There’s no question that this has been a generation, particularly when it comes to indie games, where co-op experiences have made a massive comeback. I’d also argue that the base design of the Switch, inherently having built-in potential for 2-player games just with the base system, has contributed to that. Over the course of the system’s lifespan we’ve seen quite a wide variety of co-op takes, with some playing out in a more relaxed and family-friendly fashion, and others that have turned up the heat to make for a challenge.

In the case of All You Need is Help, the focus is very obviously on supporting the simpler side of the spectrum, and the result is a game that should absolutely be accessible to players of all ages and skill levels. Ideally played with 4 people, whether locally or enlisting some help online, each person’s character will be assigned a Tetris-style shape, and then you’ll need to work together to complete the assigned stage’s objectives. These can range from simply working together to arrange yourselves to match a specific pattern on the floor, to trying to corral a rolling ball, and a variety of combinations of those activities. Since you’re unable to turn yourself on your own, you’ll need to make use of stage elements or even each other to arrange yourself properly, and while initially this can be awkward, once you get the hang of it the degree of challenge is pretty minimal.

The primary issue is that the same simplicity in controls and objectives that can make it very accessible, also pretty quickly makes it quite dull and repetitive. While the specifics of what you need to do will change each time a new stage is assigned, there’s simply very little to differentiate your tasks otherwise between assigned challenges. While perhaps this would be fine with younger gamers, and the repetition could help them feel more successful, for adults it gets hard not to roll your eyes at yet another task that’s so familiar to the few you’ve just completed. I do appreciate the obvious goals behind the game’s design, and to some degree I’d say they’ve likely accomplished what they set out to do, just there’s not much ambition or variety to be found here.