Thank Goodness You’re Here | Review

Taskmaster, laugh master.

Games with humor being the star ingredient are often tough to execute. Part of that for sure is because it dips into a level of subjectivity that is usually going to vary more wildly by the person playing as opposed to a specific game mechanic that is easier to measure. A humorous looter-shooter or reality bending puzzle game with a witty antagonist can still rely on its gameplay loop if the jokes aren’t landing, but Thank Goodness You’re Here boldly places everything into that silly little basket and comes away with a rather heavy, mostly golden load.

Set in the fictional town of Barnsworth, you play as a rather short and yellow tie wearing travelling salesman who sets out to assist the folks residing in this little Northern English village as you wait for your meeting with the mayor. Aptly touted as a “slapformer” you’ll spend a majority of your adventure running, jumping, and slapping your way through the environment, the townsfolk, and maybe a bottom or two. As you’re put to task around town searching for someone’s missing tools or maybe some pie ingredients the world will slowly change to adapt to the events that occurred making each loop through familiar places a treat for my humor hungry brain. New laughs awaited each time I visited a new storefront or retread an area which made every section of the game always feel fresh. While not all yuks were new characters or gags, some jokes continued to expand on themselves calling back to the previous chapter leaving me eager to continue not knowing what awaited me on this carousel of laughs.

Most of the platforming and puzzles never posed too big of an obstacle, especially as I learned the layout of Barnsworth. Knowing that I needed to get a certain item from a certain character to fix a problem may have been as simple as going to the correct place to retrieve it, but every joke that cracks on the journey, or every sign in the background with a pun is what drove me between goal posts. Occasionally stepping beyond the bounds of reality, or playing with the perspective of the background and foreground the constant unexpected twists and turns had my mind dancing between something that felt like an early 90s platformer, WarioWare, and something wholly original. With no combat and no failing, the stakes being completely removed meant I could continuously meander and enjoy the debauchery and devilish double entendres.

Loveably odd characters in charming hand drawn animation were bolstered by expertly delivered voice acting which not only helped stuff Barnsworth full of life but ensured the cleverly penned puns and jokes shined through. From cheeky giggles from characters stuck in precarious predicaments or a homeowner reacting to you falling down a chimney, when the soot settled the artistry on display always delivered a grin or chuckle from behind my beard. With occasional absurd cutscenes and story progression abruptly bookended by chapter names with the cast reciting them, every crumb of detail in the presentation of Thank Goodness You’re Here is plated with the panache of a five star restaurant. Saturday morning cartoon meets sketch show resulting in an emergent departure from anything even remotely similar in style and execution in video games.

I can’t really think of anything I didn’t enjoy about Thank Goodness You’re Here. It never overstayed it’s welcome both in joke use and time spent playing. The cadence and rhythm in which you progress through areas and antics always continued to flow rather smoothly. Even when you reach the end of the game and I’m wondering how can this game slap a bow on it that would make sense it does so in a manner that left me smiling and satiated. And although it wrapped nicely like a newspaper around some fish and chips, when my plate was clear my mouth was still watering for another helping.

Whether you’re floating through a keg of beer or slapping open the environment around you, Thank Goodness You’re Here is an all you can eat buffet of laughter. A rarity in games that shouldn’t be overlooked. I found myself pestering every local, slapping every object in the world, and slinking down every path presented to me because I wanted to squeeze every last boffola these nuts wrote into the game. I’ve never played a game that relied so heavily on striking your funny bone and then proceed to chip it surgically. If the slapstick and playful style of humor baked into Thank Goodness You’re Here resonates with you then toss on a bib and hop on that merry-go-round because I truly think you are in for a memorable, one-of-a-kind experience that you’ll be thankful you were there for.

We reviewed Thank Goodness You’re Here on Nintendo Switch with a code provided by the developer.

Thank Goodness You’re Here releases August 1st, 2024 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Steam, and Epic Games Store.

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