It wasn't long ago we learned that the Wii U was getting a special version of Need for Speed Most Wanted, complete with a local co-op mode.  I recently went hands on with the game and checked out just how the co-op works, and while it's not a "true" co-op mode in the sense there are separate players working together for some sort of common progression, what is there is a family friendly way to play together.

One of my favorite co-op games in the past few years was Criterion's Burnout Paradise. I'm really not into the whole racing sim genre, but that game was crazy and fun. Particularly when you played co-op. Unfortunately, Criterion's next couple of big release games, this time in the Need for Speed series, didn't offer up any of that same co-op fun. Criterion seems to be remedying that, to a degree, with the WiiU release of Need for Speed Most Wanted, which will include a two-player local co-op mode.

It's a new year and a new format for our Beyond Co-Op series of non co-op reviews.  The staff has started to post their reviews over in our Blogs section, giving them a little more freedom to write up a review for all the other games we play.  We've also tweaked our scoring to match those of our co-op games, but without a score for co-op.  We simply use the Overall Score scale.

 Welcome to a brand new edition of Beyond Co-Op Reviews.  We've given the feature a bit of a facelift, and are going to continue to bring you great game reviews of games that don't necessarily have a co-op mode.