Hive Jump

The fact that you can do couch coop in the campaign mode with friends is a delight since not all coop games with unexpectedly fun or deep campaigns support multiplayer within the campaign mode (looking at you, HALO: Infinite at time of initial release or Crime Boss: Rockay City to this day).

One thing that sticks out to me after all these years is the inventive respawn mechanic.

Similarly, while there’s a generous variety of weapons and gadgets—ranging from flamethrowers and plasma rifles to jet packs and deployable turrets—many players will find a handful of reliable favorites early on and stick with them.

The soundtrack, pulsing with synthetic energy, complements the visuals with a sense of relentless urgency.

I found this to be a welcome balancing mechanism and innovative way to both tell and sell the story of an army going deep underground to wipe out the bugs, to immerse you in something that of course is not terribly immersive as a pixel art side scroller, and to add tension to the missions.

There's certainly no shortage of replay value here and even the easy campaign difficulty gets challenging later.