*This is the first post in a new series of posts “Adventures in Couch Co-op.” Over the past two years, I’ve noticed that many of the games I beat were co-op games I played with my girlfriend, so I wanted to find a way to incorporate those games we beat together into the site. Here’s the first in this series.
Josef Fares is the writer and game director of our of my favorite couch co-op gaming experiences I’ve had with my girlfriend, It Takes Two. Since beating It Takes Two together back in 2021, we have explored and conquered so many new game genres together. It’s because of our love for It Takes Two that I started to branch out and curate new types of games for us to play together. This led to games like Minecraft Dungeons, Spelunky 1 & 2, Ship of Fools, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and now Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake.
*Side Quest: It Takes Two was released days before my birthday in 2021. I bought it as something for us to do on my birthday weekend at a time where being out in the world was still a bit weird due to the pandemic.
We had no problem staying home and playing games on weekends at that time — in fact,
we still have no problem with it.
It Takes Two tests the troubled marriage of its two main characters, Cody and May, across a series of scenarios which span multiple game genres. Within the story players get to experience top-notch platforming, a fighting game sequence, a mini rhythm game, shooters, two-person cooperative
challenges, dungeon crawling, and so much more — all accompanied by great storytelling. During
our play through I noticed which genres my girlfriend enjoyed using that information to search for
our next gaming experiences.
Our first games together were less complicated ones, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Overcooked 1 & 2, and pretty much any Mario or Nintendo staple. We later moved onto Rocket League and Splatoon 2 & 3 — which we continue to play heavily. Today, I look for pretty much any game that features local co-op.
Brothers: A Co-op Remake
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake was released a few weeks ago to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the BAFTA-award winning indie masterpiece. The remake recounts the emotional journey of two brothers, Nana and Naiee, as they embark on a remarkable quest to save the life of their dying father. The remake is now equipped with two player local co-op (it was previously a single player adventure), so of course we had to try it.
I own the original game on Steam, and I even remember playing it for a couple of minutes, years ago. I was intrigued by the way the player had control of both characters (or brothers) simultaneously, but I did not make it very far into the story that day. I did always mean to get back to it, especially after learning more about Josef Fares and his games.
It took us only a few short hours to beat the game. In fact, we beat it in one day. I know there is much more to explore and side stories to uncover — mostly because we only collected one of fifteen trophies. I may have to get back into playing this game on my own one weekend, to uncover the whole story.
The co-op gameplay itself is quite simple, in that you only have three options. You may move your character, rotate the camera, and you have one “action” button. The world consists of many small puzzles to solve. What impressed me was the storytelling in this game. First of all, the characters speak a made up language, so the game must show and not tell the story. When exploring the land of the giants, the player knows something big went down here — and I’ll just leave it at that.
I did look back at some screenshots of the previous game (which is now around ten years old), and the team really reimagined this world. The background music and the characters you meet also help bring this multi-layered fantasy world to life.
Josef Fares: The Taskmaster
Josef Fares’s two-player games are not like many others. There are two common versions of two-player couch co-op games. Either (1) everyone is performing the same task, or (2) Player 1 is in charge of the heavy lifting, while Player 2 is just along for the ride.
In Josef’s games, both players have agency and are assigned their own specific tasks. Sure, they work together plenty, but even working together might not mean the same exact action for both players. At times they will be doing something completely different, but still helping each other out.
While playing Brothers you start to learn each character’s strengths and weaknesses. For instance, a hard to reach area means it’s time for big brother to boost up little brother, so he can drop a rope. Physical labor, such as pulling levers, is a task for big brother.
There were many times where the brothers had to work together to defeat, trap, or get past an enemy. The tougher task was not always given to big brother, so both players had to be at the ready. It’s nice that both players are challenged at different moments of the game — or if you’re playing on your own, both hands are challenged at different moments.
After playing through Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake this past weekend, I have now added Fares’s second game to my wishlist, A Way Out. I remember playing a bit of the demo, but I’ve never had a chance to really give this game a try. I look forward to it as another couch co-op adventure. I’m also sure we will, at some point, replay It Takes Two. I hope Josef Fares continues to work on creating unique couch co-op experiences with great stories.
*myVGBC.com was provided a review code for Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake by the publisher.
**Some of the Brothers screenshots used in this post were also provided by the publisher.
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