Zack and Hannah sat in front of the computer, the room full of laughter.
They did run into a few puzzles that tripped them up for a bit, but in It Takes Two, the puzzle hints were done very well.
Key details were marked with bright, obvious colors—what game designers call "attraction anchors."
In his past life, the game that used this idea best was Breath of the Wild.
But in It Takes Two, while there are many different places players can visit, each individual area isn't very big. So putting puzzle hints with attraction anchors in them made it easy for players to notice right away.
And if they still didn't notice, staying too long in one spot would make Cody and May drop a line of dialogue as a hint.
Basically, unless you're doing it on purpose, there's almost no way to get stuck in It Takes Two.
After all, this isn't some hardcore platformer like Celeste—it's a co-op game meant to make players feel happy.
"This is so cool!" Hannah and Zack said in amazement.
Using something like an air duct, they pulled off an aerial relay—shooting out of one pipe and getting sucked into another.
With the game's cinematic camera work, it felt like watching an exciting action-adventure movie. The thrill was unreal.
As they moved through the stages bit by bit, they soon reached the first boss fight.
Their opponent was the vacuum cleaner that had blown them away earlier.
Seeing Cody and May again, the vacuum looked furious.
But Cody and May told it that once they turned back, they could fix it—since May was a skilled engineer.
Right then, the Book of Love suddenly appeared.
"Wow! Is that true?"
"Then why did you buy the super expensive Turbo X2000 vacuum? Hm!?"
After saying that, the Book of Love vanished without a trace.
"Oh my god, it only showed up to stir things up!?"
"Kinda annoying, actually!"
Clearly, as the game's guide, the Book of Love had drawn both Hannah and Zack's shared annoyance.
But soon, their attention shifted away from the troublemaking book.
The game had officially entered its first boss fight.
Beating the boss wasn't hard.
The boss's attack pattern was very simple—it just threw flaming cans.
At this point, all players needed to do was dodge.
When the boss stopped throwing, one player climbed up the pipe on the steps and aimed it at the boss, while the other used the pipe below to suck in the flaming cans the boss had thrown.
Even though the boss had a so-called second phase, clearly the second phase in It Takes Two was nothing like a Dark Souls boss.
You just had to keep moving carefully and repeat the same actions, and the boss would go down easily.
After defeating the vacuum cleaner boss, a cutscene played.
The two characters escaped and saw their daughter Rose, but she couldn't hear their voices. A hammer nearby spoke up, saying it could help them, but they needed to free its friends trapped in the toolbox.
Here, May and Cody got new tools.
One was a hammer and the other was a nail—May took the hammer, and Cody took the nail.
From then on, all puzzles required using these new tools.
For example, May could hit a switch with the hammer so Cody could stand on a moving platform to cross to the other side.
Then Cody could throw a nail into a wooden board, and May could hook onto it with her hammer and swing across like on a swing.
"You can actually play like this!"
Watching Hannah's character hook onto a nail and swing across, Zack couldn't help letting out an amazed shout.
It was the most he had said so far.
Even though it was only the third level, the game felt completely wild.
It totally changed how he thought about co-op games.
As the game moved forward, the purple Book of Love showed up again, stirring things up—but this time it introduced a mini-game: "Whack-a-Cody."
"This game even has mini-games!"
"No way!"
Looking at the Whack-a-Mole mini-game on screen, Hannah and Zack were both shocked. They never thought this game would include competitive mini-games.
"But why? Why am I the one getting whacked!?" Zack complained as he played Cody, who had to pop his head out of the box while Hannah, playing May, kept smashing down with the hammer.
For Cody to earn points, he had to stick his head out for a while, which meant getting smacked hard.
"Can't help it—it's the game's rules. Nothing you can do about it!" Hannah chuckled and easily won the Whack-a-Mole round.
"Not so fast!" Zack grinned, looked at his nail, pulled back to make some distance, then aimed and fired!
With a sharp clang, May was nailed to the wooden board.
"Don't run! If you have the guts to nail me, then stand and fight!" Hannah broke free and chased after Zack with her hammer.
May's hammer could deal damage too—but it was still a hammer.
Once Zack pulled away, there was no catching up.
And just when Hannah was about to close in—bam! Another nail pinned her in place.
"Heh, I'm an archer. Have you ever seen an archer fight a warrior in close combat?" Zack laughed, happy to turn the tables outside the mini-game.
"Enough, enough. Don't you think this is childish? Let's just move on with the story!" Hannah coughed lightly, trying to change the subject after getting nailed down again.
Hearing that, Zack smirked, recalled his nails, and went back to progressing the game.
After getting the hammer and nails, the puzzles became more complex and demanded more teamwork.
For example, when Cody got three nails, there was a jumping puzzle where nails had to be placed for platforms to appear.
This stage required May to keep climbing up. At one wall-jump spot, if they weren't well-coordinated, they could get stuck for a while.
Even though it looked like it needed perfect timing, as long as they followed the order and took it step by step, it was pretty easy to clear.
When wall-jumping, the character stuck to the wall for a short time, so as long as you didn't panic and pull out the supporting nail, you could get through.
Eventually, Cody and May cleared a series of levels and reached the toolbox boss.
With tense music playing and the toolbox roaring, it was clear another boss fight was coming.
