played this with my boyfriend off and on for the past six months or so and found it really enjoyable for the most part. he likes video games but was never an obsessive as a child like i was so a lot of the more game-y stuff that comes second nature to me any time i pick something up requires some more getting used to for him, as such i found this game struck a good balance between being fun for those that are more casual about their gaming and not being too safe for those that play more to feel uncommitted (tho there were times where i could really tell he was frustrated when he got stuck on a platforming section lmao). i think a lot of this owes to the variety of gameplay ideas that the game employs, while for the most part it sticks to being a simple 3d platformer there are always new specific abilities that each of the characters has in order to accomplish certain things in the environment or solve puzzles to keep progressing. then there were also be times when the game changes genres entirely, ranging from 2d platforming sections, to a dungeon crawler, to pirate simulation, to even becoming a rhythm game! it's this boundless variety in gameplay, mixed with some stellar art direction in the miniature characters inhabiting our own world aesthetic, that makes this game easily worth playing. even a lot of the minigames hidden throughout the levels are incredibly fun, partly because of the fact that you need to search to actually find them and also because they give a more competitive diversion in game so purely focused on cooperation.

i think where the game really falters, and what made it take so long for us to finally get through it, is the fairly limp narrative at the center of the piece. the focus here is on a couple going through a divorce and from the very start of the game you know where it's going, that this adventure forcing them to work together will ultimately rekindle their love for one another and they'll stay together for the kids. this i think would be fairly fine, if not a little cliche, if the game wasn't so long and the development of this theme so agonizingly one-note. the characters themselves aren't really anything to write home, a workaholic mom who's given up on her passions for her career and a stay-at-home dad who's also given up his passions due to pressures of being a father, and the moment-to-moment dialogue writing just never really expands them past this, constantly bickering with each other save for a few moments of reprieve and it feels like they never truly rekindle their love until the very end of the very last level of the game, and don't even get me started on the spanish love book who we both audibly groaned at every single time he appeared on screen. the game honestly may have been better served just allowing it's setpieces to speak for themselves, as trying to reach for more without much thought put into it beyond the initial concept ultimately just drags the game down. i said to my bf once the game was ending that it was very much a "love story written by gamers" so take with that what you will.

still though, as much as this last paragraph makes it seem like i wasn't particularly fond of the game, we both did still very much enjoy our time with it, and i loved being able to play through a game to the end with someone i care so much about. if anyone has any recommendations for other couch co-op games like this (accessible but never boring, story or at least world focused) please let me know because i would really appreciate some more stuff for us to play together!