The first thing that made me notice Ibb & Obb were the visuals. Bright pastel colors, sharp curved lines and clever background/foreground layering. The second thing was that it was a couch co-op game (it can also be played online, even cross platform).
I am a big fan of couch co-op and whenever a good looking one comes along I investigate. Ibb & Obb had already been out on consoles prior to it's Steam release and the reviews were very favorable - so I nabbed a copy (probably on a Steam sale but the $12 standard price is well worth it). I was not disappointed. My girlfriend and I picked up some PC controllers and took on this adorable looking puzzle game.
In Ibb & Obb each player controls one of two (pink or green) little...uh...well I'm not sure what they are but you jump around the side scrolling world with them attempting to get from the start of each puzzle filled level to the end many screens down the "road". Jumping is the main tool at your disposal - you can jump through, over and onto much of the world - even on each other. The jumping feels good, fairly precision and just enough air control to avoid too much frustration.
The world is split top and bottom by a thick black line that serves as the floor. If you above the line gravity pulls you down, if your below the line gravity pulls you up, the ceiling essentially becomes the floor. Sometime both players will be on the same side, but often progress revolves around getting Ibb and Obb to interact via being on either side of the floor/ceiling. Throughout each level there are portals that allow players to move between the upper and lower screens - often they are color coded to a specific character - only they can pass through.
The puzzles of Ibb & Obb consist of a mix of timed jumping, bouncy pads, harnessing momentum and other clever navigation tricks. Other denizens of their world help out and act as platforms, steps or more in order to get your from the left side of the screen to the coveted right side. Sometimes figuring out the puzzle is the challenge, sometimes the difficulty is in the execution. You might breeze through some sections and then get stuck seemingly forever on a single set of timed co-operative jumps that you and your partner just can't seem to make. Then you do it! Yay!! Celebration!!! Indeed every level completion is punctuated with Ibb, Obb and friends doing a little dance on their screen.
The world of Ibb and Obb is not benign either. Bouncing or crawling across the surface are black spiky (threatening but still somehow cute) creatures that block your progress. A single touch is all it takes to blow up your character, resetting both player to the beginning of the puzzle. They often can (and it is often necessary) be defeated by the player who is on the opposite side of the floor jumping on to their bodies from their side (which are white and not spiky). This pops them into a cloud of stars that can be collected by the player on that side. Each level has a total number of stars that need to be collected to perfect it - but perfecting a level is not needed to complete it.
As of this writing we have not yet completed Ibb & Obb, being about three quarters of they way through. A series of really difficult puzzles slowed us down but we will pick it back up and complete it. The developer Sparpweed did a really great job with this game and I highly recommend it.
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