In 2026, I still use Dr Hakim as the benchmark for a certain kind of co-op game character: the agent of chaos who is so loud, so theatrical, and so committed to the bit that he bends the whole story around himself. Five years after It Takes Two launched, the marriage-counselling book who bounces across the screen remains one of the most memorable new characters of the last half-decade. I know 2021 looked like a slim year for standout debuts after 2020 gave us Abby, Lev, and Dina in The Last of Us Part 2, Ichiban Kasuga in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and a Hades cast packed with brilliant Greek gods. I still say Theseus was the best of that bunch, and I will not hear otherwise. But Dr Hakim is the one who turned a pandemic-era release calendar into a one-book show.
It Takes Two casts me and a co-op partner as Cody and May, two parents going through a divorce. We technically play strange doll versions of them rather than the humans themselves, which is exactly where Dr Hakim enters the picture. In the real world, he is the author of a marriage-counselling book. In the game's doll reality, he is the book itself: an eccentric lothario who is far too intense for the situation, delivering every line with needlessly over-the-top bravado. He bounces around the screen, constantly irritating the central characters, and he is brilliant. He is part Willy Wonka, part Puss in Boots, and part Timon. There is no off switch. There is not even an option to turn him down a little.
That lack of restraint is the point. Dr Hakim's ultimate goal is to help Cody and May fix their relationship, or as he puts it, 'feeeeeeeeex your relationsheeeeep!' Everything about him is gloriously hammy. He is the comic relief in a game that sometimes struggles to balance whimsy with heavy subject matter. May and Cody can feel quite dull and miserable, especially in the first half. The activities are relentlessly inventive and bursting with joy, but whenever the action slows down for the protagonists to chat, the tone turns bitter and petty. Dr Hakim's enthusiasm is crucial because it keeps the narrative energy aligned with the gameplay, where I might fight a squirrel on a plane made of boxer shorts. That contrast should be jarring, but his overblown energy makes it feel like part of the same strange, playful world.
The one wrinkle with Dr Hakim is that he lacks a straight man. The game revolves around divorce, and because it treats that difficult and sensitive subject in such a simplistic way, it misses many of its core narrative beats. That is a valid and important criticism of It Takes Two, but I do not think the brunt of the blame should fall on Dr Hakim. He is the comic engine, and the wider game's failure to stick the landing with its heavier moments is not his fault. If anything, he exposes the gap between the game's playful mechanics and its serious ambitions. He is the character who makes the tonal mismatch entertaining rather than merely awkward.
What makes Dr Hakim work so well is not just the wacky antics. It Takes Two is incredibly funny, and where many games struggle to inject their cutscenes with comedic timing, this one is razor sharp beat after beat. Dr Hakim gets some fantastic lines, and he instantly conjures amazing chemistry with the two leads. His motion capture was done by Josef Fares himself, the game's director, who channels all of his 'fuck the Oscars' energy into every papery limb as the book boings across the screen. The voice work is not Fares, but Joseph Balderrama, who also voices Cody. Balderrama does a magnificent job, but there is something deeply endearing about the director deciding to play an off-the-wall book in his own creation.
Here is why I still rate Dr Hakim so highly in 2026:
| Element | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Voice performance | Joseph Balderrama gives Dr Hakim a theatrical purr that is funny without becoming annoying. |
| Motion capture | Josef Fares turns the book into a physical comedian with rubbery, papery timing. |
| Comic timing | The game lets jokes land cleanly instead of burying them under exposition. |
| Narrative function | He pushes Cody and May toward repair while exposing the story's simplistic handling of divorce. |
| Tone control | He keeps the game's whimsical gameplay and bitter dialogue from feeling like separate experiences. |
Dr Hakim threw down the gauntlet for 2021's new arrivals, and I am still waiting for another character to pick it up with as much joy. There were exciting releases after It Takes Two, and there will be more in 2026, but few new characters have matched his combination of comedy, motion, voice work, and sheer commitment to being too much. He is the best new character of his class, and five years later he remains the one to beat. ðŸŽðŸ“–