Gang Beasts is the best choice if you want a physics brawl you can play now, especially on one PC with several controllers. Party Animals is the closest alternative for an animal-themed party fighter, although the available evidence does not verify its local-play options here. RATATA is the better design match for cooperative objectives—stealing, loading, driving and delivering as a crew—but it is an unreleased, PC-only Steam game with no announced date or price, so it belongs on a wishlist rather than a shopping list.
The key distinction is that these are not three versions of the same game. Gang Beasts and Party Animals are PvP-oriented party fighters; RATATA is presented as a one-to-four-player cooperative job and heist adventure that uses chaotic physics. Choosing by that difference will give your group a better answer than choosing by animal characters alone.
At a glance
| Name | Best for | Key spec | Free plan / price | Platforms | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gang Beasts | Local or online physics brawls you can play now | Shared/split-screen PvP, Remote Play Together, plus a gang mode against Beef City gangs | $19.99 Steam list price | Windows, macOS, SteamOS + Linux | Oct 2026 |
| Party Animals | Animal-themed party fighting | Party, Fighting and 3D Fighter tags; multiplayer similarity set with Gang Beasts | $19.99, according to SteamRecs.io | Not established from an official store page in the available sources | Oct 2026 |
| RATATA | Planned four-player cooperative jobs and heists | One to four players online or solo; crew, vehicles, deliveries and physics hazards | Price not announced; wishlist only | PC via Steam | Oct 2026 |
Prices and storefront labels can change. The figures above reflect the sources and dates stated in the comparison material.
What is the difference between these three games?
Gang Beasts and Party Animals ask players to fight one another in comic, physics-driven arenas. RATATA asks players to cooperate on jobs while the physics makes every task harder. That makes “best for co-op” an ambiguous question: it can mean co-operating against computer-controlled enemies, sharing a couch for a party match, or completing an objective together.
| Game | Core session | How cooperation works | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gang Beasts | Physics melee brawler | Friends can play local or online; the gang mode lets a group fight Beef City gangs together | Released 12 December 2017 |
| Party Animals | Party/fighting game by its listed tags | Multiplayer party matches; the available sources do not establish its official local-player configuration | Available for sale according to aggregator listings |
| RATATA | Physics-based cooperative jobs and heists | Choose a crew, move objects, drive, evade hazards and split the payday; one to four players online or solo | Coming soon on Steam; no release date |
Press descriptions compare RATATA’s task structure with games such as Overcooked and Moving Out, while also using Gang Beasts as a physics reference. Those comparisons describe its intended feel, not a claim that it is already the same genre or that it has been played publicly.
Is Gang Beasts the best co-op choice right now?
Yes, if your priority is a reliable couch or online physics party game available today. It is the only title in this comparison with a fully documented local split-screen feature set, and its Steam listing also supports Remote Play Together for groups that are not in the same room.
What you actually do in Gang Beasts
Boneloaf’s game places gelatinous characters in hazardous arenas around Beef City. The central melee mode is competitive: players grab, shove, punch and throw one another around moving platforms, drops and other environmental dangers. Steam also describes a gang mode in which friends fight together against Beef City gangs, giving the game a cooperative option without changing its primary identity as a brawler.
Steam lists Online PvP, Shared/Split Screen PvP, Shared/Split Screen, Remote Play on Phone, Tablet and TV, and Remote Play Together. That combination is why it is the safest recommendation for a “local co-op physics party game” search, even though much of the content is player-versus-player rather than objective-based PvE.
Price, platforms and reception
The Steam list price was $19.99 when the page was accessed in October 2026. The sourced Steam page lists Windows, macOS and SteamOS + Linux. Console editions were not verified in the available official-page material, so a console purchase should be checked separately rather than assumed from the PC listing.
Steam showed 85% positive from 26,215 English-language reviews and 86% positive from 513 reviews in the last 30 days, both labeled Very Positive, in 2026. SteamRecs.io reported a larger 67.4K-review Very Positive total, which aggregates a broader review pool; it should not be combined with Steam’s English-only count as though they measured the same sample.
The Steam page also cites the 2016 SXSW Gamer’s Voice Multiplayer Award, the 2015 EGX Indie Game of the Show award and a nomination for the 2016 “Better With Friends” Steam Award. Reprinted critic descriptions include Eurogamer calling it “a brilliant, drunken multiplayer brawler,” Guardian Online describing it as “probably the funniest fighting game ever made,” and Rock, Paper, Shotgun recounting a slapstick struggle over a character’s eyeball at the edge of a fatal drop.
What Gang Beasts does not promise
- Its main loop is not a campaign of cooperative jobs. The gang mode is a cooperative variation inside a party-fighting game.
