*shrug* W101 has some conveyance problems.
Bayo 2 really tones that down in the story too. There's still minigames, but they're shorter, play better, and aren't preceding the best bosses.
You're right though. Just being able to say "I want to fight this with my friend" is awesome, and I kinda wish there was a Singleplayer version too. I really just want all Platinum games to have the bossfight selector that MGR had on PC. I played that final bad stealth level of Revengeance like 80 times just to fight the final boss, and just having it as an option in the menu saves so much time.