Untitled Goose Game

Untitled Goose Game is a short but infectiously funny puzzle game from the small Australian studio House House, in which the player controls an ordinary, devious goose terrorizing a peaceful English village. The goal in each of several interconnected locations is to complete a list of small, seemingly innocent but hugely annoying tasks for the villagers — steal the gardener's hat, lock him out of his own garden, scare a shopkeeper so badly he ends up in his own stall, or smuggle forbidden items where they don't belong.

The goose has no special abilities beyond a beak for grabbing objects, flapping its wings, and loud, annoying honking that can startle characters and distract them, so solving every puzzle rests on clever observation of the environment, timing, and a bit of mischievous ingenuity. The villagers behave according to simple but readable rules: what goes missing, they go looking for; what lies on the ground, they tidy away — and it's precisely from anticipating these reactions that room for elaborately planned chains of mischief emerges. The task list also doesn't need to be completed in order, so every player discovers solutions at their own pace.

The game's humor springs precisely from the contrast between the idyllic, watercolor-looking English village and the utterly shameless chaos wrought by the titular goose, accompanied by playful piano music arranged by Dan Golding and inspired by Debussy, whose tempo and intensity dynamically adapt to whatever's happening on screen. Although fairly short, the game became a viral internet phenomenon shortly after release thanks to easily shareable, comedic moments, and it also offers a cooperative mode for a second player controlling a second goose, turning organized mischief into proper chaos. After completion, a list of optional challenges is also unlocked, forcing tasks to be done faster or in unusual ways, so the game has something to offer even those who've already finished it once. On Switch, it works exceptionally well thanks to its undemanding, immediately understandable controls.