While you're knocking down bad guys you'll see little purple turnip tokens falling to the ground. Grab them and stock up so you can unlock items for your character from the main screen. They're purely cosmetic and probably even a bit pointless, but you'll still want them something fierce.
Space Farmers' overall atmosphere is one of playful chaos and and cooperation. It's easy to die in this game. Frighteningly easy. If one player kicks it both have to restart the level, which can be frustrating after the tenth failure in a row. Especially when it's one person tripping over and over again. The other farmer, not you. It's always the other guy, right? Never you. Never! This is lessened somewhat when you get better at the game, but there's always the looming coin-op arcade-style fear of dying and having to repeat part of a level over again.
Repetition is a central part of Space Farmers. You'll replay levels multiple times (though they'll have slightly different configurations), find the same items, deploy the same strategies, mess up at the same traps, etc. It is at once a charming throwback to old school gameplay and a frustrating part of the experience. Sometimes you just want a new level, but there are only around a dozen at the moment. Hopefully a little time will bring a lot of new stages.
Whether or not you fall for Space Farmers' style entirely depends upon how much you enjoy gaming in the name of mastery. If storyline or hours of unique content are what you need, this won't be your bale of hay. If sitting down for short spurts of co-op puzzle solving and collective yelling at the screen is what you need, march right up to this trough and start munching away.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Two players, two farmers, one enormous alien space ship to break out of.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.