played through trine2 recently with some friends (great game, my only complaint would be that the combat is much easier than the puzzling)

looking for recommendations for multiplayer-on-the-same-screen games. they don't need to be new, don't need to be like trine, but yeah... something fun please if you can think of anything

The Lost Vikings

The various LEGO games (2 players, jump'n'run)
These are not really "play through" but have good replay value imo:
World Racing 2 (like need for speed when it was good, 2 players)
Mashed (like micro machines, 2-4 players)
Wings 2 (2d spaceships in caves, 2-4 players)

Liero :D

Wing Commander: Armada

Me and my brother played that for hours upon hours.

starcontrol 1 and 2

Sumotori! :D

Return Fire

I think this counts, but I loved Champions of Norrath on the PS2.

There's also X-men Legends and a few Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games that are in the same vein; top-down hack'n'slash RPGs.

Liero/Gusanos, Mortal Kombat(s)

Gish and basically any MAME game.

Garden Gnome Carnage.

Perfect Dark

Beat Hazard has a decent co-op 2-player mode.

Really, though - all the best stuff here is on consoles. Fighting games, the Super Smash series, New Super Mario Bros Wii, that new Rayman game, etc. My old Dreamcast got a buttload of fun usage on Chu Chu Rocket and Powerstone 2. There's oodles of great stuff on XBLA and PSN these days.

great suggestions guys!

lost vikings: loved that game. have the cartridge still. lego adventures: playing through those with my girlfriend. excellent. knorke i never played some of these other games though; i'll have to take a swing at them. certainly i like micro machines

i feel like i -have- played wing commander armada, i just can't remember it... are they coming out with another one of those games soon? i could have sworn i heard a rumor

still have the manual for star control 2. those games were money (although it's a shame they didn't have the vs campaign in the second game)

i googled sumotori, the 5th picture is a woody-harrelson balding fat white guy in a sumo suit. i am intrigued and will research further

return fire looks frigging fantastic! how could i have missed this?!

yeah champions of norrath... i frigging loved that game. the sequel was not so hot (too easy, too short) but the original... yeah. fantastic. i didn't mind the xmen games, but norrath was the genre done -right- (hell i'm feeling saucy, i'll just go ahead : it was better than gauntlet legends.)

liero: mentioned twice; i've played soldat, i'm getting this one for sure

gish looks entertaining enough from the funny faces in the screenshots that i should give it a go.

garden gnome carnage made very little sense, but i played it for a while and would play again

ahhh. perfect dark = perfect game. i wish i still had nintendo 64; pretty sure the cartridge is around somewhere

thankyou all for your fantastic suggestions! certainly some gems here

edit: got beat hazard, didn't even realize there was a two player mode!

Wing Commander Armada is a really old attempt at making a game that was a cross between Star Control 1 and Wing Commander... with *very* mixed success.

Shame the second one lost all the charm the first had

There was no second one. There never has been.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_Fire_2
there was. I played it.