Thank Goodness You’re Here! Review: Famous in a Small Town

A pint-sized salesman with a head like a lemon walks into a bar. Then on top of it. And inside it. Your current task is to give the taps in the taproom a reverse vasectomy. And how do you untie those tubes? Old-fashioned percussive maintenance. The beer barrels rumble to life, and an errant tube sucks you right back up, eventually depositing you into a foamy pint glass. If you can’t jump on it, slap it a few times. That’ll get you pretty far in Thank Goodness You’re Here!

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Thank Goodness You’re Here! synthesizes Coal Supper’s bawdy voice and animation with publisher Panic’s reputation for delightful mischief. It is—and I mean this in the most loving way—weirder and hornier than Untitled Goose Game. Don’t let the whimsical art fool you! Thank Goodness You’re Here! fully earns an M rating with obtuse visual gags and one-liners.

Born in a Barnsworth

After a bewildering meeting with your boss, your little lemonhead buses to the eccentric northern England town of Barnsworth. Unfortunately, the mayor you’re meeting with is busy, and you quickly get too fidgety for the waiting room seat. So you toddle outside, the door closing behind you. A jolly boy has his hand in a nearby grate, but he cheerfully informs you that he doesn’t mind.

The rest of the town, from the fountain square to the marketplace, is just as eccentric as your first encounter. Thank Goodness You’re Here mostly roots for Barnsworth’s residents, as silly and single-minded as they might be. The few scattered jokes that feel a bit too mean-spirited stick out like a sore thumb. But my favorite townsfolk easily overshadowed these slights—a gardener lovingly manhandling his hose, a harried rat, and two ill-fated potatoes.

Running (Time) Lapse

The jokes and sight gags fly freely. But not as freely as the debris and trash your escapades leave behind. Your bright yellow bystander quickly turns into the town’s messy, beating heart. They don’t say a word, but the silence oddly works in their favor.

The protagonist can only jump with one button and slap with another, but that rarely feels limiting. This short range means your beautiful bobblehead can be a puzzled innocent one moment and a whirling slap-dervish the next.

But the simple controls can’t completely fix Thank Goodness You’re Here’s frustratingly goal-oriented latter half. You’ll travel from one area to the next three or four times before a shortcut reveals itself.

Despite finishing it in a single afternoon, Thank Goodness You’re Here! has a little too much padding. Some sequences use title cards or jump cuts to advance the game, but I wish there were more. Repetitive platforming sections felt like going through the motions.

The Verdict: Thank Goodness You’re Here! is a warm welcome

Thank Goodness You’re Here! delivers adult comedy with real bite, even if the latter half feels long in the tooth. Gleefully disassembling a Northern England town is its own reward. Unapologetically rowdy humor and eccentric townsfolk never wear out their stay. But retreading areas instead of tighter editing certainly scuffs the welcome mat. Your silly salesperson strays from the path a bit, but Thank Goodness You’re Here! ultimately puts the funny in “funny business.”

Great

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