Early this year, Going Under and Another Crab’s Treasure developer Aggro Crab and Totally Accurate Battle Simulator creator Landfall Games joined forces. Announced in a project update, aiming to create smaller games with a tighter development time—a balm for their burnout— the fruition is PEAK. The studios invite you into this cooperative game for up to four players, where you’re to climb a mountain, working through multiple biomes in the hope of reaching its summit.

I’m no psychic. I don’t know if the joined forces (labelled, at least for this project, as Landcrab) indeed feel revitalised and proud after releasing this project. Though, as I have some of the most joyous co-operative play of this year, fighting the elements, laughing with friends as we plummet off cliffs and get into shenanigans, I sure hope they are.

PEAK sees you crash-land upon a shore front, with your objective clear ahead of you: that’s a giant mountain. What say we climb it? Though there are no hostile fauna, poisonous plants, harsh winds, fiery flames and well… giant falls to your death are what stand between you and victory. It’s not like your Beton Brutal, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy or others, where fall damage is non-existent and you can pick yourself up off your feet. Falls hurt, potentially ending your run if you’re playing solo and severely sabotaging co-operative sessions.

Within the game are essentially four biomes. These include SHORE, which is exactly what it sounds like and features sandy and rocky terrain along with impromptu bridges. The dense jungle biome called TROPICS is home to climbable vines and explosive gaseous plants. ALPINE is an icy area where you’ll often want to take shelter from harsh winds. CALDERA has a horizontal progression across rocks as you navigate a thick lava lake, culminating in one last desperate climb up the inside of a volcano.

Your aids in-game are not just your friends, but the many items you can find along the way in luggage trunks dotted around the cliffs. Healing items such as bandages and medkits will pick your buddy up in a pinch, while a piton can be placed on a sheer wall to have a rest point for regaining stamina. One can use a chain launcher to set a horizontal climbing path to clear a gap that awaits ahead, something that’s both a boon to you and your crew or a detriment if you underestimate how much stamina you need to clear it. Eating certain foods and drinks will add additional stamina beyond your max count, a handy means of prepping yourself for that one bold climb ahead. My favourite item is Bing Bong, a little alien plush toy that you’re challenged to carry with you the entire ascent to be awarded with a Scout’s badge, achievement and extra cosmetic skin. It’s undoubtedly a novel nod to the gnome that you have the option to carry with you throughout the entirety of a Left 4 Dead mission.

In PEAK, you’re always learning about how to be better. You begin to learn the weight value of different items and how much bearing these have on your stamina. Gauging whether a distance is possible becomes easier the more you play. This is all possible due to the very readable environments and colour palette that Landcrab have opted for. In the SHORE biome, you’re climbing up dark rocks, your salvation being those patches of bright yellow sand that indicate more stable ground that you can recover on. Only seven hours into the game, and I’ve already become quite strategic with my necessary descents to progress elsewhere. The secret is feathering the left mouse button presses to now and then touch the wall behind you and slow your descent. Every day I’m getting better.

That isn’t to say it’s always smooth sailing. Sometimes, things happen that feel too far out of your control. PEAK levels always contain the same biomes in the same order, but how they’re laid out is randomly generated, refreshing every 24 hours. This is great news for people who are feeling stuck on a particular seed, but it means the environments can be a little uneven from time to time. In a solo run, I was taking refuge late in the TROPICS biome, only to start taking poison damage, eventually ending my run from… nothing. Given how assets don’t always mesh correctly and grass and other objects often protrude from places they shouldn’t, all I can conclude is that there was a poison plant situated inside the cliff face I was hugging. A cruel end to an otherwise fine run.

It’s in the wonder and charm found in the design that prevents you from being stuck on any grievances for too long. The humour is very of both studios; you’re controlling a rotund, melon-headed figure that moves, runs and jumps funny and even has their mouth moving in time should you so choose to use the in-game voice chat function. You can deck your character out differently depending on what feats you’ve accomplished, bringing a good sense of progression even when you’re often struggling against the literal uphill climb. Most crucially, there are a lot of emergent gameplay moments that cause a lot of delight in chaos; in one instance, I had to help a friend up who was down a good while below me. Eating a banana to stock up on stamina before I made the descent, I… made it two steps and slipped on the banana peel I’d just dropped, plummeting down past my downed ally and making the rest of this run moot.

In a little over a week since its release, PEAK has become viral, selling over a million copies and becoming a very popular streaming game. It’s easy to see why: runs are only an hour and a bit at most, it’s a small and charming project that doesn’t require a lot of buy-in or time investment with its players, it’s hilarious as hell, and it’s boatloads of fun. Remember that meme about people pleading for shorter games with worse graphics that cost less, provided they’re actually enjoyable? Aggro Crab and Landfall Games understood the assignment and literally made just that. It isn’t perfect. They’re literally regularly running updates and fixes as we speak. But man, is it a great time.