- The Steam about text does not present one single maximum-player integer for every mode. Match capacity can depend on the selected mode and platform setup.
- Cross-play with unverified console editions should not be presumed from the Steam feature list.
Gang Beasts PC requirements
The historical Windows minimum on Steam lists Windows 7, a second-generation Core i3 or AMD A6 (or higher), 4 GB of RAM, a GeForce 8800 GT, Radeon 5670 or Intel HD 3000-class GPU, and 2 GB of storage. Steam’s client itself requires Windows 10 or newer from 1 January 2024, so the operating-system line on the old game requirement should not be read as a guarantee that an old Windows 7 installation can run the current client.
The recommended configuration is Windows 10, a Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM and the same 2 GB storage class. These are storefront requirements, not a performance benchmark for a particular resolution or frame rate.
Is Party Animals a better alternative to Gang Beasts?
Choose Party Animals when the group wants an animal-mascot party fighter that is already sold, but treat local multiplayer and platform details as questions to verify before buying. The available evidence places it in the same shopping set as Gang Beasts through genre and similarity tags, not through a fully sourced official feature page.
What the available listings establish
SteamRecs.io lists Party Animals alongside Gang Beasts with Party, Fighting, 3D Fighter and Party Game tags, plus Multiplayer, Funny and Casual descriptors. That supports the broad comparison many shoppers make—an animal-themed physics party fighter—but it does not establish a specific mode list, maximum player count or split-screen implementation.
SteamRecs.io reported an 80% positive rating from 79.0K reviews and a $19.99 price. GG.deals separately displayed Steam’s Very Positive label with 56.7K reviews. Because those aggregators disagree on review volume, neither number should be presented as a definitive current Steam count. GG.deals also reported a Metacritic Metascore of 76, a Metacritic Userscore of 7.7, an OpenCritic Top Critic Average of 77 and 71% of critics recommending it; those are aggregator reports of the named scoring services.
What is still unconfirmed for a co-op decision
- No official store page was loaded in the available source set to verify local split-screen or Remote Play features.
- No official maximum-player figure was sourced.
- Developer, publisher, console list and cross-platform behavior were not established by the supplied evidence.
Those gaps do not make Party Animals a poor choice; they mean a buyer who specifically needs one-PC couch play should confirm the current store description and platform edition before paying. If the requirement is simply “an animal party fighter I can buy now,” its listed tags and price make it the natural second choice after Gang Beasts.
What is RATATA, and why is it not a physics brawler yet?
RATATA is an announced cooperative job-and-heist game from The Kingsdom, not a released melee fighter. It was announced on 27 October 2026, appears on Steam as “Coming soon,” has no announced release date or price, and is currently a wishlist-only purchase decision.
The planned four-player loop
Steam’s description casts the player as someone who owes money to a Mafia Boss who happens to be a toad. Her instructions are deliberately vague: “Bring me the thing.” The crew must work out which thing she means, choose suitable animals, acquire or move the target, load it, avoid guards and traps, drive it to the destination and try not to damage the cargo—or one another.
The planned jobs include stealing, moving and delivering objects, with hazards such as crazy granny squirrels. Between jobs, players can recruit crew members, buy larger vehicles, customise the group in an ’80s style, rescue jailed friends and upgrade a garage hideout. The payout is divided between the Boss and the crew’s vehicles, hideout and operations, so the debt shrinks slowly rather than disappearing after one mission.
The Kingsdom says that “every animal has its own size, strength, speed, abilities and driver’s license status,” and that an animal suited to one job can be disastrous on another. That suggests role selection and transport problems will drive the cooperation, but the game has not shipped and no hands-on results are available to validate how those systems feel in practice.
Players, platform and Steam features
Official copy says players can “play online with up to 4 friends, or go solo if nobody picks up the phone.” Steam lists Single-player and Co-op, along with Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing, Full Controller Support, Xbox Controllers, PlayStation Controllers and the Steam Input API. Shared/Split Screen is not listed, so local couch co-op should not be promised.
Every cited announcement and press description identifies PC via Steam as the platform. No console version has been confirmed in the available sources. A solo mode is confirmed; whether it uses artificial-intelligence companions is not established by the official wording and should not be treated as a feature.
RATATA system requirements
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10, 64-bit | Windows 11, 64-bit |
| Processor | Intel Core i5 at 2.5 GHz or equivalent | Intel Core i5 at 3.0 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 or equivalent |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | GTX 1060 or RX 6600 XT | RTX 2060 or RX 7600 XT or equivalent |
| DirectX | DirectX 12 | DirectX 12 |
| Storage | 4 GB | 6 GB |
Steam lists English interface, full audio and subtitles, with French, Italian, German and Spanish (Spain) interface and subtitles among 13 supported languages. Since the title is unreleased, requirements, language support and feature flags can change before launch.
