image of two characters from it Takes Two, who look like they've been turned into dolls, next to a game controller icon.
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It Takes Two (to Screw With Your Kid)

The Story

The video game “It Takes Two” is cool cooperative gameplay, engaging graphics, toxic tropes, and potentially traumatic themes for children of divorce.


The storyline is that parents May and Cody tell their daughter they’re getting a divorce. Then their daughter Rose’s tears turn her parents into dolls who must battle bosses like a neglected vacuum cleaner.
The gameplay and cooperative nature of the game is very fun. We had read about it ahead of time, so knew it dealt with divorce. and I thought the game’s story was more about working through feelings than “just working hard enough” to solve a marriage.

My issue is with the overall message, because if you win– spoiler alert — the parents get back together at the end. This can send the wrong message to children of separated or divorced parents. It might give them the idea that their parents just aren’t working hard enough, or cooperating enough, to make their marriage work. I can’t even get into how odd their therapist anthropomorphized in The Book of Love is.

Conversation: Divorce

Sometimes marriages and friendships can be saved with more cooperation, but sometimes they can’t. Sometimes people are better off separated instead of together, and that’s a normal part of life. People can still co-parent and have a wonderful family life even if the marriage didn’t work. In fact, if that kind of cooperation ended up being the message, it would have been fine.

Playing this game could get the idea in a kid’s head that their parents could stay together and be happy if only they could work together. If only they gave each other time to pursue their hobbies. If only, if only, if only…

Additionally, many parents believe if they work hard enough, change something about themselves, or just try harder, their marriage will work. There’s a fantasy that staying together for the kids will create a better environment for their childhood. But that’s the definition of toxic, and certified divorce coach Kate Anthony explains why:

There came a point at the end of my marriage when I had an important realization. I realized the only chance for my son to create a happy, loving, and lasting relationship for himself in the future was for me to get out of my marriage.
When my ex and I finally freed ourselves to find that kind of trust outside of each other, we modeled to our son that he deserves that, too.

-Kate Anthony, “3 Reasons Your Shouldn’t Stay in a Toxic Marriage for your Kids“

Toxic Trope Therapy

So while I appreciate the general concept of cooperatively working together and the game mechanics are VERY cool and highly reviewed for good reason, the story feels too much like someone overlaying their therapy sessions into a video game. We continue to play it while talking about the toxic tropes, and warning them not to think that all marriages can be fixed. It reminds me of the harsh warnings that parents gave when Finding Dory came out and their adopted children cried at the concept that they lost their parents.

Deadline reported last April that It Takes Two will be adapted into a movie on Amazon, produced by Dwayne Johnson’s company Seven Bucks Productions along with dj2 Productions. I hold out no hope that they’ll change the ending away from a toxic choice, but hope that head writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller (of Sonic the Hedgehog fame) will take more care in the dialogue than the game’s cut scenes, where May and Cody throw quips at each other and show no sign of truly learning through the game’s mechanisms.*

It Takes Two: action-adventure platform video game, no single player option

Developer: Hazelight Studios 

Publisher: Electronic Arts.

Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in March 2021; Nintendo Switch in November 2022.

*This assessment of the game is courtesy of my husband and children, who are sticking with it because the couch co-op mechanics are really that good.

Photo/Image Credit: Canva

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