TikTok showed me an adorable co-op platformer called Bread & Fred

In Bread and Fred, you’re tied to another penguin by a very short rope, and you’re going to need some serious teamwork to make the climb. So, Ana and I (Nicole) are pushing our ideas together as a team. Think of this story as the rope tying us together to bring you our thoughts on the game’s chaotic stage. We’re each writing a paragraph and then letting the other take over; Ana’s paragraphs will be italicized.

Bread and Fred was released in May by a three-person indie team called Sandcastles Studio, and has since been hugely popular on TikTok. It’s a game that’s equally well suited for the Internet fall friends Or overcooked Are: It requires skill, but even the worst players are rewarded with slapstick animations of crushed penguins and hilarious falls.

Until I learn the ropes, I can only walk a step or two, and I’m stuck in place until my partner makes progress on his part. Actions such as basic jumps to nearby platforms require a level of coordination that is sometimes hindered by stream latency and potential lag in voice chat. My partner and I live in constant communication. All this just so that we can climb a few modest meters.

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Image: Sandcastles Studio/Apogee Entertainment

It’s difficult. The platforming looks relatively simple, but is deceiving. What looks like simple jumps over gaps is made complicated by a short rope. Thank God, Bread and Fred It has a number of options to make the game more accessible – a key example being a checkpoint system that you can turn on in the options menu. This allows you to plant a flag in the ground, which serves as a spawn point in the event of one of your catastrophic downfalls. (We made a lot of them when starting our journey up the mountain.) Bread and Fred There’s also a convenient in-game countdown timer, which has become essential for precise, coordinated jumps, but we’ve developed our own system for areas where one of us needs to stay on a platform , while the other has to swing wildly to get enough force to bounce off. Both penguins on to the next step.

We don’t go up the mountain too fast, but the game tends to move slowly. We walk together, and eventually, each of our penguins looks like an actual shadow of the other. After dozens of tries, we land an extra-long jump that requires precise timing on the part of both the anchor penguin and the swinging penguin. (Nobody slacks on this climb!) We use these swinging physics to hurl the two of us over a cave wall. I hold on to the wall while my penguin partner swings on the other side. After completing an elaborate series of difficult jumps, our penguins give each other a thumbs-up, and we proudly plant a flag in the field to mark our progress.

Image: Sandcastles Studio/Apogee Entertainment

It’s hugely satisfying to reach and celebrate those points, but Bread and Fred It’s even more fun to watch someone else play – you get to enjoy someone else’s mistakes. This is where its popularity on TikTok and other social media platforms comes into play; You catch all the fools and no one fails outright. People like to joke about games that ruin friendships, which is something like Mario Party. This kind of interaction is a big part of the fun of it all, whether watching or playing, creating moments where you can prank your friends and celebrate your big win.

Bread and Fred Available to play on Windows PC via Steam. It features Online Multiplayer and Remote Play as well as Single-player mode.