Games designed from the ground up exclusively for co-op play are special, and It Takes Two might be the quintessential example of this. From fun, varied gameplay, to an engaging story, everything ties in to the co-op nature of the game, making for an unforgettable experience.

The game's core mechanic is that there is no core mechanic, other than the fact that the game is co-op. Every level, or even different sections within a level, outfits each player with new abilities that complement each other as a pair. It then teaches you how to use them, and then lets you solve a variety of puzzles together. I especially like that each player has a distinct ability, making sure that neither player ever feels unnecessary or that they're holding the team back. For example, one level gave one player a gun that sprayed sap, and the other a gun that set the sap on fire, requiring them both to shoot together to take down enemies and puzzles. Our favorite level had us each have one of the poles of a magnet, which made for super cool puzzles that had us switching off each other depending on if we needed to attract or repel something. Not every mechanic was perfectly polished, but they were all fun, and the variety was fun in and of itself. The abilities each character had always did a great job of complementing each other, and the puzzles were well designed to show that off and explore the level's unique mechanics to their fullest potential.

The game's story explores the real ebbs and flows of how people fall in and out of love and how that love can be found again. It involves a couple on the verge of divorce, Cody and May, that get turned into dolls and have to solve all sorts of challenges together to turn themselves back into humans, learning to rekindle their love along the way. Dr. Hakeem's Book of Love, a self-help book about relationships that comes to life, hilariously guides them through the process, thrusting them into the challenges that will help them reignite their affection. While not true for every mechanic, several of them are analogous to aspects of a healthy relationship, such as magnets representing attraction, or gardening abilities representing Cody's personal passions and the passion in their relationship. The one thing I didn't like about the story was that the pacing of them rediscovering their relationship felt a little uneven. I would've liked it if they grew to appreciate each other a little more chapter by chapter, but it seemed more like that progress happened all at once, with May and Cody showing few signs of relationship progress even in the second to last chapter. I do love the way the story tackled some heavy hitting topics like falling out of love, cruelty between partners in a relationship, and children feeling like they're at fault for their parent's divorce. It didn't shy away from what these things really look like, but showed how they can be overcome in even the most entrenched toxic relationships, as long as those involved put in the effort to do so. I also really like how the story and co-op mechanics were really well woven together in every level.

I'd like to make special mention of the game's accessibility. The developers clearly understood that, like me playing it with my wife, there would be a lot of pairs playing this game where one player was a lot more familiar with video games than the other. It Takes Two strikes a perfect balance of having complex enough mechanics for it to be engaging, while keeping them simple enough to be approachable. Boss fights are challenging, but respawn you after only a few seconds if you die, and only stop you if both players die. Aiming sections give you generous auto-aim, wall jumps were sticky, and chase sections saved frequently enough that there weren't many setbacks. My only gripe in this area was that the second boss was a huge difficulty spike that I even struggled with, and the game never really got that hard again. If you or your partner feel intimidated by games, know that special care was taken to mitigate any friction for non-gamers, and my non-gamer wife quickly got acquainted with the controls and felt little frustration throughout the game.

Despite an unevenly paced story and a few unpolished mechanics, It Takes Two manages to deliver immense gameplay variety of consistently great quality and a heartwarming story of rediscovering love, all while being engaging and accessible for seasoned gamers and newcomers to gaming alike.

My wife also left the glowing review of "I think It Takes Two is the funnest game I've ever played".