Pico Park Review (Gabriel)
Cannot recommend this game enough. This and the second game (I would play 1 first.) Strap yourself in for a ride.
Easy synonyms for Pico Park 1 and 2 include "Mental Devolution Simulator", "Anger Issues Simulator" and "Monkey Tribe Simulator." On the surface, the games are simple. Cute kitty platformers with a few worlds, many levels, runs well and are very light (first game is less than 80MB big). So what could be the issue? Well as Darwin would put it, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives. It is the one that FUCKING PRESSES THE SPACEBAR YOU APE PIECE OF SHIT."
See, the game's worlds are fully cooperative. Every single level requires cooperation and teamwork to get through, and the level is only done when every single player gets to the end. This means that teamwork is a MUST. However, you can't walk through other players; in fact you can bump into them and accidentally lock them in place or block their jumps. And since all players MUST get to the end, one person screwing up fucks everything up. Add to that the fact one player dying in some levels is a total restart, and that you can play with up to 7 other monkeys that need to coordinate their moves (which can be very 'difficult' for kindergarteners and engineers with PhDs alike) and you realize humans can in fact degenerate their brains back into peas you want to rip out of their heads.
This game blew up in Brazil and I swear, its amazing. For the best experience: it can be played with anywhere from 2 to 8 people but the more the merrier, at least 6 is already great. Friends (not strangers), voice chat and a willingness to return to monke and blow your vocal chords are best.
I played through the whole thing twice, had the pleasure of being doubled over pissing myself from laughter while my brother almost tore his lung open yelling into his mic at once and then having a heart attack because of the amoebas I played with the next. If your group is, for some reason, 'good', it'll be a chill and quick game, but if its not (and it likely won't be), get ready to question why you want to kill your friends, and why you haven't mailed one a pipebomb yet. Almost every single person I've seen play this with a 6-or-more group has had a mental breakdown and/or rolled over their friends with a cement truck, too. Reading the reviews for Pico Park (especially 1, which has a lot more reviews) on Steam is a good way to die laughing at others' misery. The first game is short, but its a good introduction to Hell so you can get ready for the 2nd, which has more content.
As always, if your relationship - whether friendship or 20-year-long marriage - can survive Pico Park, it can survive anything.