Co-op releases this year span major-publisher blockbusters and indie titles, offering diverse cooperative designs and plentiful options. Several acclaimed co-op games demand precise coordination, complex puzzles, and frantic action that can be unsuitable for very young players. Some cooperative titles include mature visuals or anxiety-inducing mechanics that limit play with younger children. Lego Voyagers delivers a family-friendly alternative with laid-back, creative platforming puzzles designed to welcome players of varying skill levels. Players control small Lego-brick characters marked by simple visual identifiers and cooperate to solve approachable puzzles. The game emphasizes accessible bonding gameplay suitable for parents and children.
I don't know that we've ever seen a year quite like this one when it comes to new co-op experiences. From major-publisher-backed hits like Split Fiction and Grounded 2, to indie darlings like REPO and Peak, there hasn't just been a significant quantity of games meant for co-op play, but they've gone in so many different, yet similarly exciting, directions.
Split Fiction, for example, may be regarded as the best co-op game of the year and, more broadly speaking, a possible Game of the Year contender, much like It Takes Two before it. But Hazelight's co-op games aren't meant for smaller, less-experienced hands. Their puzzles and action sequences demand a lot from players, to the extent that I can't play it with my six-year-old, who is a lifelong gamer, but still finds such games a bit too chaotic to handle.
Lego Voyagers thankfully avoids leaving me with these hang-ups as a gaming parent looking for the next great bonding experience. Instead, what I saw in a recent hands-on demo is a laid-back, creative play space full of platforming puzzles that felt welcoming to virtually anyone. Filling in for my kids in my scheduled demo was my colleague, Jason Fanelli, who did a great job as my proxy child.
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