[Review] Bob Help Them - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Gagonfe, Ulon, and Rhowsl
Published By: No Gravity Games
Categories: Favor simulator
Release Date: 03.11.21

Bob Help Them is a simple game. People want something, you get it for them. Chop wood, collect food, fish, cook. Pet the dog.

Alright, sound good? Now do that under a time limit and you need to please many a people. And sometimes please just pet the dog. It’s a waiting game, wait for the tree to give enough apples. Wait for you to harvest enough material. The only thing that I feel makes you wait too long is fishing, which has you fish, then wait for your character to fully display he has the fish, stop holding the button early and it cancels everything out.

With calming music and cute graphics, the game doesn’t seem to be a stressful time, but later levels, especially ones where I needed to fish a lot had me feeling overwhelmed. There’s always ways to multitask. Cook one set of food while another one’s numbers raise so you can grab more later or while running around doing other jobs. With fishing however, you need to dedicate your time to it and it always takes forever. You’re thankfully usually given plenty of time to do these tasks.

I do horribly under pressure. Add that to multitasking and it goes quickly from a relaxing game about doing favors for people and petting the dog to something where I fear I’ll run out of time if I don’t plan everything correctly. Even when I do plan, some stages end up cutting it close to the time limit. At the very least, the game feels snappy as to pick up and drop items for people.

At the end of the day, I’m not too sure if Bob Help Them is a game for me in particular, but it’s definitely a fun game if you’re more into the challenging multitasking kind of games. With a decent number of levels, a ranking system, it’s bound to keep those willing to go up to the task plenty busy. Don’t mistake a game that isn’t deep for one that has nothing to offer, even if it’s particularly niche.