It takes two developers “confident” that the switch port will exceed expectations

Nintendo Life: How did it feel to see a co-op game this good? receive at a time when gamers might invest more in single player games?

Joseph Fares, Hazelight Studios: It was really nice. Ever since I got into this industry with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, I’ve always followed my heart and what I believe in. I would always say just trust your instincts and go with them; My games are written to be co-op from the start, it’s not a drop in drop out experience. There’s always people who say, “can you really do that, will people want to play that?” and obviously these games are something that people want to play. A Way Out and It Takes Two both did incredibly well. These are also games that I want to play personally. When I came across A Way Out I wanted to play it with my friend and there weren’t any games like that.

So I would boil it down to believing in your own vision and not caring if people like it or not; I think that’s important.

[the game has] almost become a kind of relationship test!

You can definitely tell that It Takes Two was made with passion and creativity. I played the game in 2021 with my wife who was eight months pregnant at the time; She’s not a gamer, but she absolutely loved it!

Rates: Great, how was the communication between you guys? are you still together now

Oh yes we are good, we made it!

Rates: That’s good to hear, it’s almost become a kind of relationship test!

Definitive. Just going into the in-game creativity, as someone who grew up playing Nintendo games, It Takes Two feels like a Nintendo game in the best possible way. would you agree?

Rates: Oh yes, it’s a love letter to Nintendo in many ways. I love Nintendo’s approach to game design, it’s super inspiring to me. I’m a big fan of Nintendo and have been since the NES; I’ve owned every console, played almost every game, Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, you name it. It’s definitely inspired [by] Definitely. There are obvious Easter eggs and achievements in It Takes Two that clearly reference Nintendo.

With Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, this game came to the Switch in 2019 with additional co-op play. Did this influence the decision to bring It Takes Two to the Switch as well?

Scott Cromie, Turn Me Up Games: Yes, I would say it influenced our desire to work with Josef and Hazelight again. When It Takes Two came out we knew it was a natural fit and based on our expertise and track record on the platform we need to do it. If we don’t do it, someone else will, and I don’t know if they would do it as well as we do.

If we don’t do it, someone else will, and I don’t know if they would do it as well as we do.

How do you determine the viability of a switch port? It Takes Two is a beautiful game, so are there any qualms about bringing it to the Switch?

Cromie: Our goal is always to exceed fan expectations, especially with a GOTY title like It Takes Two. When we signed on for the project, it wasn’t a GOTY title, so the stakes upped pretty quickly. But fortunately we are able to make strategic decisions about which projects to pursue; We want our team to be excited and inspired by every title we bring to the Switch, and It Takes Two has that in abundance. We absolutely loved working on it, it’s a great fit for the platform and those are the things we look for in a project, we always like to think ‘what can we do that nobody else can and what will the fans do do? Do you appreciate us for that?”

Is there anything special that has been included or changed in this port of the game?

Louis Polak, Turn Me Up Games: I think players will find the controls very familiar with the original game; Considering it’s a GOTY winner we didn’t want to tweak too much, we wanted to stay true to the original design. We’ve done some UI scaling for handheld mode to accommodate the smaller screen, we’ve added a touchscreen implementation for the menus, and of course we’ve included local wireless play, Switch to Switch. We’ve also added new voiceover languages ​​including Japanese, Spanish, French and German; these are all new things for the Switch.

We’ve done some UI scaling for handheld mode to accommodate the smaller screen, we’ve added a touchscreen implementation for the menus

Brilliant! Were there any major challenges bringing the game to Switch?

Cromie: I’d say it’s the typical challenges associated with most bigger, beautiful games like It Takes Two that were never really meant for the Switch – there’s these incredible environments that you run through pretty quickly – so yeah, it It will take a lot of work to make sure we get that 30fps consistently and that it looks great at 1080p docked or 720p handheld.

But I think overall it’s player expectations; There are high expectations when it comes to bringing a product like this to the Switch. Around 111 million units of the platform have been sold, so that’s a large player base, some of whom are already fans of the title and others who may have never played it before. So there are a lot of expectations, but I’m confident that we exceeded them.

Rates: Yes, let me also say that I think this port looks really good. Out of all the 3rd party ports I’ve seen, this one looks really good. I was surprised myself considering the hardware is quite old now, I was surprised that it looks and runs really well. There are major challenges in achieving this.

We’re definitely looking forward to trying it out! So in closing, are there any Switch games you are all playing at the moment or something you are looking forward to?

Rates: I’ll be playing Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and probably doing some Bayonetta 3. Sometimes the only problem I have with action games is that there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts to get used to, so hopefully it’s been simplified a bit for the new one. But yes, definitely the two.

Cromie: It takes two! I know that’s the cliche answer, but I can say we’ve played a lot of it throughout the studio. That and a few other projects we’re excited about will be announced at some point in the future. We tend to target games that we want to play on Switch ourselves, and It Takes Two was at the top of that list.

Poland: Yes, I would just repeat what Scott said; However, I haven’t had a chance to play this game with my wife yet, so I’d love to show her what we’ve all been working on.

Rates: Test your relationship there, Louis!

Poland: Yes, exactly! So yeah, I’m just excited for this game to come out soon.

Thank you for speaking to us today and good luck getting started!

This interview has been edited slightly for clarity.

Thanks to Josef Fares, Louis Polak, Scott Cromie and everyone at Hazelight Studios and Turn Me Up Games. It Takes Two is coming to Switch on November 4th.

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