Well, with the Mega Man World series having now wrapped up once and for all, it's time to start jumping back into non-Mega Man titles, and here's one that's been on the bucket list for quite awhiles. It Takes Two is a co-op puzzle platformer that you've probably heard of before, because it won a massive number of awards back in it's release year for it's many creative levels, puzzles, and it's incredibly charming and uniquely quirky nature. That's all I knew about it, so I was going into this game completely blind, despite having bought it on sale ages ago.

There is one thing to be said about It Takes Two. When I said it's a co-op puzzle platformer, I meant it. You cannot play this game in single player. You can't even randomly matchmake with people, that's how heavily reliant on the co-op mechanics and communication it is. The only way to play it is either locally with someone you know, or online with someone you know. Luckily, this is a endeavour made much easier by the fact that the game allows you to offer the game to free to anyone, essentially. A free friend pass can be downloaded from your storefront of choice, and upon receiving a invite from someone who owns the game, you can experience everything the game has to offer entirely for free.

So for this instance, my co-op partner here was @Winston. Me and Winston's suffered through several co-op games together, including *shudders* Resident Evil 6, so I was more than happy to have him on board for this. With that, we were all set to go.

I suppose the best place to begin is what surprised me the most on the initial session. I meant it when I said I was going into this game blind, which is why it took me by surprise that the quirky fun puzzle platform's story was actually about two rather dysfunctional partners planning to get a divorce, and through the magic of their child's tears wishing for them to become friends again, via the guidance of a marriage counselling book, the duo end up a clay figure and a wooden doll retrospectively, and must now work together to traverse the now magically warped world of their house and beyond on a quest to return to their bodies, and possibly, maybe even fall back in love again.

That's probably as far as I'll go with the story since I don't want to spoil it, but I will say that there's a lot of unique charm and funny moments and quips all throughout the story, and it was really fun seeing the dynamic between Cody and May grow as they explored and began to rekindle and rediscover why they fell for each other in the first place, even if bluntly - the story can get really damned screwed up and dark in places, especially when it comes to their major attempt to make their child - Rose - cry again, believing that's how they can return to their bodies. It does not shy away from the results of divorce and the effect it can have on people, and as such, it can get really depressing at points, shockingly so, really. 

Still, the story also has a lot of funny, and heartwarming moments as well, delivering something pretty well-balanced. Just be aware that if you see the box art and expect something fully light and goofy, you aren't going to get exactly that here.

But I suppose the more important thing to talk about here is the gameplay, which is probably about 85% hits. While the core gameplay remains the same most times, being a platformer where you can jump, dash, roll, grapple and so on, each level provides a brand new gimmick for every player, changing up the co-op dynamic in pretty extreme ways in every level. For example, one level has you using a hammer and a bunch of nails, one member able to throw the nails for the other to grapple on and hammer down.

Another level has the two wearing magnets of opposite polarities, meaning they can shift different parts of the world, and later on, can time their magnet pulls together to jump towards each other. In another level, one can create time clones of themselves while the other can rewind and fast-forwards the world. There's so many of these per level, and it means every single level has a unique aspect to it that makes it really fun to see what's coming next and how they're going to use that for new puzzles, meaning each level is filled with a surprise. 

On top of this, minigames litter various levels, co-op games that are here under the guise that you're strengthening the bond between Cody and May by playing all of these different minigames. It's a nice way to tie it into the plot while encouraging the players to jump off the normal path and search these out, even if some of these minigames are pretty lame. But still, it makes for a really fun collectible to hunt for.

The game also jumps a lot between genres and gameplay formats. There's 2D segments, there's combat sequences, there's shooter segments, chase segments, and much more. There's a lot of diversity, and all of them using the co-op mechanics in unique and varied ways that really makes each segment of a level feel diverse and different from another one.

This is further highlighted by the levels which are really damn good and creative. The graphics are already fantastic, looking similar to a Pixar movie, and each world reflects it by taking a mundane location, and then making a huge creative level from it. From a tree becoming a big underground squirrel base, to a huge space level, to Rose's bedroom turning into a gigantic pillow fort and play area that's filled with various playsets, from dinosaurs, a kingdom, and even a Diablo style gameplay shift. It's highly unlikely you'll feel bored at any point through the game. In particular, my favourite was the final level, a huge musical world that has you sliding on guitars and operating stage equipment, and even going into a jukebox.

Something else I really appreciated is the difficulty. The game can be quite puzzling, but the game isn't so hard that I felt I needed to look up a guide, nor did it ever require constant voice communication between me and Winston. Text chat was enough, and even communicating via in-game actions was often times enough to get us on the same page for the puzzles, making the game's puzzles feeling extremely gratifying to solve.

The trophies/achievements are exactly the type I love as well. Rather than a bunch of random collectible trophies or story trophies, you get trophies for exploring the world and doing goofy and silly things. From entering a bug spa in one level and relaxing, to jumping into a printer and being printed out, to breaking a piggy bank and stealing the money, and more. The trophies are just as creative as the rest of the game and I loved it.

Of course, the soundtrack is also nothing to sneeze at. With a lot of relaxing tunes, and pretty varied for each level as well, with the jazzy tunes being my favouite, the game really has a good one.

It's not all perfect. The collectibles were pretty annoying to clean up in the end, the combat is really not particularly in-depth and well-designed, with some bosses really stretching out to become annoying, and the story can be overtly depressing at points. 

But still, it's one of the best co-op games I've ever played. Possibly one of the best platformers I've done too. Impressively stable for a online experience that relies on good and clear timing, and with a surprisingly consumer-friendly move by allowing a friend to play free. I'm really happy I finally got around to this gem. It won so many awards for very good reason, and if you can get a co-op partner? Definitely give it a shot.