Thank Goodness You're Here! (2024)

3.5/5

Thank Goodness You're Here is a puzzle adventure (?) game where you play as a salesman going around a British town helping solve the locals problems. These start off as minor problems like helping butter up a guy whose arm is stuck in a drain and quickly escalate in both complexity and absurdity. The animations are really well done and there are entertaining little cartoons that typically play between each of the chapters or areas. The game is really short, being able to be completed in just a couple hours, but definitely worth it if you can pick it up on sale!

Comedy is hard, goddamn impossible when combined with a near universal undervaluing of the talent and intelligence required to turn the mundane and the upsetting into something absurd enough to giggle at. It's no surprise that so few game studios are willing to take the risk on a project designed solely to make you laugh, so regardless of the fact that I did not have the patience for this I can't help but feel the need to sing it's praise.

The 90s cartoon aestethic, the dedication to slapstick silliness, the euphemisms, I just wish the primary way to interact with this world was more complex than a slap. I mean sure slapping strangers on the ass is hilarious the first couple dozen times you do it but beyond that deminishing returns start to set in. Regardless, I recommend this if distinctly British self-depraction is your thing. This'll more than scratch that itch.

I was hoping this would lean more towards 'Fractured but whole', with brilliant writing that is clearly at the forefront but with a robust combat RPG system working as the foundation to keep you invested. I mean obviously not exactly that but I was hoping for more under the hood and that's just not the case.

This will probably be the last game I finish for 2024 and what a fab game to finish on. Coal Supper, a Yorkshire development studio, has done Northerners in the UK proud with this love letter to the north! Full of humour, charm, and soul. It's nice to see this part of the country get some love and recognition.

Depicted like a living cartoon, the local town, Barnsworth, is full of bizarre towns-folk who bring the place to life and will keep you smiling and laughing for hours as they have you waddling from place to place. The artwork is gorgeous and there's detail packed into every pixel. Abstract, magical, strange. It has all of that in bucket loads, it's really a game that's best savoured for your own playthrough.

I also loved the localisation options on offer, especially the northern dialect option, that was a nice touch! Go give this game some love!

I’m old enough to remember when the basic concept of pressing buttons on the NES gamepad and seeing Mario respond on TV was mind-blowing. A cartoon... I could play?!

With time, I grew mostly desensitized to that basic sense of wonder. Interactive experiences became the primary form of media I enjoy, and graphical fidelity improved to the point where Unreal Engine became part of film production. It's no longer unique or novel for games to rival animation, movies or television.

And yet, Thank Goodness You're Here rekindled many of those feelings.

The game certainly looks the part. Its bold lines, bright colors, unique character designs and frame-based animation feel far more inspired by cartoons and comics than anything composed primarily from pixels or polygons.

Gameplay may be a factor, too. The simplified "slapforming" lets you directly inhabit the game's hapless protagonist, while the point-and-click-eque open environments encourage experimentation and happy accidents.

But perhaps most importantly, Thank Goodness You're Here is hilarious. Its setting and scenario, characters and vocal performances, animation and sound design all elicited consistent laughter from my partner and I from start to finish. It's like the style of Pendleton Ward with the naturalistic dialog of a Christopher Guest film at the pace of The Naked Gun, plus the surreal fever-dream quality of The Young Ones, The Ren & Stimpy Show or Don't Hug Me I'm Scared.

The lack of comparisons from video games may betray why this one rekindled that dormant sense of wonder in my brain. While plenty of games incorporate animation or successfully homage a particular animation style, none feel quite so deeply like an original "playable cartoon" as Thank Goodness You're Here. I can't recommend it enough.

There's not a lot to say about TGYH. It's a funny game with great writing and no gameplay. If you are into English humor (everyone is, opposed to the popular belief that Americans don't get it) then you should give TGYH a try. If you require gameplay then you should probably avoid it. This is 2-4 hours of pressing the slap button on different objects until things progress.

If it hits you just right with its clever writing and cute, funny and surreal moments, then this could be one of your favorites of the year. If that's not quite enough for you, there isn't much else here.

Thank Goodness You're Here is a very British game with silly and dirty British humor, and it works.

There isn't much to say about the gameplay - you just walk around, jump and punch things. The humorous results and situations are the highlight ,and they are all funny and bizarre.

The art style is adorable, and the voice work is exaggerated to Monty Python levels. Not a must-play, but the humor is well worth the time.

Thank Goodness You're Here is an anti video game.

A travelling salesman solves problems via creating more of them by slapping the bejesus out of the inanimate and sexually frustrated. The Britishness so potent, tea practically pours from the Nintendo Switch.

The quest is simplified into borderline nonsense, exquisitely held together by an unrelenting but required smile on ones face. The experience tumbles down the stairs with the saturated grace of a Looney-Toon and the engineered genius of The Slinky.

Video games aren't usually known for comedy.

Thank Goodness I've played.

The problem with comedy games is that if you don't find them funny there's really no salvaging the experience. As soon as I saw the opening gag -- lifted directly from Rick & Morty, mind you -- I knew this game's sense of humor was not for me. Lots of other people are finding it funny though, so take from that what you will.

I do want to make one point about the game's design, however, and explain why I find it much inferior to the publisher's previous release Untitled Goose Game. In Untitled Goose Game, the humor comes from immersing yourself in its world and being an actor on its stage with a fair amount of freedom to play out your role and complete objectives in a comical fashion. In Thank Goodness You're Here on the other hand, everything is completely prescribed. Every joke, set piece, objective, etc. is rigidly predefined for the player and you simply go through the motions the designer wants you to until the experience ends. I think this is a very lifeless approach to comedy in the video game space, and it left me feeling more like I had watched the game than played it.