Reviews:
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It Takes Two is simply a big step above the co-op competition, earning a pretty rare Hall of Fame rating
Let me tell you about playing co-op games with my less gaming-inclined wife. It can be tricky, and sometimes even painful. The LEGO games are her normal preferred speed, though even the latest one’s introduction of camera controls threw her for quite a loop. So, in general, when I come to her with a new game to play together she tends to be reluctant. After an hour of playing It Takes Two, even with her periodic struggles, she was completely hooked and continues to be ready to keep going with it. Even when it can frustrate, usually during its sometimes intense boss fights, there’s just something here that clicks and feels very carefully crafted to keep the skill threshold just high enough to be a challenge without ever being cruel, and that’s saying something in the current gaming climate. It would most ideally be played by two people with at least moderate 3D platforming experience in order to best ensure success, but I’d also consider it to be approachable with its generally well-conceived puzzles, well-explained techniques like wall jumping, and simply its consistent essence of joyous adventure. Being shot through a series of tubes in this larger than life world is genuinely fun, and the game consistently would put smiles on our faces even as it challenged us. If you aren’t lucky enough to have someone who can play with you locally, you can even play online and that gets to what may be the feature that impresses me most in principle, which is their Friend Pass system. With this, you’ll be able to invite a friend to play co-op with you online and they don’t even need to own the game themselves… love it! It would lose some of its hook without playing it as a local co-op, but if you have even a modestly-skilled person to team up with this is an outstanding title to share.
Justin Nation, Score:Hall-Of-Fame [9.5]