In an effort to promote the upcomingIt Takes TwoNintendo Switchport, which releases November 4, Hazelight Studios director Josef Fares spoke withVideo Games Chronicleabout the game’s monumental success and the studio’s future plans, teasing that its next project will be “a surprise in a good way.”
Firstly, Fares expressed how pleasantly surprised he was with how well It Takes Two runs onNintendo’s hybrid console. “A lot of people forget,” Fares said, “that in it It Takes Two, everything has to be rendered twice in a split-screen.” Fares admits to having been pretty uninvolved with the technical aspects of this port, as its being handled by external team Turn Me Up Games, which has ported other notable games to the Switch in the past, such asTony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2andBorderlands: Legendary Collection.
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Over onNintendo Life, Fares affirmed similar thoughts, praising the work done by Turn Me Up Games and stating that the port “looks really nice,” which he considered to be something particularly challenging to accomplish, given that “the hardware is pretty old now.” When VGC asked Fares to mention a specific It Takes Two moment that he looked back on fondly, he found difficulty doing so, stating “I can’t say it’s only one [level], but I’m still looking back on it now thinking, this is a f****** good game.”
One particular moment was inevitably brought up though; that being the infamous elephant scene, which won’t be detailed here for spoiler’s sake. When asked about it by VGC, Fares stated that “it’s always been a funny scene” for him. He believes many players didn’t understand “the dark comedy side of what the elephant meant,” but regardless, he’s still very proud of it. Fares also revealed that the scene was originally “more violent,” not just visually, but in music and tone. “We actually had to take it down to make it a bit less [intense].”
Finally, Fares touched on the future of the studio, stating, “we’re making good progress, but there’s a lot more to do.” He believes the team is currently headed in the right direction, and with his usual candidness, he stated, “And it’ll be something really f****** cool… Trust me… it will blow your f****** mind.”
The eccentric director’s claims definitely have more weight to them now, given what a surprise hit It Takes Two was, even ending up winning 2021’s Game of the Year at The Game Awards. It’s difficult to believe that Hazelight will step away from cooperative games, so we can only wonder what angle its future project will take that fans will find surprising.
