $15 thinking it would be a chill game to play with my girlfriend on the couch. Big mistake. She had never touched a platformer in her life and the game throws you into a level with spinning saws and disappearing blocks almost right away. She fell into a spike pit six times in the first stage and just handed me the controller at the 24 minute mark. I beat the whole campaign solo and it was fine, but the co op mode is full of griefing mechanics where you can slap your partner off a ledge and that made it worse. If your partner does not already play 2D platformers, this one will kill the mood fast. What games actually worked for getting a total beginner into couch co op at your house?
Why do we always assume our hobbies are beginner friendly just because we've been doing them for years? Same thing happens with board games, someone busts out Settlers of Catan for game night and the new person is lost by turn two. Or you take a friend bowling and forget that picking up a 10 pound ball and aiming at arrows is actually hard when you have never done it. We forget the hours we spent as kids just figuring out which button makes the guy jump. My rule now is to start with co op games where you cannot really lose, like that Mario Party mode where you are on the same team, or a simple racing game. Once they feel like they are good at something, then you can bring in the saws.