A Gloriously Silly and Surreal Slapform-ish Adventure
Watching the end-credits for Thank Goodness You’re Here!, I was taken aback that it had been translated into Russian and Mandarin (among others). Because this has to be the most English game I’ve ever played, almost to the degree that it excludes everyone else. It’s so tally-ho, cor-blimey-guv’nor, up-the-apple-and-pears English that I can’t even begin to imagine translating it into other languages – and certainly not for those on the other side of the world.
Honestly, I don’t think I can recall a game that’s as quintessentially English as this. Untitled Goose Game might honk for attention on this one, but nah pet: Thank Goodness You’re Here! wins the cup on this one (Wedgwood, darling, filled to the brim with PG Tips). It’s there even in the details: the little ‘H’ yellow signs for fire hydrants; the plastic red and blue charity cups on shop counters; the Tesco Value plastic bags.
What Ho, Chaps!
I put this at the top of the review because it’s one of a few things that might alienate potential players from playing Thank Goodness You’re Here! When even the ‘Exit Game’ buttons have been replaced with the word ‘Faff’, you know that a potential player either needs enthusiasm for British ways or an intimacy to them.
Let’s get the other potential alienations out of the way first. This is such a delightful barnstormer of a narrative game, and I want everyone who should play it to play it.
Caveat #2 is that, for all the promotional materials about Thank Goodness You’re Here! being a ‘slapformer’ – a mash-up of slappy beat ’em up and platformer – there isn’t really much of either. The slappy side of Thank Goodness You’re Here! is just how your little character, unnamed, engages with the world. He can’t talk, so dialogue with other characters or using items is swapped out for a slap. There’s no combat, no world destruction (which is a shame, as one slap per hotspot and you’re done), and not a combo to be seen. The platforming, too, is sidelined to a couple of sequences and probably takes up about 5% of the total playtime.
The result is that Thank Goodness You’re Here! is not particularly interactive. Sure, there are minigames and your character moves about in 2D and 3D spaces, so there’s a spot of exploration, but most of this is walking, slapping (interacting) and chatting. Which is a red flag for some. This is not oozing gameplay. You could get sniffy and call it a walking simulator, and we know how some players feel about those.
The Ministry of Funny Games
The last caveat is that it is gloriously, stupendously, tip-of-the-top funny. Which shouldn’t be a caveat, but comedy is subjective. In the space of thirty seconds it can go from exceedingly rude to Dad-puns to grotesque gore to Monty Python surrealism to abstractions. It is, then, a kind of cross-section of British comedy. And it’s done with a giddy enthusiasm, setting up the next joke after the last one barely left the room.
Does any of the following make you chortle?: a parody of Poundland called Price Shagger, with an attic of rats that have named their own shop ‘Mice Shagger’. A hole in the fence with a man pushing raw sausages through for his sexual pleasure. A box, high on a shelf, with ‘Turds’ written on it. A watering can without any holes, so it’s a watering can’t.
I’m not doing the jokes any favours, but imagine them all of that quality, and with about twenty of them tommy-gunning at any given time. Airplane and Naked Gun would kill for that hit-rate. Who said games can’t be funny?
Thank goodness this game is here
Shovelling aside the caveats, I can finally talk about what I love so much about Thank Goodness You’re Here! It is, for example, one of the most good-natured stories I’ve played. Which is odd, when you consider that everything you do is triggered by slapping. But the world wants to be thwacked: things break and topple, and the world slaps its knees in delight and says “thank goodness you’re here”. The various villagers of Barnsworth (clearly Barnsley) are mad as hatters but a benevolent lot, and they love spending time with you and each other.
It’s also patient. Why offer up a joke and a punchline in quick succession? What about setting up a joke, a skit, and letting it pay off in half a game’s time? You might wonder why you keep tunnelling under a commemorative dish of Princess Diana, or why two people are arguing over rubbish being placed in the wrong bin.
But because Thank Goodness You’re Here! has a looping structure, where you make lap after lap of Barnsworth, the people move about and the jokes layer on top of each other. Those people with the bins start putting bins in bins, or finding themselves in the bin. One of my favourite details is that a driving instructor and nervous learner gets their car stuck in paths where the game doesn’t want you to go. It certainly makes a neat change from invisible walls.
Utterly Unpredictable and Worth the Whack
But the biggest joy of Thank Goodness You’re Here!? It is so completely and utterly unpredictable. There’s no such thing as a trope or cliche in Barnsworth. You could argue that the surrealism leads it wayward, but I think that’s its charm. It needs to make big swings to say something new, and it’s from the weirdest left-turns that the best moments come.
I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of what Thank Goodness You’re Here! has to offer, and I’ve certainly done a poor job of explaining what it’s like to play. But you know what? Sometimes you can know too much about a game, and that is absolutely the case with Thank Goodness You’re Here! It’s best to offer up your hand and trust it. Sure, it might slap that hand, but the pain will be worth it.
Important Links
Thank Goodness You’re Here! Brings Chaotic Comedy To Xbox And Play Anywhere – https://www.thexboxhub.com/thank-goodness-youre-here-brings-chaotic-comedy-to-xbox-and-play-anywhere/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/thank-goodness-youre-here/9P14ZTSR0LS9/0010
