There are times when what I’m looking for in a video game is challenge, be that the challenge of overcoming a boss with split second reactions or the challenge of taking in a meaningful story. Sometimes though I just want to be entertained, and play something gleefully silly. Games simply do not come much sillier than Grandma, No. But if you’ve always dreamt of wrecking a house as a granny with no consequences, then this OAP focused game was made for you.
The titular grandma of this physics based destruct ‘em up is just your everyday older lady, content with pottering around her little house and doing odd jobs. Her easy going life is interrupted though when her son drops off the baby so he can go on holiday. Even with the addition of this little fella though the chores must be done, and that’s pretty much what the entirety of Grandma, No entails.
Grandma, No takes place solely in Granny’s home, with each room presenting a selection of tasks to do. These are fairly easy to accomplish, usually just involving you finding the right item hidden amongst Grandma’s clutter. As you do this though you’ll likely cause a whole lot of havoc, because moving items usually leads to throwing items which inevitably leads to a disaster zone of a kitchen or living room. There always becomes a point where you have to accept that you’ll be living among fire and smashed glass, and if anything making this worse is part of the fun.
Some tasks in Grandma, No do require a bit more effort than exploring and destroying a room though. Generally this means you’ll get to directly control Gran’s shaky hands to pour water for a cup of tea or explore the freezer for a TV dinner. There’s still not a whole lot of complexity to this, but it’s a change of pace that requires enough dexterity to be pretty engaging. These hands on sections vary a lot between rooms too, which keeps the game fresh.
Each of the main three rooms of Grandma, No has a few main objectives to complete in order to see the credits, but there’s also a much bigger page of optional objectives to accomplish too. These range from finding hidden collectibles to destroying items of furniture, and require much more thorough room exploration to complete. I actually found these side objectives way more fun than the mandatory ones, as they’re generally much more creative and require you to use silly physics to throw items around more.
As you’d expect from a game with a dedicated fart button (apologies for not mentioning this sooner) Grandma, No is a daft game. You’ll encounter characters who are just entirely ridiculous, like for example the dust genie trapped in your handheld vacuum. Conversations are only made more entertaining by the fact that Grandma doesn’t speak and just sort of stands grinning blankly. I’ll admit that these chats sometimes outstayed their welcome, but the hits balance out the misses.
I was enjoying my time with Grandma, No, and then rather suddenly, it was over. Admittedly I had plenty of side goals to go back and complete, but I really wasn’t expecting the credits to roll in such a short time of playing. If you’re prepared for this then it probably won’t be as big a gut punch, but I just can’t deny I was left expecting more.
I have one more issue with Grandma, No, and it’s a pretty big one. While playing I couldn’t shake the feeling that the whole game was kind of joking around at the expense of the elderly. The shaking hand of the physically less able old woman shouldn’t be a funny mechanic, and if the jokes were at the expense of other marginalised groups this game would be burned at the metaphorical stake. Sure it’s tongue in cheek and not everyone will find it distasteful, but I did, and the physics based destruction wasn’t worth that feeling.
Grandma, No is a silly physics game that many will find delightful, but the comedy it aims for just felt like the lowest hanging fruit. Checking off objectives and destroying a house full of doilies is definitely satisfying though, and as long as you’re not expecting to spend multiple visits with Grandma you might find it worth playing.
