Developer: Paladin Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Switch
Tested on: Switch
Good Job! – Review
Nintendo dropped a surprise on unexpecting Switch players last week in the form of Good Job!. This fantastic little game, developed by Netherlands-based Paladin Studios, might just be the answer for anyone looking to relive their work experience from home.
Story
Good Job! begins with a clever little animation that sets the tone and establishes the setting without the need for words. Players take on the role of a handyman in a huge office building, which happens to be owned by their father. This healthy dose of nepotism explains why your avatar in Good Job! is never fired, despite racking up thousands of dollars worth of property damage while completing their tasks. Making your way through the office building’s many floors and completing seemingly simple tasks will also earn you promotions, as you literally make your way to the top of the building.
Graphics
Good Job! makes excellent use of a very simplistic but striking visual style. The game looks very sleek and modern, with appealing primary colors and a surprising attention to detail given the minimalistic nature of the graphics. Humans are modeled after the icons used in warning signs and the like, which is a logical choice given the subject matter. Everything else is a tiny bit more detailed, albeit still very basic. Given the number of objects on screen at any given time and the fact that they can be interacted with, making them as simplistic as they are makes sense. Even so, these objects are clear representations of what they are supposed to be, with our favorite object being the in-game Switch model used by certain employees on their break. Additionally, objects that are dropped, bumped into or otherwise treated badly show damage, which is further testament to the amount of care that went into designing this game.
Sound
If there’s one thing that seems underdeveloped compared to the rest of the game, it’s the soundtrack. That’s not to say it’s bad, but the background music is repetitive and unremarkable, and ultimately unforgettable. Ambient sounds are a little better, with the environment responding to the damage you cause while completing tasks, but there is nothing that really stands out when it comes to the sound design.
Gameplay
In essence, Good Job! is a physics-based puzzle game set in an office building, where you are completing menial tasks, such as sorting colored containers, moving objects from one room to another, etc. While this sounds like it would be a very dull game, Good Job! approaches these tasks in a manner that encourages creative thinking and solution solving in fun and exciting -albeit unrealistic- ways. You start out on the bottom of a multi-level office building, each floor housing several departments. Each department requires you to complete a task. Clearing all tasks on the floor allows you to take the elevator to the next floor, where new and more challenging tasks await your handiwork. Tasks are affairs that can -and should- be completed in mere minutes, so unless you are looking at getting the best possible rating at the end of each level, Good Job! is a game that is relatively short.
Everything feels very intuïtive, despite the lack of instructions or a tutorial, and the game manages to keep surprising you with new and innovative mechanics in every department. If there are office workers in the way, you can take a chair to scoop them up and move them around, for example, and power cords are elastic and can be turned into makeshift slingshots. It’s all very silly but somehow, it works and is addictingly fun. At the end of each stage, your performance is rated based on three factors: how fast were you in completing the job, how many objects did you damage and how expensive was the damage you caused. The key is in finding the right balance: moving too slow will result in a bad rating on the time scale, but the faster you are, the more prone you are to making errors and thus causing damage.
The game starts out easy, with relatively simple tasks such as having to move a projector from one room to another but soon enough you’ll be driving around forklifts placing boxes to construct makeshift pathways across narrow corridors. Half the fun is in figuring out just how you are going to complete the task at hand, especially since most tasks can be completed in a multitude of ways. The added bonus here is how forgiving the game is: performance rating does not affect your ability to progress through the game. All that is required is that you complete the task at hand, and going back to improve your rating can be done at your leisure. Hidden collectibles also litter the stages in the form of wearable gear. These are purely cosmetic but being able to complete your tasks wearing a crown and a cape rather than a hard hat and a safety vest is a nice touch. Do be aware that collecting these can cost you a couple of precious seconds for your job rating.
Multiplayer is also available, although the tasks remain the same. The main difference here is that two players can complete tasks much faster -especially those that involve rounding up a certain number of objects or people- and that certain obstacles are much easier to overcome. The second player can hold open doors or move objects out of the way, speeding up the time to complete a task significantly, as well as reducing the amount of damage caused. While the multiplayer is fun, we ultimately felt it was a little lacking, and perhaps the game would have benefited from having multiplayer-specific tasks instead, as the available tasks can be completed by a single player without issue.
Conclusion
We can’t imagine anyone was expecting this stealthy release, but Nintendo and Paladin Studios have delivered a fantastic little game with Good Job!. The quirky and unique gameplay, the sleek and tight form factor and the light-hearted atmosphere all come together to bring an experience that is engaging and fun. The multiplayer could have been fleshed out and the music is unremarkable, but that’s nitpicking. Good Job! is a relatively short game as well, but given the price this has compared to most Nintendo-published titles, and the replayability that comes with task ratings and having multiple ways to complete tasks makes this an easy game to recommend to anyone that owns a Switch.
Good Job! - Review,
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