But compared to the vacuum boss, this fight was a bit tougher.
First, nails rained down from the sky, and two hits would drain your health.
The first phase was manageable—you just had to dodge the toolbox's shovel sweep and the falling nails.
But the second phase was different. Saw blades and chainsaws cut away the wooden platform, and finally, the toolbox slammed down with its shovel, leaving very little room to move.
Here, Hannah and Zack both died several times.
"Good thing we have unlimited revives, and the progress doesn't reset. Otherwise, this would be really hard!"
"Yeah!"
Both Hannah and Zack couldn't help sighing in relief.
One of the difficulties in "It Takes Two" has actually been made much easier this time compared to before.
On top of that, as long as one player is still alive, the other can respawn without limits, and even if both players die, the game won't fully reset.
Also, if players really can't beat a section, the game has a dynamic difficulty option.
For example, under normal settings, getting hit twice by nails will kill you, and getting smacked once by a giant spatula will take you out instantly.
If players get stuck, they can choose to turn on this mode.
Once it's on, the boss's attack power will be reduced, giving players more room for mistakes.
But looking at these players searching for partners… they were all guys.
While other people played It Takes Two as couples, their version turned into "bro squad co-op," dueling side by side.
…
But whether it was It Takes Two or "bro squad co-op," there was one thing in common.
After playing, everyone was amazed by the level design.
Especially as the story slowly progressed, the game's content turned out to be impressively rich.
Aside from the main story's puzzles and challenges, the game also has a lot of fun mini-games.
It's practically like getting a bonus mini-game collection!
And every chapter has its own unique theme.
For example, the vacuum cleaner and toolbox stage is actually one big level.
The theme for this stage is the shed.
All the scenes are related to the shed, and in this big area the tools players get are a hammer head and some nails.
After defeating the toolbox, the grateful tools send the two of them to their daughter.
But the daughter doesn't notice them at all, and that's when Dr. Hakim appears again, telling them that if they want to see their daughter, they need to reach the upstairs window.
In the outdoor stage, the two have to slide along a power line while dodging flowing electricity, making it feel like traveling through time and space.
After finishing the shed stage, they enter a brand-new themed area.
The tools they get here also match the theme.
For example, now Zack and Hannah have reached a big tree in the yard and made their way into its core.
However, they're captured by squirrels, who think they're wasp spies.
After some negotiation, the squirrels agree to let them help get rid of the wasps.
From the squirrels, the two get new tools.
One is a special tool that sprays tree sap and sticks to wood, and the other is a weapon that can shoot fire and blow up the sap.
Suddenly, the game turns into a shooter.
One sprays, the other ignites, and together they overcome obstacles.
Coming from the shed to the outside world feels like stepping into a whole new world, and entering the tree's core begins another strange and wonderful adventure.
With these new "guns," the puzzles become more complex and require players to think harder, and the game's pace becomes much more intense.
For such a cartoon-styled game, there are actually some big action scenes.
Cody and May lie on a barrel lid and ride through raging rapids, pulling off a thrilling whitewater ride.
Going deeper into the tree's core, the dreamlike scenery is mesmerizing.
They even get to charge through on a beetle who has turned against the wasps after being defeated.
After beating the "Wasp Queen," Cody and May find out it's actually a robot, and the so-called queen inside is just a chubby little male bee.
Then Cody, May, and the little bee are chased by swarms of wasps, and they escape by blowing up a barrel of honey.
The scene looks just like a sci-fi movie where the heroes destroy the alien mothership — spectacular and intense.
And that's only the beginning.
While Cody and May are comforting the bee, the squirrel army suddenly arrives and opens fire.
The chubby bee they just rescued instantly bolts.
The battle shifts from the ground to the sky.
Cody and May hop into the "Underpants Plane" for an aerial dogfight.
While flying through a deep tunnel, the squirrel leader climbs onto the plane's roof.
In an instant, the puzzle game turns into a 2D side-scrolling fighting game.
…
Zack and Hannah spend the whole day playing It Takes Two, until their stomachs start growling in the evening.
Only then did they finally put down the controllers.
"This game is so fun!" Hannah said, still not satisfied.
"Yeah, and it's super cheerful! It feels like there are a lot more stages too. There's so much in the trailer we haven't even seen yet!" Zack said excitedly.
Unlike Overcooked, where things often got heated after a while, It Takes Two had plenty of moments where players tricked each other, but it was always full of laughter.
And the most important thing—the amount of content in this game is insane.
They had played the whole afternoon and still felt like there was a lot left to go.
"I'm going to change clothes. Let's go for hotpot tonight and keep playing after." Hannah checked the time and said.
"No problem." Zack nodded with a smile.
While Hannah went to the room to change, Zack leaned back in his chair, pulled out his phone, and posted a moment.
Then he opened his friends list, tapped on Ben's profile, and sent a message:
"Hey man, tried It Takes Two yet? This game is seriously amazing! Never thought a co-op game could be done like this! And Lucas wasn't lying this time—the game is so warm and full of love!"
Clearly, Zack was still deep in the experience of It Takes Two and hadn't come out of it yet.
About ten seconds later, Ben replied with a message and a meme.
The message was short, but Zack could feel the bitterness behind it.
"I'm playing alone? (smile.jpg)"
(End of The Chapter)
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