Having seen and played plenty of co-op games on the system, I’ve been a big fan of specific titles that have pushed to do something unique and memorable, frustrated by those that have been bland and forgettable, and then somewhere in-between on those that work well but are still mostly generic. Hand in Hand is in a bit of an odd spot, I’d say somewhere in between the middle and the top, not having that extra oomph to really set itself apart, but still clearly a little more refined and polished than the typical middle-tier titles.

Very playable whether tackling the game solo or with a friend, Hand in Hand features two characters who each have their own special skills that typically help define what they’ll need to do in order to assist the other in making progress. There tends to be a very give-and-take flow to things, with one character being stuck by some obstacle and the other one clearing the way somehow, then essentially passing the torch to the other character. Since the game is played in split-screen, this generally works out just fine, even if you’re tackling it on your own. The trick there is that you’ll need to be able to handle the left brain / right brain challenge of using the stick and buttons on either side to make each character independently move, jump, and use their skills. It can be challenging at times when platforms get involved, but overall it’s doable if you can keep your concentration up.

One of the features that isn’t so typical with these sorts of games, is that aside from the various types of puzzles, there are few boss fights. I’m a bit disappointed that these tend to feature just one of the characters, rather than trying to maintain the co-op hook, but I suppose if you tried to tackle that solo it could have felt quite unfair. Aside from that and some story beats, there’s not so much that makes it stand far above some of its more middling peers, and the presentation and variety of more ambitious titles is clearly a number of steps beyond the scope of what was attempted here. In the end, it’s another reasonably good co-op puzzler, but there are some comparable ones with a more budget-friendly price, and it doesn’t quite do enough to really help itself clearly stand out in the space.