Thank Goodness You're Here! A short romp with Matt Berry

The publisher, Panic, wrote:

"After arriving early for a big meeting with the mayor of a bizarre Northern English town, a traveling salesman takes the time to explore and meet the locals, who are all very eager to give him a series of increasingly odd jobs… Thank Goodness You’re Here! is a comedy slapformer, which unfolds over time as the players' exploration and antics leave their mark on the strange town of Barnsworth. With each completed odd job, new areas of the town open up, stranger and stranger tasks become available, and the clock ticks towards our salesman’s big meeting. The town’s colorful inhabitants are brought to life with vibrant hand-drawn animation, fully voiced dialogue, and wall-to-wall double entendres."

Probably time this had its own thread isn't it? Out 1st August, this is a comedic game from the Goose Game publishers, with seemingly rather more going on than your average "cosy game" and a very British sense of humour. I can't believe we're not all at least keeping our eyes on this.

Creating comedy in video games seems really hard to get right. For me, of all the games I’ve played that have sought my laughter through their dialogue, story and gameplay, there’s genuinely few that have succeeded in doing that. I don’t think I’m a hard guy to make laugh either!
 
This could well and truly go either way. It goes without saying that British humour is an acquired taste, it’s love-it-or-hate-it stuff. Thank Goodness You’re Here looks like it’s trying hard to be witty and cheeky, and it’s got me half-interested to see how it turns out and how it’s critically received. Honestly though, I personally think there’s a good chance it’ll turn out to be the most Brexitty game ever made, like something they'd have played at the Tory HQ pandemic Christmas party while calling people "cockwombles" and "wankpuffins".

More excited by the inclusion of my personal friend Jon Blyth than Matt Berry. Matt Berry doesn't follow me on twitter and has never gassed up my post-gym selfies.

The John Blyth that first comes up on my attempts to search for him is a murderer in Edinburgh.  Regardless, good on your friend!

To be honest, like Cappa I should be less certain of the humour in this game than I am.  I'm not exactly one to giggle much at double entendres, and without the charisma of Kenneth Williams I don't know how funny they'll be.  But I think the aesthetic will carry a fair bit for me.  I love how this game looks, sounds, and appears to feel.  For a "slapformer", that feels like half the battle.

Balladeer wrote:

The John Blyth that first comes up on my attempts to search for him is a murderer in Edinburgh.  Regardless, good on your friend!

Jon "Log" Blyth of the Regular Features podcast, used to work on Future publishing games mags, worked with Charlie Brooker a bit I think . . .

Ah okay!  BetamaxBandit from the Back Page Discord is apparently also excited by his inclusion, so - good!

Reviews can only tell you so much, but this seems to be doing okay!  Have pre-ordered, will have my first crack at it tomorrow morning.

EDIT: Or not because it hasn't gone active yet.

Still not time to play the Yorkshire game on Yorkshire Day with the Yorkshire DualSense



Has BetamaxBandit got a mate called LaserDiscLoon?

No matter how many times I look at that picture, the image on the box looks like a weird little white controller with skinny handles for a few seconds before I see the part with the image. Camouflage works!

I actually do want that controller, if and when I get a PS5.

It's kinda one I want, as I've got quite a few DualSense controller's and likely get the Astro Bot one coming.

Though this Yorkshire tea one being unofficial, same with the Ultros one I've seen, not in rush to get for the collection.

Strange one, this. I haven't laughed all that much but I've been smiling almost constantly. It's just so British, and so daft. The weird real-life footage it opens with actually did make me giggle.

I worry that it's going to get a bit repetitive, especially since it doesn't always seem easy to go back from one area to another if you backtrack before you should. And not all of the jokes land: there's one where it looks like a man's wet himself which just doesn't do it for me. But I can't fault the single-handed dedication to atmosphere. Just a very nice (if that's the word) place to spend time in.

I never laughed out loud but was always smiling in my two playthroughs to get the platinum trophy. Which I did see things I hadn't the first time when going to the plat and took me to around 5hrs playtime in total.

I decided to download this after reading the reviews, after I’d been put in a rubbish mood by my work. I’m all done with it now after dipping in and out of it over the weekend.

I’m glad that this didn’t turn out to the Brexit-iest game ever made. I felt it was inventive, well-constructed and that it’s Reeves & Mortimer meets The Viz inspiration was well-realised. Like Balladeer and masofdas seem to be I was satisfied by it, and personally I probably liked it about as much as Untitled Goose Game. The reports of its hilarity are massively exaggerated right enough though. Like Balladeer says it often raises a smile and it occasionally made me laugh with a few truly brilliant one-liners and set-pieces, but you shouldn’t take Nintendo Life’s review comment that “our faces hurt from laughing so much” literally. I’d have liked another half hour onto it as well, so that more of the characters’ stories could be told. I knew going in that it was “a short romp” but I felt the game-ending sequence came out a bit unexpectedly. I think just a couple more scenarios and side-stories would have provided better all-round value.

Still, the artwork, animation, script and voice acting are really good, and while I don’t see myself replaying it I think I’ll remember Thank Goodness You’re Here for a long time to come.

Played a bit further.  When Cappa mentions "a few truly brilliant one-liners and set-pieces", he's not kidding.  I played a set-piece (the one in Sam's Hams) that really made my day.  Such a bizarre little offering, this.  (I also got to the bit in the potting shed, where Matt Berry forgets he's meant to be playing a northerner and goes full Matt Berry.)

What's your favourite incidental character or characters?  I've grown quite invested in the bin pairing.