When I first got this game I was I thought ''Cool this is pretty nifty'', but it never struck me as the innovative masterpiece you'll see the gaming press lavish on it. When i first started playing it was ''A fun platform game''.
Things changed on Friday night when i dropped into a game with one of my best friends who was playing from his home town a few miles away, cool we could get some of those ''2X'' puzzles done and get some nice new costumes and items for create.
Not far in though between laughing at each other missing jumps or ''emote dancing'' with the Sackboys if one of us was a hero and got a hard to reach item or made it to the next checkpoint to bring the other guy to life this brilliance of this game with other players just shone through.
Levels became playgrounds for us from then on; we'd soldier on dodging flaming barrels or comically flying around in a balloon controlled airship but then we would find something fantastic to entertain ourselves with but the progression through the game was actually a bonus....something we could continue to do when we got tired of faffing about.
It got to the stage when we were finding blank walls and creating the most insane pictures in co-op from then on. We got to the Indian themed level, created sackboys wearing turbans with ridiculous moustaches and just had them dance to the music for about ten minutes, emoted them playing pipes, drumming and singing.....then skipped off to find a blank wall and draw some kind of Serpent God complete with Groucho Marx joke glasses, flames from the nostrils and horns on it's head. Then my mate wrote ''This is our god!'' using the text chat in game and we were both pissing our sides with laughter.
We were the cheeky kids from high-school again instead of the thirty year old worldy chaps we've become. I don't know maybe you have to have a certain sense of ridiculous humour or be slightly warped but this game really stuck a chord with myself and my pal.
One more thing is i find it's very refreshing...co-op play is exactly that...co-op, you want the other guy to progress and you'll do your best to stay in one piece or get that new item to add to the ''completion'' bonus.
Such a refreshing change from team-mates blathering in your ear in COD 4 or having a frustratingly greedy partner in PES online.
I really hope extra content is well supported in this game because i want the professional story levels added to, to compliment the user content soley because i want to keep having things to do in this game.
In time i'll try my hand at level design and i think i owe this game the patience to come up with something i enjoy, that is going to be where the fun continues i suspect, and with practice and time its been proven you can make great levels for others to doss around in.
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The length of this post is testament to how much i enjoy this game, i love it and i really do try to do the ''cool cynic act'' which has been ingrained in me since college and university where you are taught to break down concepts and analyse different mediums...but to me this game just doesn't need that. I'd honestly feel like i was trying too hard if i started picking at it in depth.
Instead i find it's just glaring un-ashamed fun.