Stardew Valley's Couch Co-op is Much Better than Animal Crossing's
Farming/life simulation games Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons seem to dominate the genre. Animal Crossing has been a smash hit, surpassing its sales projections, but is frequently criticized for its lackluster couch co-op experience. Stardew Valley seems like an unsuspecting competitor, since it is developed by only one person and doesn't have the impeccable pedigree of a series like Animal Crossing, but the recent Stardew Valley 1.5 update brought a split-screen mode to the game and it blows Animal Crossing's co-op experience out of the water.
The New Horizons multiplayer controversy has been frequently discussed since release, and for good reason. Although it's fun to run around the island together, the couch co-op is extremely limited since Player 2 isn't allowed to wander very far away from Player 1. Furthermore, even when not playing in co-op, every subsequent player to settle on the island is locked out of the game's main progression system. It feels very much like a single-player-only experience, with multiplayer and multiple villagers simply tacked on without much effort.
Nearly five years after it initially released, Stardew Valley was updated (for free) with a bunch of new content known as the 1.5 Update. 1.5 is the biggest step yet for Stardew Valley, and marks the introduction of split-screen multiplayer. Online co-op has been possible in Stardew Valley for a while, but the game truly flourishes with the recent addition of couch co-op.
The best part about split-screen in Stardew Valley is that Player 2 has complete freedom to play the game to the fullest extent, including planting all the new crops. The screen is not shared like in Animal Crossing, so each player has complete autonomy in Stardew Valley. Even special events and going to bed at the end of a day need to be done independently by each player before the game will start the cutscene or progress to the next day.
A chief complaint about multiple players on one island in Animal Crossing is that Player 2 has no say in where buildings are constructed. The entire town proper is already constructed in Stardew Valley but players are still able to place farm buildings like chicken coops and grain silos. Playing in split-screen doesn't stop the second player from going to Robin's carpenter shop, paying for her services, and selecting the new building's location all while Player 1 goes about their day. Instead of hampering player autonomy like Animal Crossing does, Stardew Valley allows both split-screen players to enjoy the game completely, and even offers options to balance the game for multiple players such as adjustable profit margins. Stardew Valley has already enjoyed tremendous success for an indie game, and it deserves so much more for its flawless split-screen integration.