Do not confuse RATATA with Ratatan
RATATA is unrelated to Ratatan, the Patapon spiritual successor from Ratata Arts that released shortly before this announcement. Searchers who arrive through a Ratatan trailer are looking at a different game.
Which game is best for your group?
Use the group’s desired activity—not the animal art—as the deciding question.
Pick Gang Beasts if you need a game tonight
- You have one PC and extra controllers and want documented split-screen support.
- Your group enjoys grabbing, throwing and surviving arena hazards more than completing a shared checklist.
- You want online play with Remote Play Together as an alternative to being in the same room.
- A long-established Very Positive review history matters more than a new release hook.
Pick Party Animals if the theme is the priority
- You specifically want animal mascots in a party-fighting format.
- You are comfortable confirming the current edition’s local and online features before purchase.
- You prefer a currently sold game rather than waiting for an announcement to become playable.
Wishlist RATATA if cooperation means completing jobs
- Your ideal session involves arguing over an objective, loading a truck, choosing the right crew member and splitting the reward.
- You are happy with online play for up to four people or solo play and do not require couch split-screen.
- You can wait for a release date, price and more information about solo support and final systems.
How do you set up a local Gang Beasts session?
Gang Beasts is the straightforward choice for a shared-screen group, provided the PC has the controllers and the edition you bought exposes the listed local mode.
- Install Gang Beasts from Steam and connect the controllers before launching. Windows, macOS and SteamOS + Linux are listed on the sourced Steam page.
- Start the game from the Steam Library and open the local or shared/split-screen mode shown in the game menu. The exact menu wording can change with updates.
- Have each participant join with a separate controller, then choose the melee mode for player-versus-player chaos or the gang mode for fighting Beef City gangs together.
- If players are remote, use Steam Remote Play Together instead of local split-screen. The Steam feature list also names Remote Play on Phone, Tablet and TV.
Because Gang Beasts’ cooperative gang mode sits beside its PvP modes, explain the choice before the match starts: “co-op” can mean the group versus Beef City, while the standard melee mode has friends competing against one another.
How do the technical requirements compare?
RATATA has substantially newer listed hardware targets because it is an unreleased 2026 announcement. Gang Beasts has much older storefront requirements, although the Steam client’s current Windows policy is newer than the game’s historical minimum.
| Game | Minimum memory | Minimum graphics | Storage | Operating-system note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gang Beasts | 4 GB RAM | GeForce 8800 GT, Radeon 5670 or Intel HD 3000 class | 2 GB | Steam page lists Windows 7 historically; Steam client requires Windows 10+ from 1 January 2024 |
| RATATA | 8 GB RAM | GTX 1060 or RX 6600 XT | 4 GB | Windows 10, 64-bit minimum |
| Party Animals | Not stated in the available sources | Not stated in the available sources | Not stated in the available sources | Not established from an official page in this comparison |
How we picked
The ranking prioritises the activity named in the question, then availability and evidence quality:
- Fit for the requested session: documented local or online brawling for a physics-fighter request, versus genuine cooperative objectives for a PvE request.
- Availability: a released, purchasable game ranks ahead of an announced wishlist title when the reader wants to play immediately.
- Feature certainty: official Steam mode flags carry more weight than similarity tags or an aggregator summary.
- Platform clarity: known PC requirements and storefront support are reported; unverified console and local-play claims are left open.
- Reception context: review percentages and critic aggregates are attributed to the named services and kept separate when their sample sizes conflict.
Bottom line: which one should you choose?
For a physics brawler that supports couch play and online sessions now, buy Gang Beasts. For an already-available animal party fighter, consider Party Animals, but verify the exact local-play setup for your platform. For four-player cooperative heists, deliveries and vehicle disasters, RATATA is the concept to watch—wishlist it on Steam and wait for a release date, price and confirmation of whether any local mode will exist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can RATATA be played offline?
The official description confirms solo play when nobody joins, but it does not specify whether that means a fully offline mode or an online session with no human partners. Treat offline support as unconfirmed until the developer publishes final requirements and network details.
Does RATATA support Steam Family Sharing?
Steam currently displays Family Sharing among RATATA’s feature flags. Because the game is not released, that flag and its practical availability can still change before launch.
Is Gang Beasts cross-platform with console players?
The sourced Steam page confirms Windows, macOS and SteamOS + Linux, but the available material does not verify console editions or cross-play between them. Check the exact platform listings and cross-play policy for the version your group owns.
Why do Party Animals review totals differ between sites?
SteamRecs.io and GG.deals reported different Steam review volumes in 2026, likely because they captured different dates or aggregation methods. Use the shared Very Positive direction and the separately reported critic aggregates rather than treating either count as a permanent total.