After watching the first trailer for Say No! More, I knew it was something I wanted to play, but I didn’t really know what it was. Surely it didn’t just have you running around saying no to people?
The short answer is yes, Say No! More is a game all about saying no to whoever stands in your way. There’s a little bit more to it than that, but that’s pretty much the gist, and the game is really carried by its humour and story. Thankfully it’s very funny, heartfelt and brief enough that it never overstays its welcome despite the simplistic gameplay.
You start the game by creating your own custom character and choosing which language you’ll be saying No in, ranging from English to Spanish and tons of other options as well. After this, your character finds a tape that teaches them the power of no, before getting their lunchbox taken away. Then the journey of saying no more begins.
Each chapter of the game lasts around ten or twenty minutes and has you going up the corporate chain and saying no to someone higher up than you. It starts off as a supervisor, but before long you’re saying no to managers and CEOs. A lot of the fun comes from just how ridiculous the scenarios get, as well as the act of just saying no to everything around you.
I also really liked the games art and sound design, as its simplicity allows for the game to be really weird and exaggerated. Some of the expressions are top meme material, which makes the office environment a lot more fun. There were a few occasions later in the game where I ran into some slowdown, but they were minor and didn’t detract from the experience at all.
When watching the trailers, I pondered whether there would be more to the game than walking around and saying no to people, but as it turns out it’s even simpler than that as Say No! More is pretty much completely on rails. All the player has to do is press a button to say no, and occasionally charge it up for a more powerful response.
That may sound like a bad thing, but the simplicity works in the game’s favour and allows it to focus on the humour. As you progress through the chapters, you do learn new ways of saying no, such as a cold no, or a whacky no and this helps to keep things a bit more fresh. You also get to charge up the power of your no by performing actions such as a sarcastic slow clap. There are also times when it’s better not to say anything at all, such as when a friendly employee just wants to have a staring contest with you.
Really none of this ends up mattering, as the game isn’t really focused on its gameplay. All it really wants you to do is have fun saying no to people and enjoy the game’s humour. Besides a few occasions where you need to charge a no, the choice of no itself is superfluous, and there are no punishments for shouting at the wrong people. I didn’t see a fail state once, and I’m not even sure one exists. If you really wanted to, you could literally just mash the button and get through the game in one sitting, although that would be taking a lot of the fun out of it.
This isn’t a massive deal, because Say No! More is focused on the story it tells and being as funny as possible, a feat it achieves for the whole runtime. Each character you shout no at has a different reaction and seeing people and debris fly everywhere as you deny petty requests is a ton of fun. There are a ton of jabs at workplace culture, and the short length means that it never really runs out of steam.
Beyond just being funny, there’s a lot of great commentary on working culture, and some genuinely emotional moments as others start to say no alongside you. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but the characters here all feel quite real, and I was pretty invested in the story by the game’s end.
If you’re looking for a deep gameplay experience, then Say No! More is absolutely not going to be your cup of tea. It’s one of the most simplistic indie games that I’ve ever played, but it’s also one of the most heartfelt and memorable, as well as teaching some genuinely valuable lessons in its short run time. Don’t say no to this one.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
Review copy provided by Thunderful Games
