ManliestDevOnly Up was a breakout hit in 2023 thanks to its rage-inducing difficulty, and now there’s a new co-op game that’s sure to get blood boiling and ruin friendships.
The beauty of games is that they bring out very real emotions from players. Sometimes, it’s sheer joy at completing a level in Mario or sadness at a heartbreaking story like in The Last of Us or Split Fiction.
Other times, however, it’s unbridled rage when a title keeps knocking you back. These kinds of games are often the ones that blow up on streaming platforms, as fans tune in to see their favorite streamers put themselves through hours of misery.
That’s exactly what happened with Only Up back in 2023, and there’s a new multiplayer game on the block looking to put your and your friend’s patience to the test.
Pushing it! Together is Only Up meets Greek mythology
Pushing it! Together launched on Steam on April 9, combining the punishing difficulty of Only Up with the Greek tale of Sisyphus — where a man is cursed to push a boulder up a hill for eternity with no end in sight.
In this co-op adventure, you and a team of up to four players have the simple task of pushing a similarly huge boulder up a hill, but this time, there is an end goal to reach. Getting to the top is no easy feat, though, as you’ll be met with frustrating obstacles and challenges to navigate along the way.
These range from swinging axes that knock the rock off its path to rainbow bridges that vanish if you’re not quick enough. One wrong will see the boulder trickle all the way back down to the start, forcing you to dust yourself off and try again from scratch.
Teamwork and communication are key, but the tricky challenges and perfection needed to reach the finish line will surely put even the most tight-nit team’s friendship to the test. After all, it only takes one false move or one player to make a mistake for hours of progress to be lost in a heartbeat.
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Even the game’s description warns that players will “experience levels of frustration not previously thought possible as you restrain yourself from killing each other.”
Although Pushing it! Together is a brand-new game, it’s actually the follow-up to 2024’s Pushing It! With Sisyphus, which is largely the same but was a single-player-only experience.
Will the introduction of friends make it any less stressful? Probably not. But at least you can direct your anger at someone else rather than blaming yourself.