Trying out "It Takes 2" with my non-gamer GF

One of the reasons why I get along so well with my girl is because she is into some of the nerdy stuff that dudes don't normally associate with women. She isn't pretending to like it for my sake either, she genuinely enjoys this sort of thing.

This doesn't change the fact that she doesn't own a single console and doesn't have any games on her laptop that I am aware of either. She enjoys the idea of gaming, but just doesn't do it very much.

So I quite enjoyed the idea of us playing a co-op 2-person game where the various aspects of the levels cannot possibly be completed by one person, and it is not super complicated or difficult either.

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They don't screw around for too long with the story in this one but basically a rather tumultuous couple that argues a lot and appears to be staying together for the sake of their daughter get magically turned into small characters and have to work as a team in order to make their way through the levels.

While I have not completed the game it's looking like it is going to have a happy ending because they are realizing as they go through that they do care about one another and are capable of working as a team to achieve goals.

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To anyone that has been around gaming for a while this game's gameplay will probably take you back in time in your mind a bit. It's probably been a while since you played anything in a split-screen way but if you are playing local co-op that is your only choice.

I found myself pulling a "Mario Cart" every now and then and thought I was doing quite well only to realize that I am looking at the wrong screen and my character is actually bouncing around in a corner accomplishing nothing.

The puzzles and enemies that you have to get past are not terribly difficult and the system is designed so that you can't really lose. It's just designed to take longer if you can't get the moves right, especially at bosses.

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the bosses that we have faced thus far have been quite comical and so far it has been a giant vacuum cleaner, a toolbox, and some insects. These are not easy per se, but they are also designed so that if you do both get hurt at the same time it takes you back to the start. This isn't that big of a deal though because mostly when you are getting killed it is because you haven't yet figured out what actually hurts the thing and once you do have that information you will proceed a lot faster.

You do have to work as a team both on screen and in your own living room because you will not be able to get anything done if just one of you is good and the other is completely lost. you have to help one another or you will get stuck at certain gates.

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Some of the platforming sections can actually be quite tricky and we got stuck on the one above for quite a while. It involved one of us opening and closing gates with a gun of sorts and the other person has to swing across using a grappling device of some sort. You cannot switch out because only one person has the necessary tool to get across. In one instance you might be the "main" and in the next you might be the "assist." There is no way around this and unless you played the game before you are not going to see it coming.

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Gameplay is kept fresh by constantly changing surroundings as well as different tools at your disposal in each level. At no point in time are you overwhelmed by the amount of controls because tools and buttons that were used on the previous level are taken away from you on the next. This is fantastic for casual gamers like me and extremely casual gamers like my girl.

Now here comes the potentially not so great part.

Gaming can be a frustrating experience especially if one person is a lot better than the other. In our situation I am kind of perplexed how someone can be unfamiliar with the left stick controlling movement and the right stick controlling camera angle. For my girl, who doesn't play video games normally, this is perplexing to her an she is often very slow to do something in the game that to me seems like it is just a seriously basic move. I have to hold my tongue frequently as I start to lose my mind a little bit when it takes her far more time than is allowed to line up something like firing a shot at something that is going to kill me if she isn't fast. She can't be fast though. She isn't stupid, she just doesn't do this sort of thing.

There have been no real world fights between us because of the game, but there are times when I get quite frustrated seeing her bumble around and making the same mistakes dozens of times in a row. She on the other hand, is blown away with how I can breeze through certain things in the game. I guess we all have our own different skills and gaming isn't one of hers.

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_{this boss battle with the toolbox was pretty tough but if one of you can manage to stay alive by dodging, it doesn't matter how many times the other person dies}

She does enjoy playing it though and we have a lot of laughs because at its core, this is a very basic and casual game with a few difficult bits here and there.

I think this game is great fun if you have a couple of casual gamers in the house or if you have a partner that doesn't game but you would like to get them involved every now and then.

We have been enjoying it a lot and have about 5 hours of gameplay behind us. I think this game is actually worth buying but I ended up getting it as part of my PS-Plus subscription for free.