What in the holy hell did I play? That’s what players will ask themselves as they stop laughing, and this game will certainly get a chuckle from players.
Tingus Goose from developer SweatyChair is a ‘unique’ puzzle game that forces you to think strategically about how best to earn money from falling babies. Are you confused by that statement? It’s quite accurate. This is an oddity of a game, and that’s a major understatement. While it is shockingly good most of the time, the game sometimes goes too far off the rails and relies on humor and horror, rather than making a fully meaningful gaming experience. The setups are quite good, but sometimes the payoff doesn’t feel like it was enough.
Let’s break down the actual details of this game right now.
Simple purpose – child birth
Seeds are planted in pregnant humans, and those seeds bloom into geese, which surround and spit up an infinite number of babies. The goal of the game is to meet a money goal so that geese can fall in love, and that money is earned by clicking on falling babies. It’s that simple in its intentions and gameplay.
Now, that gameplay is mostly driven by a clicker mentality. The player’s goal is to make money from babies popping out of a goose’s mouth simply by clicking on said falling child. The more the player clicks, the more the baby earns them money for the weird piggy bank wanting to accept the fallen children. If the player clicks too many times on the child, then the baby falls apart, and no money is earned. It’s sensitive in its restrictions, and finding the right clicking rhythm is the core component of the gameplay. Of course, that described gameplay is too simple on the surface to maintain player interest during the entire experience, so SweatyChair threw in some good strategy to keep the player’s attention.
To add some freshness to what could have been stale gameplay, as players progress in the game, they are given budding seeds on a goose neck. These seeds bloom into additional geese that offer some sort of multiplier to the baby money-making scheme. These geese can be as simple as just bouncing a baby up in the air, which allows the user to get more money, or as dreadful as putting babies in a beaker and growing one big baby (which means more money when clicked on). There are a fair number of geese that can be used to make more money from the falling children, which only stands to make the gameplay engaging and interesting, as well as upping the number of strategic ways the player can take the gameplay.
Players can take the abundance of goose blooms and move them around to create a strategic advantage by multiplying the money output. Each time a falling baby hits a goose bloom, it can keep falling or hit a series of geese on the way down. Each one hit means a chance for more money, and more money means that two geese can fall in love, which is the goal of the gameplay, at least initially.
It’s a slow and steady strategic process that gives players freedom to do what they would like with the goose blooms given, while also countering that with firm restrictions on how far they can push things. At the very least, this is clever gameplay that simply asks the player to get the most money based on their strategy.
In a way, Tingus Goose reminds me of Balatro, where moving and shaking multipliers around truly drives the majority of the gameplay, and it makes for a strategically interesting time. To keep it far more interesting than just locked in with strategy and goose blum variety, the gameplay can be quite insane at times, and the entire experience is oddly satisfying as it is horrifying. This game is built for sipping and not gulping, and players will see that by the time they pass the second level of the experience.
Sipping
The sips mean that there are a lot of repeating variables and waiting around for things to finish up. While scenarios and goals change in the game, the actual gameplay feels a bit repetitive at times. For example, the difference between the first and second levels is hardly noticeable. While the purpose early is to ease players into the game and introduce how goose bloom strategies work, the game tends to drone on just a bit, leaning heavily on the player to make it fun. It will seem like the game is just waiting for the money to be made and goals to be met, and it doesn’t go beyond its setup.
There were times during my gameplay when I was just sitting around trying to speed up the money-making. That’s all I was doing. While I love having the ability to do what I want, I’m still dependent on random goose blooms and trying to find the quickest way to make dough. There were literally times at the beginning when I just let my goose monstrosity creation continue to make money, without me doing anything else, so that I could move one goose head towards another. I could have left the keyboard, gone to get a soda and snack, come back, and just hit the cash out button at the bottom to move the goose head upward. It feels like a set-it-and-forget type of gameplay. In a way, that’s fine, but also in another way, Tingus Goose doesn’t go beyond that aspect to keep my interest locked in. It feels more like a ‘come and go’ gameplay experience.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with that experience, but it doesn’t do much more. The game does throw in some variety of stages, which are creative as hell, and goals, but it’s mainly driven by the same gameplay principles – goose blooms, babies, and money. In a way, strategy and oddity are the two main components to bring players in and keep them locked, but actual payoff doesn’t feel as different as it should, especially if you’re not buying into the first two items in this sentence. And believe me, oddity must be accepted with this game to enjoy it.
Oddity
The biggest reason to play this game, other than the wacky strategy component and the variety of goose blooms, is to see how much more uncomfortable the developers can make players from scenario to scenario. I’m not sure if I blushed this hard at Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties. The scenarios the developers throw at players are just odd and, at times, incredibly icky. Geese growing and coming out of humans, then babies popping out of geese, then odd blooming geese that attach to the original goose to bounce around the babies is a lot to accept. It is at times disgusting, but other times funny as hell.
Regardless, that oddity is a strong component to keep the gameplay interesting, as players will want to see how far the developers push their gross agenda. If you’re into those types of games, then you’re going to be in heaven with Tingus Goose. For me, it felt like a gimmick that was a means to an end. It showed off its odd goods, then took good strategic gameplay and applied it. It wasn’t the type of game that made me want to return to it, but I’m sure there are plenty of gamers out there who are going to love it, the humor, horror, and plain odd setups.
It’s definitely an odd bird.
Pun intended.
Overall, Tingus Goose depends on a strategic component to keep players focused, odd moments and setups to keep people wanting more, and repetitive gameplay that is more sipping than gulping. Again, it’s unique, it has some fun moments, but the repetitiveness of goals and gimmicks just doesn’t help the gameplay.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Tingus Goose from developer SweatyChair is an oddly uncomfortable gaming experience that is driven by strategy and player-created structured multipliers. While it doesn’t go too far beyond what it wants to deliver, the game still brings enough entertainment for a ‘come and go’ gaming experience with a heavy dose of oddity to push it.
