Tingus Goose Review

Clicker games are a weird genre. I’ve always found a type of satisfaction with them, from Cookie Clicker to (the) Gnorp Apologue. There’s an inherent satisfaction to seeing numbers get comically large, and Tingus Goose is another solid contender.

It’s a pretty typical clicker game in its core functions: you click on certain things to gain money to collect upgrades that allow you to earn more money. In this case, though, it’s just plain weird. You’re spending your primary currency on growing a goose tree.

During the intro, you see how the first tree comes about, and how a giant goose protrudes from the stomach of a pregnant person. As it grows, it’ll begin spitting out Tingis, tiny little people who can be clicked to earn cash, which facilitates further growth. Once the tree reaches a set size, it’ll mate with a goose in the sky, restarting the process and beginning the growth anew. I knew it was going to be pretty damn strange, but my first 10 minutes of play had me searching the annals of my mind for how I got to such a point in my life (I’m still looking).

Once a tree has fully matured and mated, you’ll move on to another, with even higher requirements. Between these, you’ll see some — to be blunt — insane animations showing the events of a goose finding its way into becoming a tree, including one forming a parasitic relationship with a person and taking full control of their body from the inside. It’s goose body-horror, and it’s genuinely really creative (and more than a little disturbing).

Beyond its artstyle and animations, it manages to diversify itself in gameplay decently well. As the goose tree grows, it’ll sprout branches; weird goose growths that interact with the Tingis as they fall. They’ll bounce, roll, or even be eaten and spat out by these branches, all of which earn extra money. You’ll begin to build insane Rube Goldberg machines out of goose flesh to optimise your monetary gain. It’s a really satisfying system that helps to minimise the downtime that you’re often forced into with Clicker games.

After each goose tree, you’ll gain Calcium, which can be spent on persistent upgrades. You can also earn Gems, which can then be spent on buying additional Branches or upgrades from the Medical Center. And as you earn achievements, from both primary progression and doing certain tasks, more branches will be unlocked for you to find.

I wasn’t super into the music, but it’s by no means awful. Its visual presentation was fantastic, the animations between chapters are all very good, and the visuals during gameplay are charming too. As a whole, I had a good time with Tingus Goose. It’s not a complex title, but it’s a really good entry into a relatively stale genre, despite it getting a little tiresome.