This past weekend I got knocked on my butt with a stomach bug that went through our family. I was able to function, but I wanted to take it easy and hang around the house. That’s the perfect recipe for a new game!

I browsed around the Nintendo Switch store and found the title Good Job! which was featured at a Switch event last year. It was $20 and I had $5 off so I decided to give it a whirl.

What is it?

The premise of Good Job! is that you are the child of the CEO of a company and you’ve been given your first job as an employee (though what your actual job is remains a mystery). You then traverse the 9 floors of the tower fixing everyone’s problems as you go. There’s just one problem, you’re rather clumsy, and everything is breakable. This is where Good Job! starts to be a really fun romp. As you go through the levels you make a choice about how careful you want to be, and when to just say “screw it” and break everything in your path to achieve the objective.

At the end of each level you’re given a grade based on how quickly you achieved the goal, but also how much monetary damage you caused and the number of items you broke. The game is a balancing act between these three measures and it is wide open to work things however you best see fit.

What did I like?

The art style is cartoonish and fun, but crisp and easy to look at. It was a lot of fun just to explore a level and look around at everything the designers put in it. Much of what you encounter has nothing to do with the objective (although most of it can be broken into pieces), and is just there to create a realistic environment.

The play style was a lot of fun as well, with a couple exceptions (which I’ll talk about below). The physics are only pseudo-realistic, but it’s pretty easy to pick up on how things will react. The puzzles require you to think carefully about how you want to proceed, and there’s no single right answer to any solution. You may discover that you like taking your time and moving slowly and carefully around every turn. Or, you can choose when to strategically break something to move more quickly. It really feels like a wonderful open playground.

What didn’t I like?

There are a couple of things that did bug me in my play through. I was not a fan of the forklifts. I found them incredibly difficult to control, and in a couple of circumstances the 3rd person, locked, perspective put me in a difficult position and I couldn’t see past what I was carrying. There was one level in particular that took me nearly an hour because of the forklift.

It was also somewhat difficult to be precise with things, when picking up items, or moving things around. I realize that’s part of the ‘clumsy’ aspect of the game, but on a couple occasions it got a tiny bit frustrating. I kept picking up the wrong item, and I couldn’t turn my character slowly enough to aim at the right item.

Finally, one last complaint is a mechanic that shows up on the second to last level that seems like it came out of nowhere, and then was never seen again. Maybe I missed it earlier, but I was surprised at suddenly needing to learn a whole new mechanic for one of the final boards.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed Good Job! It was a super fun way to spend the weekend, lounging around on the couch. Despite a couple of issues with the physics, my only other complaint is that I’m ready for DLC. I could see this game getting new levels at a regular cadence if they decided to continue it. It’s a fun play style, delightful artwork, and a relaxing challenge, and easily worth the money I spent.