The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn’t necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable “best" thing. Instead, it’s more just us picking out the single game out of the week’s releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one.
These picks might be controversial, and that’s OK. If you disagree with what we’ve chosen, let’s try to use the comments of these articles to have conversations about what game is your game of the week and why.
Without further ado…
You’re Fired! Job Simulator!
The world of mobile, with its nearly nonexistent barrier of entry for developers getting their creations in front of the eyeballs of potentially billions of people, has been home to some truly bizarre game ideas over the years. In a way it feels like we’re past that sort of grungy, punk rock style of indie game that didn’t really care how it looked but just cared about showcasing a cool idea. Games like Magnetic Shaving Derby, where you’re literally pulling a razor around with a magnet across some poor saps face, shaving away his whiskers. Or Tape It Up! that has you frantically trying to tape up boxes that come down a conveyor belt at a rapid pace. Games like those were simple but clever, and played to the strengths of the touchscreen.
Well, it’s no coincidence that I mention those two games in particular, because if you mashed them together I think you’d come up with something along the lines of You’re Fired! Job Simulator! (Free) from developer Marco Krapf. It has the sort of raw and silly aesthetics of Magnetic Shaving Derby and couples it with some clever twitch-based vertical gameplay similar to Tape It Up! You play as the new cashier at the local BillMart after getting hired by your new boss, Mr. Bill. Customers load their items onto the conveyer belt at the checker stand and your job is to scan each item as quickly as possible, take payment for each customer, and move right on to the next.
It might sound easy, but it’s not. Not when that dang conveyor belt just never stops, mercilessly moving piles of items towards you with no end in sight. If any of the items cross the red laser where your bar code scanner is, then… you’re fired! Not helping matters is that some items have a damaged bar code, so you’ll need to manually enter their product number. Again, the conveyor belt doesn’t stop even when this happens. Dealing with payments is no picnic either as you’ll need to either swipe a customer’s card through the machine or collect all their paper money without accidentally touching the… oh I don’t know, death stuff? Yeah, touch that stuff and… that’s right, you’re fired! Oh, and mind the rats that crawl around on everyone’s groceries while you’re at it, too.
You’re Fired! Job Simulator! is a really nice twitchy arcade game just on the surface, but what I really love are its little details. Like each new employee having their own unique name, hobby, and personality. Or the murmur of customers waiting in line and the pitch-perfect “beep" of your item scanner. I also love how you need to reinvest your profits back into the store in order to unlock new groups and types of products, which can have even higher selling prices and thus increase your overall profits. It’s a nice little progression system to what would have been a perfectly acceptable high score chaser on its own. You’re Fired! Job Simulator! is totally free to download and play and is so quirky and entertaining it’s bound to put a smile on your face.
