While I have a tendency to be pretty critical of co-op or competitive multiplayer games because there are generally so many of them, and a fair portion of them are awful, I’m also inclined to celebrate those that deliver. In particular, I’m always happy to prop up the ones that aren’t just engaging, smart, and pretty fun, but that also come in at a budget price that’s hard to beat. The original Kinduo was one such surprise, and while it absolutely was visually quite simple its mix of smart puzzles, personality, and approachability whether playing solo or co-op made it shine. Now, with its sequel, I’m happy to report it’s more of the same, and in a good way.

This time around, rather than pairing a lightning and an earth character, they’ve moved to the contrasting pair of fire and ice. Very quickly the game introduces some of the new elements you’ll need to understand, mainly that your frozen character is able to absorb a limited number of water droplets that can then be turned into a cube of ice, which your flaming character is then able to melt. Throw in the fact that your fire character can double jump, and a few other core mechanics, and you then have the basics down to recombine in a variety of ways to make some smart puzzles with.

What’s nice is that in the overall scheme of things, I’d say the skill level required is pretty down the middle. I don’t think the puzzles ever got too frustratingly hard to be discouraging, and on the whole the action end of things felt approachable and simple, not requiring one or both players to have a great deal of dexterity. What that translates well to is that in theory just about anyone should be able to play it solo or with a friend and have a reasonably good time, something not too many titles can consistently claim.

So if you’re looking for some co-op fun to enjoy with a friend, or don’t mind sometimes having to tediously switch back and forth between both characters by yourself to work through each stage, for a budget price there’s a fair amount of quality puzzling here. It’s just tough enough that when you make some breakthroughs to solve certain areas it will leave you feeling smart, but not so tough that you should really need to go hunting down guides on what steps to follow to beat them. I think it’s important to have games that occupy that reasonable middle-ground space, carefully avoiding being too hard or too easy, and this is a great example of a title that embraces that approach.