In this indie oddity the player takes control of a mischievous goose and wreaks havoc on the citizens of a peaceful village. It’s from Melbourne-based developers House House. Honk!

Untitled Goose Game

What started out as a daft joke has become a reality, a funny and engaging title that doesn’t take itself very seriously.

As four-person indie team House House kindly explains on the official website:

"It's a lovely morning in the village, and you are a horrible goose."

With that neat little intro, into a world of petty theft and mild peril do you go. As the goose, you basically just behave like a bit of a jerk.

Annoy people, steal their keys, flap off with their items, and generally cause some minor havoc and dismay.

You receive a “to do” list of annoyances and then use your imagination to complete each task. So that means it’s, essentially, a puzzle and stealth platformer.

House House cites Nintendo’s legendary Super Mario 64 as a major influence for the game’s engine.

The setting is also clearly an English village. We’re British enough to recognise the twee formalities of it.

England shares a playful relationship with Aussies, but Untitled Goose Game is more of a loving homage than anything else.

As the goose, you have a basic set of controls. You can honk, spread your wings, run, pick up items, and duck.

With that skill set, you head off and progress through the village. At one point we hid in a box to infiltrate a British pub, then broke out and caused more mild peril.

So it’s all rather silly and amusing—the type of game you play to take your mind off a stressful day or whatnot.

And whilst it’s good old fun, our only real issue is the asking price of almost £20. For such a short game, that’s kind of pushing it.

It’s on launch sale right now, so we recommend you swoop on in and honk this SOB up pronto if it appeals to you. It’s out on the Nintendo Switch and Steam.