My SO and I have been having a lot of fun playing co-op games on the Steam Deck connected to the TV. We recently finished Split Fiction and I'm looking for the next cool experience to try out. We enjoy casual co-op games, nothing too hard or violent. EDIT: pixel art is apparently a big turnoff for her so that's out as well.
Games We Enjoyed:
Split Fiction
It takes two
Untitled Goose Game
Games that flopped:
Stardew Valley - She is open to "farming" games but doesn't enjoy the energy management aspect of the game. It also gave her motion sickness, somehow
Overcooked / Moving out - We enjoy these games but as they start to get more chaotic and hard, the enjoyment goes way down
Ibb & Obb - A bit dull and samey
Portal - Gives me serious motion sickness, completely unplayable
Lego Lord of the Rings - I'm a lord of the rings fan but I hated the gameplay for this game, I found it to be so boring. We quit after an hour or so.
Might do but you can always go until you find it too hard and then go back to one that you like, or use custom to set a difficulty that you like.
Also tried playing it with extra people before, so far just 3, 1 with the bomb and 2 with manuals. But playing with a few more could also be fun, maybe even set them up with a phone each and stick each team in a different room.