Back in 2021, the gaming world witnessed a rare event at The Game Awards — a heartfelt, split-screen co-op adventure about a bickering couple turned into dolls walked away with the Game of the Year trophy. Hazelight Studios' It Takes Two didn't just win; it charmed its way into the industry's soul, and five years later, its fingerprints are all over modern cooperative gaming. The game beat out open-world epics and blockbuster shooters, proving that creativity and emotional storytelling could still outshine raw production value. As TheGamer's editor-in-chief Stacey Henley put it at the time, “Of the six GOTY nominees at The Game Awards, It Takes Two is the best example of what a video game can be.” That statement has aged wonderfully.
The victory lap didn’t stop with the biggest prize of the night. It Takes Two also snatched up Best Multiplayer Game and Best Family Game, a perfect trio of awards that highlighted its universal appeal. And honestly, who knew fixing a marriage could involve so much chaos?
A Marriage Saved by Miniature Mayhem
At its core, It Takes Two follows Cody and May, a couple teetering on the edge of divorce. After magically transforming into tiny dolls, they’re forced to work together through a series of wild micro-adventures. One moment they’re committing wasp genocide inside a garden, the next they’re snowboarding down a romantic snowglobe mountain. Then there’s that disturbingly dark torture scene involving an innocent toy elephant. Let’s not even get started on that elephant scene — yikes. It’s the sort of moment that sticks with you, whether you like it or not.
The game constantly throws new mechanics at players, refusing to settle into a rhythm. One level becomes a dungeon crawler, another a fighter jet sim, and the next a platformer with gravity-defying magnets. It’s a dizzying showcase of imagination that never lets the gameplay feel stale.
Dr. Hakim: The Unlikely Therapist
Stealing almost every scene is Dr. Hakim, a sentient book of love brought to life. He’s flamboyant, meddlesome, and absolutely unapologetic about forcing Cody and May to confront their issues. His relentless optimism and questionable Spanish-accented advice turn him into one of 2021’s most memorable video game characters. And while Dr. Hakim is brilliant, Cody can be, well… insufferable. Bless his heart, but the guy needed a lot of coaching. The dynamic between the three keeps the emotional stakes afloat even when the set-pieces go completely bonkers.
A Game for Everyone — Even Non-Gamers
It Takes Two broke down barriers simply by being playable with anyone. Because it uses a Friend’s Pass system, only one person needs to own the game. This meant couples, parents, siblings, and even complete gaming novices could jump in together. The controls are intuitive, and the cooperative puzzles demand communication rather than reflexes. That accessibility turned the game into a relationship litmus test. Some players claimed it saved their marriage; others joked they were cheering for the side of divorce by the final boss. Either way, it got people talking and connecting in a medium that too often isolates.
The Man Behind the Magic
Josef Fares, Hazelight’s founder and gaming’s favorite charming rogue, became the human face of this triumph. An Assyrian refugee who fled the Lebanese civil war and moved to Sweden at age ten, Fares started his creative life as a film director before making the leap into games with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out. At The Game Awards 2020 he famously yelled, “Fuck the Oscars!” — a line that later found its way into It Takes Two as an easter egg. When he took the stage to accept Game of the Year in 2021, he predictably dropped another cluster of F-bombs, grinning like a man who’d just proven his point. Fares promised his next project would “take everything to the next level.” As of 2026, Hazelight has more than delivered, with subsequent titles building on the emotional co-op blueprint and pushing narrative boundaries even further. The studio’s DNA — risk-taking, heartfelt, and unapologetically human — can be traced through every major co-op release of the past half-decade.
A Lasting Legacy
Half a decade later, the ripples of It Takes Two are undeniable. Developers now treat split-screen co-op not as a nostalgic afterthought but as a design choice worth championing. Games that weave together zippy mechanics and genuine storytelling owe a debt to Cody and May’s bizarre journey. The title also sparked important conversations about accessibility, creativity, and how we define “Game of the Year” material. It reminded the industry that a game doesn’t need a hundred hours of content or a billion-dollar budget to leave a mark — it just needs heart, a bit of madness, and someone to share the controller with.
The elephant scene? Still not over it. And maybe that’s the point.