PUSH ME PULL YOU
Grotesque grappler might be 2016’s funniest game
Like a baby emptying its bowels in the bath, Push Me Pull You is innocent and gross all at once. In its most heated moments, this hybrid of wrestling, tug of war, football and Keita Takahashi’s unhinged Noby Noby Boy resembles a topdown U-certificate rendition of The Human Centipede. Or maybe the final scenes of cult horror classic Society. As two teams of freakish worm-like creatures – each with a human head and a pair of arms at either end – grapple for possession of a ball, the sight is so fascinatingly repulsive and weird that it becomes hilarious. And we’re not talking mildly amusing. You’re left not just giggling, but entirely helpless – sides aching, tears in your eyes, the works. During one fiercely fought two-player encounter, my opponent and I both contend with a bout of the hiccups, the victor often being whoever is able to retain their composure the longest.
The objective, assuming you can stay focused, is to race to a ball in the middle of a large circle, grab possession and drag it to your half. As you keep it there, your team’s colour gradually floods the circle, spreading outwards. Once it hits the edge, you score a point. The first to three wins the game.
It’s a straightforward goal, but moving these unworldly competitors is anything but easy. Each head is controlled with one analogue stick, and so you need to carefully coordinate the two to get hold of the ball and retain possession.
BACK-FARCE RULE
You can extend or retract your body from roughly the size of a conjoined dachshund to what looks like a large intestine to suit the situation. One way of protecting the ball is to curl around it like a fleshy Cumberland ring, though you can push more effectively with your head, so a shorter foe can shove your body and prevent you from getting any purchase.
As chaotic as it first seems, it becomes surprisingly tactical, as you strive to outthink and outmanoeuvre your rival. With two players per controller, it’s madder and better still, as your attempts to co-ordinate a strategic masterplan dissolve into an orgy of yelling and pushing – its appeal so dependent on all players being in the same room that it’s no surprise there’s no online option. Several game variants, however, freshen things up – in Knockout, you protect your own ball while pushing away your opponent’s, and in the two-player Sleepy Time, one end of your worm is dozing. Also fun to doss about in is the pre-match park area that’s a miniature playground.
Disarmingly simple and consciously limited, Push Me Pull You’s longevity is questionable, but this isn’t designed to be played for days on end. Stick it on when friends and family are round, however, and you’re guaranteed yuks of both kinds.
VERDICT
“IT’S SO FASCINATINGLY REPULSIVE AND WEIRD THAT IT BECOMES HILARIOUS.”
Reinventing the multiplayer sports game as a squirmily tactile wrestling bout between humanoid worms, Push Me Pull You is bizarre, baffling and kind of brilliant. Chris Schilling