Review: Moving Out (PS4)

Watching my children play together is one of the permanent joys of my life, but it's not a joy I experience as much as I use to. As they grew older they grew more apart. This is a normal thing so in those rare moments when they come together to play, laugh and argue I get to relive their younger years and they don't even know it.

Like most people my family has been in quarantine for the past weeks and 3 of my children are old enough to live away from home. What use to be family weekend dinners with a few video games mixed in became a text messages and phone calls. Week's went by without seeing them. I could tell our youngest was getting bored and whenever he heard us talking to one of his older siblings on the phone his ears would perk up and he would inevitably ask if they were coming over. We would have to say no and he would slump back down and continue doing whatever he was doing. As the quarantine orders have been lifted and we are finally able to venture out and my kids were able to spend some time together.

Moving Out fills a specific itch for my family. It's a game of competitive cooperation that will make you feel frustrated and elated all at the same time. Watching my kids play together I could see their distinct personalities come out. How the boy's would gang up on the girls or how the older one's would boss around the youngest. It's a game that puts the full family dynamic on display.

In Moving Out you play as part of a moving team that is tasked various moving jobs. You and the other players move predetermined items into a moving truck to clear the levels. The chaotic fun is enhanced by the physics based movement system. You have the ability to grab, pull and throw objects to find the most efficient way to get them to the truck. The whole time your doing this you are crashing into walls, other players and many other items strewn about the stages. The obstacles combined with the physics create a freewheeling, explosion of chaos that is best compared to what would happen if you released a bag of puppies into a pit of bouncy balls inside of a trampoline.

Levels are quick and it has the standard gold, silver and bronze time based completion objectives that are standard in many mobile games. For an added challenge there are bonus objectives for each stage; like not breaking anything or keeping the window intact. Not sure why someone wouldn't want to break all the windows. It's pretty much the first thing I did when I played with my kids.

The characters are so cute and are reminiscent of Animal Crossing but with more character and style. Plus you unlock more characters as you go and can customize them to your cuteness desires. Overall the art makes the game very approachable and can be an easy way to draw a non-gamer in if you are looking to get more players involved.

This love letter to couch co-op is on my must play list. It's a quick and easy game to learn. It allows multiple skill levels to play together while still giving a hardcore gamer a challenge worth trying. Although I believe this game is best played with others it can be played alone and the difficulty does scale. It would have been nice to have some kind of online component so you could play with friends but that's a minor ask if you have people at home to play with. The true magic of this game is sitting right next to someone and wanting to cuss them out because they aren't helping you get this damn couch around this damn corner!

I wholeheartedly recommend Moving Out. It has brought my family hours of fun and has taken me back to my kids younger days. Although it can be a bit of a challenge at time and can cause a controller throwing tantrum, it's worth your time. Couch co-op may be a throwback but in my household it's a must.

8.5 out of 10

• Moving Out
  
• Developer: SMG Studio
• Publisher: Team17 Software Ltd. 
• Platform: PS4 
• Release Date: 5/12/20
• Reviewer: ediddy999