Grandma, No! Review

I’ve always liked a game with ragdoll physics. The simple joys of watching a humanoid go flying through the air are delightful. And that’s what’s in store as you load up Grandma, No! from publisher Super Rare Games. Sure, there’s more than just the titular Grandma flailing through the air to the delight of their grandchild, but that’s a big part of this short sandbox babysitting “simulator”.

Grandma is asked to babysit so that her son and daughter-in-law can go to a nude beach. It’s a last-minute decision because the babysitter is dead! But don’t let that get you down, you have a grandchild to look after. Except… well, the game technically doesn’t involve any childcare at all?

See, Grandma has her own stuff going on. She has chores to do, barbecuing to cook, pies to bake… So as she goes into each of the three levels, baby will stay in one place and just watch while she does all of the work. And sometimes cry, but people loved that when Kojima did it. You may have seen some screenshots or watched the trailer and noticed that the house gets a little messy; well, Grandma isn’t the most coordinated person in the world, and vases are fragile.

Grandma isn’t the only character in the house, as each of the three areas has at least one eccentric personality for her to meet. I’d say “for her to talk to” but Grandma doesn’t say anything to anyone, which has its own charms, but the people (I use the term loosely) you meet do enough talking to make up for any lack of verbosity from our hero.

There is a lot of trial and error in Grandma, No!, as the highlight which illuminates things you’re trying to interact with doesn’t always show up unless you’re at the correct angle. I was stuck in the garden for quite a while as the dog snout didn’t seem to be interactable, for instance. Hint in case that isn’t patched. There were also sound effects which didn’t work, and a weird box outline showed up in one section which I suspect was supposed to be invisible.

My one issue with the game was how much puke there is. I have a generally strong stomach, but when balls of goo are spraying chunks around the place as they bounce at random, it almost got to me. There’s a button to make Grandma fart, funny right? Wearing different outfits can cause that button to make her do different things, like be electrocuted, or hurl everywhere… There are tasks that require her to do it, and it can even happen accidentally. I wanted to throw a squished bug at something high up, so held “up” on the right stick and Grandma ate it. I really did say “Grandma, no!”...

The graphical style that developer WALLRIDE chose is comical and over-the-top, and I adore it. Everything is ove- designed and I say that as a compliment. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the soundtrack, which is pretty repetitive, especially as there are only a few instances of different music being used. The voice acting is all great, however, so props to the cast for that.

Grandma, No! is a fun time, though it’s only three levels, weighing in at about three hours total. I do recommend checking it out, and I definitely want to see how the speedrunning community does with it. Just make sure you’re not eating while you play.