The jackbox games are always a good suggestion, your phone is your "controller"

Just dance it's always funny

boomerang fu and gang beasts are great! Overcooked games are neat too 😊

For controllers, there was this new super cheap wired HE stick gamepad released not long ago, I'll try find it.

E: here's a post on the controller (GameSir Tegenaria Lite)

https://www.notebookcheck.net/GameSir-Tegenaria-Lite-New-budget-retro-inspired-controller-released-with-Hall-effect-joysticks-for-19-99.1038111.0.html

I can buy one to see if it works on fedora 42.

8 players is tough... We play quite some couch cooperative games, so here's some recommendations. None of them except a single party game for 8 at once though, I'm afraid.

• overcooked was already recommended. I second that. It's great. But man, it's intense, too... You can only play this with people who can laugh at themselves. I've heard purple say that this game might jeopardise friendships and I get it.
• lovers in a dangerous spacetime is a game I'm madly in love with. It's a coop roguelike which mixes space and lasers (which worked well for some of our kids) with pink rainbow unicorn aesthetics (which worked well for the other kids) and is just all around great fun to play.
• boomerang fu was already recommended. I like the design and the the music has some real bangers, but it's a competitive game which might lead to some conflict, depending on your group dynamics.
• unrailed cost us quite some hours as well. We really liked it, but imho it gets quite tough quite fast - we rarely got to the third of iirc ten biomes. Maybe it's because we always play it with our kids. Maybe we just suck at it. Despite this issue, we sunk quite some hours into it because it just still works well.
• Trine is three players coop only... It's a platformer. I didn't like the design so much, but my kids love it, so I guess that's still a good verdict.
• pixel cup soccer is our go-to soccer game. It's obviously a simple arcade game, but it's fun.
• Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed is our Not-Mario-Kart Kartracer and it works well. Not a fan of the tanks in there for a kid's game though.
• the Jack's party box games or whatever they're called are a kind of mixed bag, but drawful is great fun. It's also the only game on this list for 8 players. You draw stuff on a phone or a tablet and there's a well-working mechanic to make people guess what was drawn.
• while I haven't played it yet (waiting for a deal), Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is supposedly a great take on classic streets of rage style beat em ups.
• Rayman: Origins is a beautifully made and well designed platformer that can be played cooperatively with up to four people. True classic imho.
• for a quick party session, our kids love ultimate chicken horse where you build a level and then race through it. Tbh, for me it didn't really provide too much replayability, but hey, if the kids like it, who am I to judge?

So far as I know, there aren't a lot of 8-player local multiplayer games. The only obvious answer is the Jackbox games, using your phones as controllers.

Beyond that, I did find this Steam curator, who seems to specialize in 8-player games. From thier list, I recognize Gang Beasts, and Pico Park: Classic Edition. Party Golf, Screen Cheat, and Cobalt also all looked interesting, but I've never seen anyone play them.

I'll throw in a recommendation for PlateUp!

Great little coop game like overcooked but has you run the entire restaurant.

Base game supports 4 players but is easy to add mods to support more

Hop over to steam and search the tag "party games"

8bitdo has a range of controllers that are great quality and cheaper than the console brands. I use ultimate wireless 2 which is on the pricier end but I use these over Xbox and dual shock 4.

For games, this is yet another 4ppl game that's quite a gem:

No heroes here: You're a bunch of princesses and princess who are defending a castle by platforming around to clean and load cannons, build cannonballs, haul gunpowder etc. Similar to overcooked but I think this is even more fun.

I can personally recommend Duck Game. It supports 8 player local play.

It's a fighting game that plays on a single screen. Quite fast paced and not everyone's kind of game but so far in my experience it's been fun whenever guests come.

8bitdo makes awesome controllers.

You'll always return to playing heave ho.

Anbernic controllers really don't get enough attention. I've got a bunch of them and they're great.

Cheap enough that you can buy in bulk and better than an Xbox, or DS5 controller, which is what I was using previously.

They have all the things I want. Namely, gyro, programmable back buttons, and hall effect sticks and triggers. They're also widely compatible, and I've had no trouble connecting them to anything, including a Switch and a Linux machine.

I think Neigsendoig (my producer) has an idea. You could play something like Super Tux Kart or another open-source game (mind you, that one I mentioned is FREE and Open-source) of the like.

Little fighter 2 just got a "remaster" released on steam. It has always been a blast. But it might be up to 4 local coop only.

Gang Beasts is a fun one and supports up to 8 players. Don’t use the native Linux version though. It’s pretty buggy but the Windows version works well with Proton.

Nidhogg is another fun one. It’s only two players at a time but you can do a tournament and it’s almost as fun to watch as it is to play. The sequel is good but I prefer the original for it’s simplicity.

I can't think of a single game other than maybe Monopoly or Worms or something else where only 1 controller is used snd just passed around in a turn-based game that would even support more than 4 people playing at once with a single machine.

Most games only support up to 4 players in split screen, and most of those wre going to be older cuz modern games tend to not have splitscreen multiplayer at all.