It’s been so long since I’ve had to be in my place of work that I’ve basically forgotten how working operates.  Luckily I’ve been playing the recently released Good Job! on the Nintendo Switch, and I’m slowly remembering what going to work was actually like.

Good Job! is a fun little physics-based puzzler that has you trying to complete mundane tasks like setting up projectors, wrangling employees, and putting boxes on trucks for shipments, as efficiently as possible.  It takes these typically dull tasks and adds in a level of destruction and chaos that makes Good Job! as fun and engaging as it is.

Through what can only be described as blatant nepotism, you somehow have a job at this company that your parent owns, despite you being a clumsy mess.  You’re kind of a jack of all trades, going from level to level, solving common office problems utilizing a mix of puzzle solving, and destruction.  For instance, one of the first levels tasks you with hooking up an Ethernet cable to a WiFi hot spot.  What the game expects you to do is to find a way to bring the wire from one end of the level to the other by getting through locked doors and moving loitering employees.  Based on your time and damage done, you’ll get a letter grade upon completing the level that you can go back and improve on should you desire.

But Good Job! knows that efficiency is a metric that’s measured differently by different people.  For some, efficiency might mean causing the least amount of issues and doing the job to the best of your abilities without disrupting anyone in the office.  But then there’s the creative types like myself who know that the easiest and most efficient way to solve a puzzle is to break the puzzle, a tactic that Good Job! has planned for.

Instead of trying to work within the confines of the office, I usually opt for the “open office” concept which involves me pulling power cables real tight, and using that as a makeshift slingshot I can load with a printer to blast through all of the walls, doors, windows and other employees in my way.  It’s that kind of “outside the box” thinking that’s made me the perpetual employee of month.  Good Job! reminds me of how I approach most stealth games, where I’ll try my best to do things in the intended fashion, but embrace the chaos when shit inevitably hits the fan.

Good Job! is a fantastically fun and lighthearted affair that’s easily become one of my favorite releases this year.  It has some minor control quirks that take some time to wrap your head around, and the frame rate can get a little chunky when debris is flying all over the place, but I still find myself coming back to it in spite of those minor drawbacks.  I’ve only played it single player, but it has couch co-op for those of you who can take advantage of it.  Despite going solo though, I haven’t felt like my experience has been lacking at all.  Just like its name implies, Good Job! does a very good job.