Mighty Goose is a run and gun shooter, out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. In it you play as the bounty hunter, Goose. The gameplay is reminiscent of many other run and gun shooters, with a focus on finding power ups and just blowing everything up. But where Mighty Goose manages to set itself apart from the massive amount of games within the genre is its personality.
Mighty Goose is a silly game; one where each character has their own personality. The characters are bizarre and unique, and the story isn’t anything special but it’s fun; prominent throughout the entirety of the game. That’s good too as too many run and gun shooters will either completely ignore any sense of plot, or they will lazily add in a line or two of text at the beginning of the game to create the illusion of a story.
Mighty Goose has a cohesive plot that carries through the entire game. And that plot comes complete with a couple of jokes, and is all a good bit of fun.
The gameplay mechanics are well-done. Again, they aren’t anything too special but the game plays like a run and gun shooter should. However, there are a few quirks that are worth mentioning. The first is that the controls are very loose. The shooting is also a little sputtery, yet heading into the settings and switching automatic shooting to ‘on’ seems to ensure things play more smoothly.
There are multiple levels that you play through, each with their own unique design. As you progress there are different weapon drops that you can pick up like machine guns and rocket launchers. Each spawns with a set amount of ammo and once it’s out you’ll default back to the basic cannon. Something that Mighty Goose does well that so many games fail to do is it makes every gun enjoyable to use. I had my preferences for certain guns for sure, but regardless of what the game gave me I knew it was going to be stronger than my starter gun and decent enough to use.
There is also a Mighty Goose mode that when activated supercharges your current weapon and makes Goose basically unkillable. Again, regardless of what weapon is in use, even if it is the starter, Mighty Goose mode is fun to use.
There are also companions and abilities included, with the former capable of fighting by your side, delivering some special abilities. One even throws out machine gun power ups on a pretty frequent basis. The abilities work like abilities should – some increase movement capabilities, others improve the recharge rate of Mighty Goose mode, and so on. All in all the gameplay is varied enough to be entertaining from start to finish.
One thing that threw me off about the abilities though is found at the beginning of the game; the ability that is equipped is a honk that doesn’t do anything. So by the time I had unlocked an actually useful ability, I had already trained myself to ignore that button. That might just be a quirk of how I play, but if I begin a game with a button that does something useless, I will probably never use that button moving forward.
The main thing that actually bothers me is the in-game store. Not because there are micro-transactions or anything even remotely similar, but because I had no idea it existed until a help tip mentions it. As you play, you earn money, but I initially assumed it was used for the Armory section in the menu where you unlock new abilities. When I saw that the money didn’t do anything there, it then felt like a way to help calculate score at the end of each level. In actuality there is a store that you can access when you pause the game and select the store icon.
Without reason to pause the game, this could be missed; at least until a help tip actually points out the feature. This bothers me because even though it is a nice feature where you can buy weapons or vehicles to help you get through the level faster, not knowing about it makes it hard to use. Obviously, once you know it exists then it’s a great way to try and plan out how to get through levels and bosses faster by saving up money until the perfect time. I just wish it would have been mentioned earlier.
But when all is said and done these issues aren’t a huge deal. They are quirks that need to be overcome, but they don’t make Mighty Goose bad; far from it. The biggest negative is that the game itself is rather short and can be beaten in a couple of hours without too much trouble.
As a whole though, Mighty Goose is a fun little game that is great for passing the time. Each level can be completed in around ten minutes depending on your playstyle, but that makes it the perfect game if you don’t have a lot of spare time available. And then, once you beat every level there is a New Game plus mode that lets you replay the levels but with more enemies. So there is some replay value. Even then, Mighty Goose is a quick game that can be conquered in a weekend and ultimately, if you want to relax with a silly run and gun shooter, then Mighty Goose is worth trying out.
Take on the sheer might of a goose with Mighty Goose on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One