A genuine love letter to gaming - specifically the fifth and sixth generations - that champions the virtue of video games as social conduits without ever making it explicit in its text. It Takes Two is perhaps the apex of Girlfriend Gaming, but also acknowledges the general magnetic pull of video games as shared experiences that draw us together - and this is an experience that can be easily enjoyed with partners, pals and family.

The story seems to be getting a rough reception from players here, but I appreciated a new game that isn’t yet another low-fantasy fable about finding the Amulet of Kwisatz-Haderach to prevent The Third Reckoning or whatever. Sure, other games have tried the romance genre on for size, but it’s almost always about the early blossoms of teenage and pseudoteenage lust-love affairs - Twitter oft-demonstrates that games writers and “narrative designers” are still emotionally and intellectually 15 years old, so it shouldn’t come as much surprise that divorce and parenthood are still remote concepts for video game stories. As a bumbling stay-at-home dad partnered up with a 12-hour-working doctor who’s constantly on a career-induced brain-edge, perhaps my girlfriend and I are just easy marks for this slight, specific Mrs. Doubtfire-esque story about a long-term adult relationship struggling to keep its flame alive, but I thought it was softly thoughtful, sincere and well-intentioned. I agree that the dialogue is over-resplendent with Uncharted-isms (“No no no NO!” “Oh ya GOTTA be kiddin me!”), but please give Hazelight some credit for managing to fill a 12-hour experience with a near-constant stream of dialogue that doesn’t often make you wanna claw your ears out - a rare, praiseworthy feat for any video game.

Reviewing the “gameplay” here is nigh-on impossible - taking this thing apart would be like individually analysing the content of every microgame in a WarioWare title - so I’ll just echo the general consensus and say that it’s incredibly impressive how freely this thing leaps branch-to-branch in a wide, shallow forest of genre and styles filled with obvious but welcome homage. As a long-term gamer working side-by-side with a new recruit, I took a lot of pleasure in telling my partner about Mario Sunshine and Diablo II and Dance Dance Revolution. FULL JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY DISCLOSURE: When I found the Ocarina of Time room, Josef Fares may as well have handed me a crisp $100 bill, patted me on the arse and sent me on my way. I’m an easy mark.

Was this thing too corny? Probably. Is it too long? Definitely. Did I have a lot of fun sharing a video game with some I care about? Absolutely - and that’s more valuable than what I thought of the dialogue or specific mechanics. I think this is a perfect example of a game that defies rational critique by virtue of its virtues and a commitment to doing things a little bit differently - and in the midst of a medium that’s constantly trying to deconstruct and twist and prove its own maturity by doing the same thing for Sad Dads again and again, something that speaks sincerely holds genuine, unironic value to me.