Thank Goodness You’re Here! Nintendo Switch Review 9.99/10 "Thank Goodness This Game Was Made" 🥟🥧 @coalsupper #IndieGame #GOTY #IndieGameDev #GameDev

Shining, golden, consistent comedy is rarer in the gaming industry than photographic evidence of a bottle of Clausthaler in Oliver Reed’s hand. It is because of this, that when a game like Thank Goodness You’re Here! (TGYH!) comes along, I treasure it dearly and immediately write the developers into my will – so there’s a brass figurine of a clown that weeps oil winging its way to them when I shake off this mortal coil.The game begins with a POV of someone channel-surfing, and we are immediately introduced to the detailed, busy world of TGYH! - a colourful, surreal world where folks come in all shapes, sizes and colours, and everything is wonderfully barmy – it struck me as a blend of Cartoon Network and The Beano, if it was written by a VIZ writer who was told that they could be as surreal as they want, but had to wind in the swearing a tad. 

These TV ads are locally-produced ones from the fictional Northern town that the game is set in – Barnsworth – and feature everything from a product called ‘Peans’ (not quite peas, not quite beans) through to a poorly-edited, awkward add for a grocery store ‘Rog’s Veg Hole’, multiple pie adverts, and a manic promotional video for a man fascinated with butter, to the extent that he has built an entire business around it. Good. 

It then transpires that you are a salesman who has been told by his boss that he needs to travel to the strange town of Barnsworth because ‘they need what we sell’, before leaving the office by leaping out of the 10th storey window, natch.

The game then shifts to Barnsworth, where you make your way through the town, assisting the citizens in their situations of ever-increasingly strangeness. I won’t say any more about the content, aside from the fact that it is packed with gags from all aspects; aural, visual, and gameplay-related. 

Honestly, it’s almost over-whelming – and the cyclical way in which you traverse the town means that you get to see myriad micro-tales within it play out in hilarious ways, like the chapters in a Tom Sharpe book weaving together on-screen. A high five to whoever handles the audio, as the soundtrack is the perfect match to the on-screen antics, weaving effortlessly from woozy jaunts through to amusing mouth orchestration – which, now that I’ve seen it written down seems like some sort of euphemism.

As vibrant and wonderful as the town is, the gameplay is cleverly very simple and direct. Set to a two-button control scheme (interact and jump), whilst the game shifts from 2D to 2.5D in various moments, its always clear what the next course of action should be, which ensures that the jokes keep coming at quite the rate, and you’re never left wandering aimlessly and listlessly, with no clue how to move forward, like Jim Davidson when someone asks him what value he adds to the human race. 

It’s a very British sense of humour, and whilst it’s set ‘Oop North’, it’s so well-written and observed that it’s relatable to all. To be honest – even if working class UK traditions and customs are alien to you, the delivery in TGYH! is so pitch perfect throughout that the scenarios, character reactions and voice work themselves will almost guarantee that you’ll click with it, unless you’re a joyless, hate-filled terminal whinger, possibly called Bernard, George, Susan or Alasdair – or some foul, otherworldly combination of all of the above. 

There’s simply no other reason to not dive into the world of Barnsworth and drink it’s fatty, warming juices, sucking your fingers clean of the gore as you laugh maniacally into a godless sky, whilst sporting a frankly startling erection.

SUMMARY
If the game is so good, you’re probably wondering why it got 9.99, and not a 10/10? Well, it’s because the developers didn’t send me an email with a fiver sellotaped to it, quite frankly. Or even a free tiny pie.

I’ll also be boycotting the game, if a soundtrack album is released and it’s not titled, ‘Thank Goodness You Hear!’