Joggernauts

Joggernauts begins with the captain of an alien spaceship in conference with his crew. A hole has been discovered in their ship’s hull, and the captain’s beloved trophy collection is sucked out into space. Now, his crew needs to travel from planet to planet, completing missions to win back these very important trophies. But the planets are packed with colour-coded obstacles, and only the character the same colour as the obstacle can get past them.

It sounds complicated, but in practice it’s very simple. Very simple and infuriatingly tricky, because the first levels are like a fitness class: you run fast. You’ll have to time your coordination for the coloured switches just right, all the more so given that the life bar is shared by the whole team. If your partner falls or gets the colours wrong, you both suffer. Expect to die all the time at the start.

To reach the end of each level, you need to pull off all kinds of coordinated manoeuvres with your team-mates, as you hurry to match the colour of your character to the next obstacle ahead. Single player is possible, but it soon becomes clear that while the game is loads of fun on co-op mode, it isn’t designed for the single-and-happy.

Each player has their own colour, and only you can change your own. As you advance through the game, the obstacles and colour changes get closer together and more frenetic, making them a real challenge. There are also two trophies to collect on each level, and some can only be unlocked by fulfilling certain conditions, like pressing coloured buttons in the right order.