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The best games you missed in 2021: co-openCan you get some of the nice fruit juice I like please
Can you get some of the nice fruit juice I like please
The concept of co-open is simple: you play as a kid on their first solo grocery trip. Your grandmother drops you off, gives you a phone number, and then the supermarket is your oyster. Oh, and everyone is an anthropomorphic bird, and a majority of the characters are LGBTQIA+ in some shape or form. The environments pop, with bright bold colours, and each micro-location feels incredibly defined. All of the character models are 2D, stylised in a way that makes them look like acrylic stands.
co-open | launch trailer | itch.ioWatch on YouTube
co-open | launch trailer | itch.io
There are no grand tasks to attend to at any point. Yes there are some mysteries to solve, but only the kind a kid would find any interest in. And yet each mini story arc was just as compelling as the next because of how charming everyone is. The game is obviously a stylised imagining of real life, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real life. There’s an underground cave you can explore covered in snow, with some teens snow skating, to which you might think, “hang on, thatdefinitelyisn’t real.” Except it is! It’s those weird little things that contribute to the charm and the realness of it all.
Sure, co-open might not be the most replayable game of the year. It’s more about the little stories you can unpack at your own pace, and there aren’t any complicated mechanics at any point. It’s just, there hasn’t been a game released this year that’s so… lovely? If any game could be described as cosying up under a warm blanket, hot chocolate in hand, with the TV on showing your favourite movie. And there’s honestly no better compliment than that.
