Hand in Hand is One of the Most Underrated Puzzle Games
It feels romantic.
Indie puzzle game Hand in Hand is delightfully understated, and so it would make sense if its May 11 release on Nintendo Switch escapes your notice. Trust us, you don’t want to let it. Hand in Hand is a fantastic Switch port offering something rare to video game — a seamless split-screen that is required even for single players.
Games don't feature a solo split-screen often, presumably, because controlling two characters at once is complicated. It can even feel overwhelming. Butt Hand in Hand, which plays gently with the idea of "soulmates," challenges that feeling gracefully. It takes cues from 2013 adventure game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, probably the most popular instance of simultaneously controlling characters, and it heightens the drama; instead of mapping two different joysticks to two different characters, the way Brothers does, Hand in Hand makes you move both characters with the same joystick. Local co-op controls, however, are mapped to both joysticks the way Brothers is.
Indie puzzle game Hand in Hand is delightfully understated, and so it would make sense if its May 11 release on Nintendo Switch escapes your notice.
It's tricky, and even MaxMedia admits in the game's Steam description that playing alone requires you "demonstrate sophisticated controller skills." But Hand in Hand makes the trouble feel poignant. The game's protagonists Lina and Minho never seem to speak, so the action becomes the stand-in, a way to connect with them.
At the start of the game, darkness descends upon a lush forest home, and the two flee in opposite directions. The moon immediately sinks into shadows, replicating the devastating space between them. But, in controlling both lovers in single-player, you always feel the bond between them. You become the conduit for it.
Hand in Hand, which plays gently with the idea of "soulmates," challenges the overwhelming feeling of controlling two characters at once gracefully.
Their closeness is reflected in Hand in Hand's environments, too. Lina and Minho are hardly ever in the exact same place, including during boss battles, which they each handle alone. The two have different capabilities. Minho, with his boulder-sized fists, can smash apart obstructions, while the lithe sprite Lina transforms into magic mist to bypass them.
And even then, they face separate problems. A thick knot of thorns will choke different points in a pathway, for example, or a shaky set of platforms will collapse in opposite angles. However, while you lead the pair through different difficulties, they always look like they're close to each other. They might be in different sections of the same pea-green forest, unsteady log bridge, or cracked desert land, coated in yellow dust. But they're constantly presented in the same context.
Hand in Hand makes the trouble feel poignant.
It feels romantic — despite the sadness of separation, Hand in Hand encourages you to delight in the smallest aspects of their unity. And, sometimes, these aspects are obvious. Some level sections are connected, and you'll be alerted to this by an illustration of a hand reaching out in the corner of your screen. In these moments, Lina and Minho need to assist each other by transporting key items into each other's section of the map. The game's impressive sound design and soft music often enhances the sweetness of these moments, emphasizing Lina and Minho's actions with the crunchy sound of starlight shards, or a modest guitar melody. It makes you want to reach out to someone, yourself, and it's special for a video game to contain such powerful sympathy.
