After thoroughly enjoying playing in Rose’s Room last time, my son and I decided on finishing It Takes Two Coop greatness. It was a great journey to the end playing through levels inspired by a cuckoo clock, snow globe, garden and finish in the attic.
It Takes Two Cuckoo Clock Mechanical Puzzles
Our frenemy, the Book of Love gifted us with time related powers. Those were very appropriate considering our next mission was the cuckoo clock. My Cody character could rewind or fast forward time. The May character my son controlled acquired the ability to leave a spectral clone in a spot and teleport to it at will.
The time bending abilities offered some very unique puzzle solving opportunities. For example, a bridge that collapsed in front of us could be rebuilt by rewinding time. Meanwhile, my son solved his parts of puzzles by setting his clone in a place inaccessible before I start controlling time.
The clock themed puzzles and platforming puzzles would make the mad hatter proud. There was a great bit where we flew around on clockwork birds. It was quite the turn on that theme when we later fought a giant bird of the same style.
We later enjoyed a boss fight with a clockwork powered bull. My son’s cloning was handy for convincing the bull to charge into a statue that fell on him. A few bait and switches like that took the bull down.
Toward the end of our clockwork adventure, it was frustrating to start a bit with different clock parts falling. Took a lot of jump and dodging, while trying not to fall off. In the end, the clock blew up, but we turned back time enough to use pieces as a platforming puzzle. I moved time back and forth to give my son a better chance to jump to each platform.
Playing in the Snow Globe and Ice Skating
On to our next stop, the snowy village inside of a giant snow globe. This time, our powers involved a split magnet. I took the negative side, while my son took the positive. We solved several different types of attraction and repulsion puzzles with our magnet pieces. Great example of It Takes Two coop greatness.
Sometimes it was a literal push and pull between the two of us. I always liked magnets as a kid, so it was good fun to play around with all these puzzles. It was a weird mix with magnets and the snowy villages of the level (something more industrial maybe?), but the design was great.
We took a few breaks from the puzzle solving to ice skate around the log cabins. There was even a part with a full on ice skating race with jumps and tricks. The fun in the snow did not stop there. We partook in snowball fights and a weird bobsled race down a whale carcass.
There was a weird tangent set of puzzles after our bobsled ride. We were tasked with plumbing related puzzle underwater. It required coordination while dodging a giant anglerfish. Those are truly scary monster fish. It was a strange bypass of of our snowy adventure, but a fun distraction.
We ended things fighting blizzard strength winds pulling each other with the magnets to complete the attraction challenge from the book of love.
Killing Weeds in Garden and the Greenhouse
After our snowy journey, we took things to the garden. We accepted garden related tools and powers. My Cody character’s head grew a plant out of it. It could pull on things and swing from things like a vine. My son’s May character carried a sickle and hose with a backpack filled with water. Turns out those weren’t the only gifts.
There were different flower pots scattered around the level with dry soil. My son watered the soil and I jumped in to turn into a plant. Different plants from these pots helped us solve many different puzzles. There was a cactus with machine gun like turrets to clear our path and take out enemy plants.
White dandelion seeds floated Cody through the air in other spots. Another involved a white lily-like flower to extend across gaps while growing leaves for my son to jump on.
There was a weird spa side area where caterpillars gave massages. One massaged like those specialty chairs, another did foot massages and well it was weird. It Takes Two has several of these weird coop side track moments.
After the spa visit, we enjoyed a fun bit riding on adorable furry spiders. They could obviously stick to surfaces up the wall and even upside down, but could also use their web to jump up to another branch.
Escaping Moles in the Underground
We took a little detour underground to avoid moles with some stealth gameplay. It took some care to avoid acorn shells while walking past the giant moles. Any misstep led to loud crinkle. Enough noise and we were dead. Things took an even more interesting turn when I literally turned to grass to give my son something silent to walk on.
Of course it was not as easy as sneaking and getting caught was inevitable. We ran for our lives from angry moles. The changing view points from front to back, then side to side, made thing fun and difficult. It was tense and a bit nerve racking.
After our grand escape from the moles, we took a bit of a break when a pair of frogs were our taxis. It was a chill bit of high jump platforming for a bit of a break of It Takes Two coop puzzles.
Fighting Then Saving Cody’s First Plant, Joy
In the end, our fight against the corruption in the garden led to Cody’s first plant, Joy. The corruption took her and it was out job to cure her. It took all our tools to finish the job. My son used his water pack to clear away toxins and his scythe hacked away at corrupt plant parts.
While he did all that, I used my plant powers to turn into a tomato, potato and then a lime. It was comical rolling around as fruit and veggies, then attacking plants with my faster rolls. That was all before I took control of the weakened Joy plant to bend her to where my son could cut the corruption out.
In the end, we saved the garden and it was satisfying to watch the corruption leave and the beautiful flowers grow.
Preparing for a Concert in the Attic
Our last adventure revolved around music and the attic of the house. The annoying book of love tasked us with putting together a concert. The aim was for to May show off her singing talent, mostly against her wishes, of course. To keep with the music theme May’s singing voice was her tool, while mine was a drum cymbal.
Her voice activated switches and broke things. With microphone and speaker combos, we solved puzzle using the speaker to launch and break things. My cymbal served a dual purpose. I cut wires using it as a slicer and later as a shield to block lasers. There was even a fun intermission with a slot car race between my son and I.
There were plenty of music related puzzle including a juke box, stereo receivers, drum set platforming, avoiding microphone snakes and more. The goal of the various puzzles was collecting items for the concert. First we captured speakers, then lights and a chorus. The latter part was a weird tangent.
Rescuing the Heavenly Chorus
To find our chorus, it took some searching around a heavenly pipe themed section of the attic. White cloth draped round tables made up makeshift clouds. The annoying book of love gifted us organ style jetpacks to fly around and attack flying demons. Those demons held keys to the heavenly cages holding the chorus hostage. Like I said, a weird tangent.
With the chorus secured, there was a final piece we needed, an audience. That last bit took us to a weird club run by walking glowsticks. To get into the club, we went on a weird journey sliding through a rainbow road. It was absolutely an ode to the Rainbow Road from Mario Kart before we ended things riding a rolling disco ball.
At the end of our club journey, we were forced to play some rhythm games around the DJ booth to get the crowd amped up. I’m not a fan of any dance or guitar hero type games, but we struggled through. We gained our audience before the book of love sucked them up with a straw.
With all the pieces in place, we took the long walk to the stage and the concert began. It was then that the daughter ran away from home in an attempt to avoid May and Cody’s divorce plans. It ended with the May and Cody finally waking up human and rescuing their daughter with a new found love for each other.
Ending the Greatest Coop Game
The story was a bit cheesy, but it was a truly fantastic coop game. It was the best I’ve played and will be hard to top. If you have not played it yet, then I highly recommend playing It Takes Two to experience its greatness.