Link:
I’m Kinglink and this week I feel like talking about some co-op games. Maybe it’s the perfect time to do a collab, but I’ll be honest, I’m not sure who to team up with.

Of course, the co-op games that I enjoy are couch co-op, something about both players being in the same room and the ability to talk strategy as you play makes me enjoy it so much more. So I guess I’m going to have to find someone in my house. Introducing my daughter Daylyn

Daylyn:
Hello, so with 2020 happening a lot of stuff is changing, one major change for our family is that I have been playing more games to pass the time and relax.

Link:
Since we’ve been in close quarters now for eight months at this point, we’ve actually played several games together and most of the time they’re far better in co-op.

There’s actually one game that Daylyn plays… actually plays a lot, like most of the time I’m busy with something else. Why don’t you take it away?

Daylyn:
That would be Monaco, a stealth-based game where you try to pull off robberies using a variety of characters with special abilities. Each level has several targets to collect and as a thief, you have to grab them while avoiding the guards.

Though playing Monaco a lot is a bit of an understatement, to date I’ve played 75ish hours, which some of you watching are probably thinking, what? That’s such a small amount of time but the thing is I am not a serious gamer. I enjoy games occasionally but before quarantine, I’d play maybe once a month.

Part of the reason I think I’ve lasted so long with this game is the different characters you can play as. You start with one character, The Locksmith, and as you progress through his story, you unlock some more characters with more specialized abilities. This adds another level of complexity since you have to decide what character is best suited to the current level – OR you could just do what I do and keep trying with different characters until eventually your entire team has been wiped out. One thing about this, though, is that each character has certain nuances that you kind of just have to discover on your own.

The other reason I’ve stuck with this game for so long is the variety and difficulty of levels. Each level has multiple challenges so you can try each one for a higher difficulty. One theme that you’re gonna find throughout this video is we are a family of overachievers… I don’t move on to another level until I have completed and cleaned out the level. This leads to some long periods of time on certain levels; The Red Carpet in the Pickpocket’s Story took me a week to perfect even with working on it every day.

Another fun part of the game is simply making fun of the guards, they are some of the worst security guards I’ve seen as they’ll see you rob a safe and then you hide in a plant, they climb in with you and have no idea where you went. Or you put on one of the disguises as the pickpocket and they just let you go past even though you’re walking through a bank with a monkey? Guards don’t even notice when other guards or random people just sleep and slack off work all the time? No mention of giant holes in walls appearing?

Link:
Oh yeah, the guards are awful, and it’s so much better to have someone to make fun of them with. When you play in co-op the game changes a bit. In Co-op instead of being able to use each character once, both players choose a specific character, and if everyone dies you lose the level.

You can revive each but there are all new strategies involved. We have a blast with the Redhead, who seduces guards, and the cleaner who can then knock them out. There’s a lot of interesting and challenging teamwork with this game, and it takes a decent amount of time to try to master. It’s a bit rogue-like as well, with each level randomizing the placement of loot, so if you get hooked you’ll be able to spend a lot of time here.

You also can use up to four players with each one being a different character and there is internet play as well if you aren’t able to get together in person. There’s even PVP, and workshop support so you won’t run out of things to do.

So that’s what you can expect from Monaco. Earlier this year I picked up Overcooked 2 because the first game was fun, but as Daylyn and I played it, neither of us really got hooked immediately. The level design was interesting but we got three stars on the first few levels and we put it down because we wanted a real challenge.

So instead we started playing Cook Serve Delicious! 3?! This is a franchise whose first game was really enjoyable. The second game went with more quantity over quality but was still good, and now, the third game is exactly what I was hoping for.

You drive around the country in a food truck, preparing different menus from different groups of food depending on what each level wants. There’s something really funny about running a food truck the way this game does. You prep the food before you arrive and then start serving like a devil, before driving off to the next location at top speed. Also, the chores from the second game are thankfully no more, so this is focused on the food.

The food in all three Cook Serve Delicious games always looks good, and this one is no exception. I’ve had a full meal before sitting down for the game, and I still find myself a bit hungry after playing for an hour. Also, there’s a lot of variety in the food you can prepare.

