It is a fixed point in my week: game night with my daughter M. (10 years old). Either on Friday or Saturday night, we’re going to *cough* in the basement for about an hour *cough*. And then there is gambling, chattering and sometimes cursing. The evenings run wonderfully harmoniously – as long as we don’t play against each other, but with each other. That brings us to the topic.
My daughter and I mainly play co-op games: games in which we have to work together to achieve a goal. Unfortunately, many games are not designed for this – we also do without shooters and other games that are not age appropriate. The selection is correspondingly thin. In addition, there is another dilemma: in the father-daughter combination, the games must make both a young lady (top priority) and an old man (rather negligible priority – if the daughter is happy, the father is happy too). Not easy circumstances to find the perfect co-op game. However, we believe that we can make at least two recommendations without hesitation (overall rating over 7).
*The rating scale is from 0 – 10, with 10 being the best rating.
(++) The game is completely focused on co-op – and offers original tasks accordingly.
(-) The game is taking too long. I really got fed up with it at the end.
(-) The main story (parents’ divorce) is explained a bit clumsily and not in a way that is appropriate for children.
(-) The prominent supporting character Dr. Hakim is more annoying than a little whistle on the plane.
(—) !!! At the latest when you *WARNING SPOILERS* has to kill a cute plush elephant, it becomes clear: this game is not aimed at children. We still pump the sea of tears from the basement today.
(+) “I loved the many details.”
(+) “The game is very varied.”
(- / +) “In the beginning, the difficulty was too high for me, but I learned and finally succeeded.”
(-) “I didn’t understand much of the story because everything was in English.”
(-) “I don’t think the game is centered on a father and a daughter.”
(—) *WARNING SPOILERS* “We had to kill a super cute stuffed elephant. That was very sad. Mainly because it didn’t even do any good.”
(+) Simple game principle
(+) Dear protagonists
(+) Excellent soundtrack
(++) Unique gameplay that still meets today’s requirements.
(+) Never gets boring!
(+) The difficulty increases slowly and steadily.
(+) A trained team can complete the game in about an hour (100 levels).
(+) Absolutely harmless and suitable for children.
(++) Original
(+) Cooperative yet competitive (who gets the yellow candy?)
(+) Experienced players can iron out the weaknesses of inexperienced players.
(+) “I think it’s funny.”
(+) “Even if you play it several times, there are always surprises.”
(+) “People are challenged.”
(+) “The music is cool, especially when you do ‘Extend’.”
(-) “I don’t like pixel graphics.”
(-) “The game is a bit too easy.”
(+) Harmless
(+) Has a bit of humor.
(-) Telling the stories. If you don’t know about HP, you don’t understand the story.
(-) The controls (especially flying on the broomstick) are not intuitive.
(-) Arg repetitive.
(+) “It’s just Harry Potter.”
(-) “I don’t like the graphics.”
(-) “It is often unclear what to do.”
(-) “Then you just wander around.”
(-) “Most of the time, solutions are found by wildly throwing magic spells around.”
(+) Level lengths: The famous “One more level” works perfectly.
(++) Suitable for children, but also quite funny for adults.
(+) Really successful mood on music level design.
(+) Own co-op levels.
(+) Very varied, although the core is a classic Jump’n’Run.
(- / +) Sometimes a bit nasty difficulty (rocket level). But that can also be seen as a good patience test/character school.
(+) “You can dress up the character in a cute way.”
(+) “You can repeat levels that we particularly enjoyed.”
(+) “I like that everything looks like it’s handmade.”
(+) “The music is great.”
(+) “Some levels are perfectly matched to the music.”
(+) “Very sweet.”
(+ / -) “Not too hard, but sometimes hard.”
(-) “The rocket level is annoying. It was too hard.”
