Good Job! [Nintendo Switch] | REVIEW

Nintendo have shown a lot of love for indie developers on the Nintendo Switch and have even gone as far as helping them out with publishing duties, with recent releases such as The Stretchers and Candace of Hyrule acting as two fine examples. In this month’s Nintendo Direct Mini, they revealed their latest indie collaboration: Good Job! No, I’m not complimenting Nintendo’s work… that’s the name of the game, and believe me, it’s certainly a unique and brilliant one.

Good Job! sees players taking on the role of the son of a CEO at a big company, with lofty expectations placed on your shoulders for you to be able to help out the staff in all sorts of different ways. Somebody must take the place as the heir of the company, so why can’t it be you? You’ll work your way up through the business by completing an assortment of menial tasks, all whilst trying to cause as little damage as possible… or as much damage as you want. Hey, you’re the boss’ kid… who’s going to complain?

It makes for a unique gameplay experience that on paper doesn’t sound like it’d necessarily be a whole lot of fun, but somehow ends up making for an absolutely fantastic time that kept me completely hooked in throughout. You’ll work up through different floors of the company with each bringing their own theme, but the sort of challenges you’re set are fairly consistent in style – you’ll do things like set up a projector, clean up some mess, set up a wi-fi network, hang art on the walls… things that’d be typically assigned to a janitor or maybe a maintenance guy.

Whilst these should be simple tasks (and they can be if you’re careful), there’s so much room for destruction in Good Job! Don’t fancy dragging a projector through a door and across hallways? Then launch it through the office walls by using a plugged-in wire as a slingshot. Need to sort out some containers? Use the robotic crane and smash everything in your path to get them in the right position. Need to move some boulders around the office (wait, what)? Roll them through EVERYTHING in your path. There’s no right or wrong way to do things in Good Job!; there are just tidy ways and destructive ways, and it’s the latter that’s the most fun in the game… it’s glorious.

None of the levels in Good Job! are particularly difficult, with plenty of different ways to approach them and no real fail states in place. The destructive way is typically the easiest to take, but even those that want to do everything by the book won’t find it hard – they’ll just find that it takes a bit more time.

However, you are graded at the end of a level and the best scores are only obtained by being as destruction-free as possible. You’ll see how much money worth of damage you’re causing as you wreak havoc performing your tasks and the higher the cost is, the more of a reduction you’ll see taken from your final score. On the flipside, one of the things that you’re judged on is your completion time, so you’ve got to find a balance of getting your work done quickly and not causing damage. It’s trickier than it sounds and it is in getting those high scores where Good Job! offers most of its challenge. Want some advice? Just have fun causing destruction during your first run through the game and focus on being a good and tidy worker the second time around.

Throughout each level are a multitude of collectibles to find, with different costume parts available that’ll change up your character’s look. They don’t change up the gameplay in any way, but they do allow you to add a bit more charm to your little stick character’s appearance and give players a little something extra to hunt down in between all of their destructive tasks. Speaking of appearances, Good Job! doesn’t only look fantastic but also runs smoothly on the Switch throughout. It has a simple aesthetic, but its incredibly charming and fits the chaotic vibe of the experience perfectly.

Good Job! is an absolute blast to play alone, but it’s even more hectic when played with a friend. Causing all kinds of chaos with another player is just a whole lot of fun and will keep you laughing throughout, even if the gameplay doesn’t necessarily change anything up to cater for the additional player. Surprisingly, even playing carefully and trying to get through each task without causing any damage with another player is a whole lot of fun – there’s something tantalisingly addictive about simply being a good worker. It’s just a shame working in real life isn’t as fun as it is in Good Job!, right?

Whilst Good Job! is of a high quality throughout, the camera is a little guilty of getting in the player’s way on occasions. In fairness, the isometric viewpoint does mean you can pretty much see everything that’s going on, but it was frustrating when I couldn’t quite get an object through a doorway as carefully as I wanted and losing that perfect grade just because the camera was a little bit off.

Developer: Paladin Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch