I believe my oldest son was four when we started out with Lego Star Wars and it was unbelievably fun. Many times we stood in a room and together tried to figure out how to solve the puzzle, he eventually found the solution many times when I was stumped. It was great, and we’ve played every Lego game coming out since, and the other kids as they grew (two and four years younger respectively) were into it too. Great family fun in the co op mode (and they love the free play too). The whole family often times sat in the sofas and together tried to figure it out.
Eventually the split screen came into the picture (heh) and what a relief that was…! No more “you must come to me! God dammit son, go to the right!”
But in Harry Potter I started to notice an unwelcome trend: You don’t have to cooperate to solve the puzzle on the one hand (as often), and on the other, thanks to split screen, you don’t have to wait for the other either. This is continued in the latest game, The Pirates…, one of the players can often easily just run through the level without bothering about cooperation.
So now papa Wakinyan is not shouting “go to the left to let your brother pull that level!” while watching the kids play, but “Wait for your sister! You need to wait for your sister, dammit, it’s about cooperation, you just can’t…” Oh, well, next level. Repeat, while the younger kids are leaving the room (not because of papa’s shouting – that’s a joke – but because of boredom).
I still like these Lego games, but the split screen together with a strong feeling that most of the time you do not actually need to cooperate anymore (that is, player A needs to do this while player B does that) is ruining the franchise a little bit for me.
Alright, now I’m unsure why I write this post, perhaps I only need to vent… But looking back, the frustration coming out of the fact that both players needed to be in the same picture (together with the puzzles you have to be two to solve) seems to be a likeable frustration compared to how it has turned out, when one player more or less can run through the scene regardless of what the other player is doing; the younger brother is trying a helmet and thoughtlessly hitting some flowers while the older brother takes them to the next level.
It’s not as family fun as it used to be (buhuhu); or am I just getting old and looking back at the glory days of the past? Any thoughts?