Definitely agree about how the co-op mode breaks the difficulty curve. My son and I found a timed challenge that tasks you with demolishing a building. You get an extra banana if you can destroy it with 20 seconds left on the clock. The clock doesn't start counting down until you cross a perimeter around the building. But we discovered that, in co-op, he could just spam the Pauline shout-attack button before we crossed that perimeter. We demolished half the building before we even started the clock!
My 8 y/o and I are having fun with the co-op when it's there, but what I like about it is that she can just put the controller down, go get a snack or something and the reticle just sits on screen. I'm not having to "pull" her along when she decides to do something else. We had a good conversation about how a boss fight is less fun when we cheese it (which she took shockingly well) - so we actually only do the co-op sparingly, like when we REALLY wanna tear some terrain up.
The joy with this game has been that we're each playing our own profiles and progressing at our own rates - I prefer to nab every banana and fossil in a layer before moving on, and she wants to get to beating Void Kong's ass ASAP - but we're both having a BLAST talking about our favorite parts of the game over dinner.
P.S. My wife HATED when I first played this game in bed because while I'm having a blast just destroying everything, she has to hear that chaos while she's trying to read. (It's since become a headphones game)
Oh, that's neat! My kids simply do not engage with video games long enough to, say, want their own save file. I keep waiting for that to happen but so far they are not video game fans in that way.
Definitely agree about how the co-op mode breaks the difficulty curve. My son and I found a timed challenge that tasks you with demolishing a building. You get an extra banana if you can destroy it with 20 seconds left on the clock. The clock doesn't start counting down until you cross a perimeter around the building. But we discovered that, in co-op, he could just spam the Pauline shout-attack button before we crossed that perimeter. We demolished half the building before we even started the clock!
I think there's fun room for that, I almost wish it was another mode entirely. (Or, I guess, do it all on another profile?)
One thing I will say, there is NO way to use motion controls to aim from my knowledge. You have to use the joycon's mouse mode or the joystick
My 8 y/o and I are having fun with the co-op when it's there, but what I like about it is that she can just put the controller down, go get a snack or something and the reticle just sits on screen. I'm not having to "pull" her along when she decides to do something else. We had a good conversation about how a boss fight is less fun when we cheese it (which she took shockingly well) - so we actually only do the co-op sparingly, like when we REALLY wanna tear some terrain up.
The joy with this game has been that we're each playing our own profiles and progressing at our own rates - I prefer to nab every banana and fossil in a layer before moving on, and she wants to get to beating Void Kong's ass ASAP - but we're both having a BLAST talking about our favorite parts of the game over dinner.
P.S. My wife HATED when I first played this game in bed because while I'm having a blast just destroying everything, she has to hear that chaos while she's trying to read. (It's since become a headphones game)
Oh, that's neat! My kids simply do not engage with video games long enough to, say, want their own save file. I keep waiting for that to happen but so far they are not video game fans in that way.
The camera issues you alluded to unfortunately put a major damper on attempts to play with my seven year old. I hope we find a better rhythm
If this was anyone other than Nintendo, I'd say to expect a quality of life update in a patch. I do not expect that to happen here.