You get larger orders when you’re en route and there’s a series of hot plate offerings you’ll have to prep and serve once you reach the site. A lot of Cook Serve Delicious is just time and resource management of the orders and trying to keep a good rhythm in the game, but that makes the game far more entertaining than it sounds.

Cook Serve Delicious 3 also has a decent challenge. Gold medals are awarded for preparing every dish without a mistake, but that’s easier said than done at times.

Daylyn:
As my dad mentioned, the game is challenging and often takes us multiple tries to perfect. If you play this game in co-op I strongly suggest divvying up the tasks because otherwise you will step on each other’s toes, send orders too early or get confused about who’s who. We’ve totally never done that.

A new feature is the send all feature, which is done by flicking the right stick; which, at first, seems super helpful. I actually think it makes things worse most of the time because then you get overloaded by new orders all at once.

The robots themselves provide nothing more than comedic entertainment. They’ll often say “We’re almost there, are you ready?” to which we say um no drive around the block a few times. Or “I love watching you cook” which is just creepy. And of course, I can’t forget my dad’s awful Gordon Ramsey impression.

Link:
It’s bloody raw, you donkey.

Daylyn:
This game includes a lot of cultural diversity in the menu items you can choose to prepare; you can make anything from an American hamburger to an Italian cannoli or the Filipino dish Sisig. You go through most of the steps required to make the dish

When playing co-op, good luck trying to agree on the menu. My dad loves to make items that he loves and I love to go with the highest difficulty that we can. He also takes particular joy in picking items he knows I hate to make. For example, when making fish, you have to cut and skin the fish; meaning I have to chop the fish’s head off. My dad loves to laugh at my reactions to this because I am vegetarian and make faces every single time.

Though that’s not the only games we’ve played.

Link:
That’s true. So I’m a huge fan of asymmetric gameplay, and by that, I mean having players do different things to work as a team. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a perfect example.

Player one is defusing a bomb, like in most action movies. They have to cut wires, solve puzzles, and disable the bomb. There’s a clock counting down, and you have to be careful because if you make three mistakes, boom. But of course, no action hero has the manual for the bomb right there.

Instead, they have someone back in HQ telling you what to do, in this case, it’s your partner. They can’t see your screen, you can’t see theirs, so you’ll have to share information. They use the bomb’s manual which I’ll show on screen, you can even look at it yourself, a link will be in the description.

The manual is the secret sauce of Keep Talking because it’s written to be an additional challenge. Now, one person has to flip through the manual and get information from the bomb defuser, and the defuser needs instructions from the reader.

So really, this is a game purely based on high-intensity situations and careful communication, or just shouting at each other, which is usually what happens with us.

It’s also the game that makes me feel both of us have to practice morse code.

Daylyn:
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes isn’t my personal favorite but is still a fun race against the clock, high-pressure game. Among Us is the new Fortnite, except actually good. By this, I simply mean it’s the new trendy game everybody’s playing.

Among Us is a murder mystery game that includes 3 different maps with different missions. The imposters try to kill all the crewmates and the crewmates try to figure out who the imposters are. This game can be played either with people you know, or random people online. But a large group of people that you know will be better.

The experience is just better when you’re trying to fool your friends and know who each person is, rather than just being some random faceless person. Or you can just spend your entire session trying to target each other, which my dad and I do.

Link:
Oh yeah, most definitely.

Daylyn:
Though needing more players is also true for another of the games I enjoy, the Jackbox. Less than half the games work well with three players, but every game is better with a larger group. However, we still have fun with it. I personally love the Jackbox collections because it’s a fun collection of different games that can be played either with people in your household or outside of your household. We’ve played with me, my mum, my dad, and my grandma in Florida.

We also have been playing Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends…

Link:
Wait, hold up those are pretty big games, and maybe we should look at them head to head.

So I think that’s where we should leave it this time, but this was fun. Maybe we should do it again.

Daylyn:
That would be fun. I think there was one thing that JackBox had to add.

Jackbox:
Like and subscribe.

Link:
Thanks Jackbox.

Daylyn:
Well if anyone enjoyed this let us know down in the comments, or if you have suggestions for other games we should play in co-op let us know!

Link:
Until then, I’m Kinglink

Daylyn:
and I’m Daylyn.

Link:
and thanks for watching.