Split Fiction™ | Official Reveal Trailer - YouTube

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Josef Fares and Hazelight Studios aren't normal, and I'm not just talking about the energetic charisma that makes Fares a highlight whenever he's given a mic at The Game Awards. No one does it quite like the Swedish studio: Its games have online support but are designed around split-screen co-op—arguably a relic of videogames past—and are stuffed beyond belief with one-off systems, environments, and minigames, some of which only last minutes.

The studio's next co-op adventure is Split Fiction: Fares just revealed it at The Game Awards, and earlier this week he showed me around a dozen of its levels. I leapt between flying cars, transformed into an otter, became a pig who farts rainbows (when I walked into mud, I was given the option to "wallow"), rolled through a level as a Samus morph ball, competed with Fares to perform downhill hoverboard tricks, got turned into a notebook drawing, piloted a sandworm, and rode a dragon—and that's just the stuff I can talk about.

The basic platforming skills remain constant throughout: low-risk double-jumping, air dashing, wall running, and zipping between grappling targets, where failure doesn't sting much because you just respawn nearby if you fall to your death. I also saw some light combat. Otherwise, though, Split Fiction is full of one-off platforming and puzzle ideas that require two-player solutions, and its premise easily accommodates that variety.