Thank Goodness You’re Here! I have a review for you. While you’re at it, climb on t’ roof as I think I have a blockage in me flue, and I’ll put t’ kettle on.
What a treat. Coal Supper has managed to capture a slice of British culture, showing it down the neck of a bottle of Sarsons in this truly wonderful walking simulator/QTE. Of course, Thank Goodness You’re Here! isn’t defined by a genre in particular besides comedy, but there’s quite a bit of walking in it, and more minigames than you can shake a stick at.
You play as an unnamed salesman who’s been tasked with going to Barnsworth and converting some leads. That, naturally, is irrelevant, as it wasn’t until my second immediate playthrough that I even got the gist of who you actually are. Then again, starting in an office, being briefed on your goal only to immediately jump out the window and onto a double-decker that’d make Jackie Chan wince was somewhat distracting.
Your character is the most unassuming, selfless character in gaming history. Pulling up a pugh while waiting to speak to the town’s mayor, you head outside for a quick peek and are inundated with requests. “Can you fix this?” “Can you fetch me that?”. Without a word uttered throughout Thank Goodness You’re Here!’s entirety, you gladly dive into pints, pipes and pies just to help the locals out. Who knows, maybe you’ll make a sale?
There are no HUDs or main objectives in the game. You simply walk down the street, punching anything at random, and before you can chuckle at one of the shop names or wall graffiti, someone’s lured you into a job of some sort, which naturally propels the story forward as all the characters and the neighbourhood are interconnected. Thank Goodness You’re Here! is 100% British humour and won’t be to everyone’s tastes, especially if you don’t like a good ol’ chip butty.
It reminds me of the comics I used to read as a kid, such as Big Comic Fortnightly, Oink!, and, of course, Viz. Yep, read that as a kid after my dad bought me a Viz annual called The Dog’s Bollocks. Thank Goodness You’re Here! starts relatively innocent and a tad cheeky, and then steadily progresses to a few naughty references here and there that wouldn’t look out of place on a Blackpool postcard. It’s not that type of game in the slightest, but I’d originally started this with my little girl, witnessing flowers telling each other they love one another, then getting mowed down to fits of giggles, to later rumpy-pumpy silhouettes that led to, “Could you go get Daddy another beer? This is a boring bit”.
But Thank Goodness You’re Here! is not remotely boring. There’s so much happening throughout with little nuances and wit that there was a rare moment where I wasn’t either laughing aloud or, at the very least, smirking at a nob reference that wouldn’t go amiss in Lucy Dreaming, or slapping the arse of an owner of a greasy spoon that would earn a devious chuckle from yours truly. The best way to explain it to fellow middle-aged Brits, targeting the males, because that’s what I ‘identify as’ in addition to an attack helicopter: it’s like playing an interactive comic. Viz: The Game on the Amiga was a good laugh at the time, but had no substance. Thank Goodness You’re Here! is a celebration of fundamental British values and pure wholesome fun. An immediate classic.
