Tingus Goose
Review
The Rube Goldberg goose growing game
by JamesWorcester
reviewed on PC
Congratulations! It's a Goose
Have you ever fallen in love, then magically somehow nine months later a goose bursts from your partner's belly and starts regurgitating tiny little children from its beak? Well, that's exactly the kind of fantastical whimsy that Tingus Goose lets you live out. Your goose grows by watering it, and watering it costs money. But how do you get money when you are but a lowly goose-waterer? Well, the little babies (Tingi) that burst from your goose's beak will further your fortune whenever they are clicked on or hit an appendage blossoming out from your goose's long neck; before reaching a piggybank to grow your deposit.
These blossoms come in various forms and rarities, and as you collect them, they provide many playful abilities to enhance your goose-building bravado as you pursue exponential growth. Whether you choose to set up your organic machine and close the game (or leave it idling), or whether you choose to Cookie Clicker your way to increased profits, Master Tingus and SweatyChair have you covered in a relaxing game about courtship, absurdism and geese.
Absurdist Art
I must admit, the calibre of art on display is of very high quality, and there's a lot of it as well. From the absurd opening chapter animations to the lover-geese coming down from above, to the blossoms and Tingi themselves, Tingus Goose is a visual treat reminiscent of a more family-friendly Don Hertzfeldt. It's all bizarrely endearing, and it's a real treat that an artistic style like this can exist in a financially viable game, as it's certainly in stark contrast to most visual styles in modern media. The soundtrack also matches this idle game perfectly and brings me back to the score for the original The Sims from the year 2000.
Gameplay & Idle Nature
The gameplay and Tingus Goose's idle nature is really where the rubber is going to hit the road for most players. Up till now, I'd never really tried an idle game before, and even though I found Tingus Goose enjoyable, I did feel a bit confused by the genre. I'm the kind of person who likes to lock in with no distractions whilst playing games or watching TV or movies, and although I enjoyed most of Tingus Goose while I was playing it, I found its pacing strange and somewhat frustrating at times because I'd like to continue playing and beating the game instead of having a burst of activity then waiting until I could meaningfully interact again. I found popping on some music and browsing the internet on a second monitor to be the ideal way to play.
While I was actually playing it, I liked architecting my goose, and it reminded me of making golf-ball tracks at the beach as a kid. By setting up your blossoms in such a way, you can combine your Tingi together and evolve them from a fetus, to a baby, to a school kid, graduate then an office worker, with each of these evolutions exponentially increasing the amount of money that you earn from Tingi hitting your goose's blossoms or from being clicked on. I certainly found this mechanic to be very enjoyable and very profitable. Doctor Food is there to supply you with DNA IV drips to enhance your goose's biology, and there's a cow underneath supporting the goose's roots with a passive skill tree. If you ever forget a mechanic or what a blossom does, there's a top-class interactive "Goosepedia", which is one of the best manuals I've ever seen.
I Recommend it!
Tingus Goose is nothing if not unique, and even if you just like the look of the art style or the absurdism, then I would recommend picking it up for around the current retail price of $10 AUD. You get a lot of value for that price, and I feel like Tingus Goose makes a very good arthouse game that helps show players that games can be weird, and different and bizarre and a lot broader than mainstream offerings.
A caveat to this would be if you like or think you might like an idle game. Personally, I would've loved it if Tingus Goose was less of an idle game, and that's just because of how I like to always deeply interact with what I'm playing without distractions. And although I loved the absurdism and the art, it did lose its charm after a while because EVERYTHING was absurd, and so I found my absurdist baseline shifted while playing.
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7.7
fun score
Pros
Arthouse absurdism, Lining up the dominoes, The geese
Cons
Too idle for me, The absurdism became a bit oversaturated
