And, to put it simply, there's a whole lot of gameplay in
The Adventures of Cookie and Cream. There are some caveats--the single-player game is devilishly hard (some would say impossible), and two-player can be very difficult as well if the person you're playing with isn't good, but if you play the game to have fun instead of for 'victory' absolutely anyone can have a blast with it.
The story is just as bizarre as the rest of the game. The Moon is gone, and it's up to Cookie and Cream to find it and bring it back for the moon festival. The two rabbits are forever separated (at least in the levels) by a division of the world, and they both have to get to the Goal at the end of the stage as quickly as possible.
What makes The Adventures of Cookie and Cream so unique is the fact that you have to work together to make it to the end. This isn't together in the 'cooperative game' sense, where you simply have to whack more enemies and try to help each other. The way Cookie and Cream does it is much more involved. Each character will have obstacles on their side, and only the other character can clear some of them. Oftentimes, the two characters will have to work in concert, such as when you have to paddle a canoe or drive a robot. It's fascinating, and surprisingly difficult to get a handle on.
The best way to play the game is with one other person. Each takes one of the characters, and controls them independently. The game doesn't have health or lives, per se--every time you get hit, you lose twenty seconds off of the clock, and if you stand still for too long an enemy will usually come along and suck away a lot of your time. You regain time by collecting timers scattered about the levels, and you start each stage with 100 seconds. Careful time management is necessary, especially in the later levels.
If you play the game single-player, you have to control both characters with one controller. It's very difficult at first, and while you can get used to it, it never gets easy. Some of the later levels are extremely challenging to do single-player.
There's also a Versus mode that supports up to four players at once, but it's nowhere near as entertaining as the main game. You whack each other in an attempt to collect stars; it's a pleasant enough diversion, but I'd rather play something like Crash Bash or MicroMachines v3 when I have a group of people over.
There are over half a dozen separate worlds to beat, each with four levels and a boss. You can go back and replay any of the stages that you've already completed, so when you're playing with someone new you don't have to start the game all over to teach them the basics.
