''Push Me Pull You'' is a 2016

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

by House House. It was released on

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

, and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

platforms.

Gameplay

In a game of ''Push Me Pull You'', two teams of sausage-like bodies with heads at both ends face off in a circle for territorial control of a ball. The game has two- and four-player modes. There is a hidden option to swap the human heads for those of dogs.

Development

''Push Me Pull You'' was developed by four friends from

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

as the indie developer House House. They have said that the game is about friendship and wrestling. The game was named for the two-headed llama

pushmi-pullyu This is a list of characters from the '' Doctor Dolittle'' series of children's books by Hugh Lofting and movies based on them. Most of the characters were introduced in the first book, the 1920 novel '' The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. Humans Doc ...

from

Doctor Dolittle Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 '' The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in th ...

, and was originally planned for release in 2014. It was exhibited at

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...

2014 and the 2015 PlayStation Experience. The game was announced for the PlayStation 4 in November 2015. ''Push Me Pull You'' was finally scheduled for release for

on May 3, 2016, and for

, and

later in the year.

Reception

On review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the game received "generally favorable reviews" on PlayStation 4, with a score of 75 out of 100, based on 4 reviews. Sam Machkovech of ''

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

'' said that the game was the best among its contemporary wave of "couch sports" games: non-combat multiplayer with elements similar to old sports video games. He added that the game's aesthetic was reminiscent of

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

. Jamin Warren of ''

Kill Screen Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...

'' wrote that the game's core gameplay has a " Koonsian quality of both innocent and grotesque". Alice O'Connor of ''

Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' ...

'' called the game "

David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...

's Wrestleball". Andrew Tarantola from ''

Engadget Engadget ( ) is a technology news, reviews and analysis website offering daily coverage of gadgets, consumer electronics, video games, gaming hardware, apps, social media, streaming, AI, space, robotics, electric vehicles and other potentially ...

'' compared ''Push Me Pull You'' to a combination of Greco-Roman wrestling, capture the flag, '' Human Centipede'', and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. Writing for ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

'', Megan Farokhmanesh and Allegra Frank praised the game as "one of the most fast-paced, unique, and entertaining additions" entries in the local multiplayer genre.

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Video games 2016 video games Indie games Linux games Fantasy sports video games Windows games MacOS games PlayStation 4 games Video games developed in Australia House House games