Review: Thank Goodness You’re Here Is an Absurd Comedy

Thank Goodness You’re Here is one of the silliest and most absurd games I’ve ever played. In fact, I’d almost consider it more of an interactive experience, rather than a proper adventure game or platformer, given how essential everything about the town of Barnsworth and its citizens are to it. Coal Supper is completely committed to the bit, making it a joy to experience.

Rather than starting with any sort of solid explanation as to what’s going on, Thank Goodness You’re Here begins with a series of advertisements for oddities like Peans (“not quite peas, not quite beans”) and Big Ron’s Big Pies. It pulls back to your avatar, a very tiny, very yellow man, being told that Barnsworth needs exactly what you’ve got to offer. After jumping out a window to land on top of a bus to the village and riding it to the mayor’s office, you find yourself halted by his secretary. Instead of waiting there for your turn, it’s off to explore the town to “assist” the citizens.

While Coal Supper and Panic describe Thank Goodness You’re Here as a “comedy slapformer,” this is an adventure game through and through. You’ll wander around town, punching people to talk with them and things to interact with them. In so doing, you’ll make the town a better place (maybe). For example, one of the earliest tasks is to assist a man in the town square whose hand is trapped down a grate… because he refuses to let go of a tuppence. This means heading to a pub that needs kegs punched to get a locksmith having a morning drink to unlock access to the butter store, so you can knock down and ride a slab of butter to the growing crowd surrounding the trapped man at the fountain. 

I mean, it’s all very good. Like this is Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned cat hair mustache good. 

It is absolutely ridiculous. There are so many absurd situations and hilarious moments that I don’t even want to talk about the others outside that initial example. It would absolutely ruin it to know what’s coming. Especially since these moments keep happening. The incidental NPC chattering is fantastic, while still sometimes pointing you toward or hinting at certain situations. The character designs are the absolute goofiest. There a situation involving asbestos, of all things, that makes me laugh thinking about the commentary even as I write this review. 

Everything is also handled in such a way that it is perfectly paced and you may occasionally need to do a bit of thinking. Coal Supper set Thank Goodness You’re Here up in such a way that the game is always sending you naturally in the direction you need to go to for the next objective. So while you may be temporarily walled off in an area or unable to backtrack, odds are in 10-15 minutes your natural momentum will take you where you need to be. One situation involving retrieving a screwdriver even took me a minute, because of the unexpected additional platforming and exact inputs needed to properly facilitate its delivery.

I honestly love a lot of things about it. However, as much as I enjoyed Thank Goodness You’re Here, I’m not sure it will be a universally beloved game. There is some very British humor on display here. (Coal Supper is from Yorkshire after all, and there’s even a dialect option in the menu.) If you enjoy Monty Python’s Flying Circus or A Bit of Fry and Laurie, you will absolutely love it. However, I do think there are probably people who won’t find it as funny as others or may take issue with how easy and effortless it is. It’s very much the type of game where you basically need to hit or jump on everything to eventually make things happen. 

I have never seen so many people not only asking me to make a complete mess of things, but thanking me for doing so, in my life. But that’s exactly what Thank Goodness You’re Here feels like it is about, as the game rewards you for your goofy and occasionally destructive behavior with ridiculous, hilarious, and even sometimes a delightfully inappropriate response. It might not end up being a game for everyone, but those who do give it a chance and enjoy this kind of humor will likely be delighted.

Thank Goodness You’re Here will come to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC on August 1, 2024.