Today’s Nintendo Direct Mini revealed several new games coming to the Switch in the near future, and it also acted as a springboard to provide more details on remakes and remastered editions for popular sagas, such asPac-Man Re-PacandMega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. This specific Nintendo Direct was also a partner showcase, and one of the games being announced wasBlanc- a cute co-op adventure that follows the story of a wolf cub and a fawn, published by Gearbox. The gist of the story inBlancis that the wolf cub and the fawn run into one another at a time when they’re both in distress, as a heavy snowstorm separated them from their respective families.
The animals are an unlikely pair, but they still seem to develop a tender friendship throughout the game, and they end up using each their own strengths to keep exploring the snow-covered land in search of their families. With this in mind,Blanc’s puzzle mechanics combined with cooperative gameplay make it quite reminiscent of theaward-winningIt Takes Twofrom Hazelight Studios, which allowed players to use the characters' abilities to their advantage while progressing through the stages. On the other hand,Blanc’s setting and its protagonists are also very much akin to those of an old Disney animation movie calledThe Fox and The Hound, which featured a peculiar pair as its lead characters.
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Why Blanc is a Mix of It Takes Two and The Fox and The Hound
The resemblance betweenBlancandIt Takes Twois purely gameplay-based, as the former is a tale of friendship, whereas the latter is the tale of a divorcing couple rediscovering the love for life and each other.It Takes Twooften is about the characters, called May and Cody, overcoming obstacles by working together and helping each other, which also acts as narrative development when they start realizing what they can achieve together and what’s to love about one another.Blancseemingly operates on a similar level, with the wolf cub being capable of squeezing through narrow passages and the fawn being capable of agile leaps.
The animals inBlanccan help each other progress through the snowy wilderness by combining their abilities, which is a common gameplay flow inco-op multiplayer games, and it is somethingIt Takes Twodoesn’t shy away from as well. Yet, wolves and fawns are usually predators and prey in the wilds, respectively, and that’s precisely what the baseline plot ofThe Fox and The Houndis.The Fox and The Houndwas originally a novel written by Daniel P. Mannix, and it told the tale of the hatred-fueled relationship between a bloodhound and a red fox.
In theDisney movie, the two animals meet in their first year of life and immediately become friends, not knowing that the nature of the hound, named Copper, will be that of hunting down foxes like his friend, Tod. When the animals grow up, events ensue that make them go their separate ways, until Tod is hunted by Copper and his master, only to save their lives when a grizzly bear attacks them. Similarly,Blanchas the fawn care for the wolf cub instinctively, not knowing that in the wilds, wolves hunt fawns and other animals for survival.
It will be interesting to see what other similarities are spotted once thisGearbox-published game releases, but the connections that can be made betweenBlancandThe Fox and The Houndthus far are certainly interesting.
Blanclaunches on PC and Nintendo Switch in February 2023.
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