We’ve all been there. You’re sat on the loo after a heavy dump, and you run out of toilet paper. It’s a nightmare scenario that many don’t even think about until it happens. That’s the case with the unnamed gentleman of Give me toilet paper!, and you are the only one can help.

Many thanks to the publisher for the review code

CLEANING YOUR LABOTTOM
Playing as a sentient toilet roll, you need to manoeuvre off the high shelf and reach the shit-stained fella at the bottom. To make things tougher, your route will be blocked by spikey toilet paper, lasers, locked doors, and more! It’s as ridiculous as you’d expect from a Japanese game with a silly name.

The low-poly charm and toilet themed visuals are all well enough, but the game’s entertainment lies in its unique control method. Utilising gyro control, you need to stuff the left joycon into a toilet roll tube (with a sheet or two extra to secure it in place) and roll it around on a sturdy board. I used a large portable whiteboard as a surface, but you can use anything hard, flat, and is big enough to hold with two hands (ooo, err). It feels a little bit like custom-LABO in a way albeit without any of the building process beforehand. It works really well and the game provides a handy setup tutorial to ensure that you’re ready to go.

Screenshot

It takes a little getting used to, but it does kinda work. The roundness of your toilet roll and the type of surface will dramatically affect your experience, so you may want to play around with it until you can get something that allows you to start and stop with ease. I’d recommend a solitary roll bereft of paper and perhaps a surface with a tad more friction for the best results.

Well, not the best results as – rather unexpectedly – the easiest way to play is by gripping your bog roll in hand and rotating as necessary. It makes some of the more precise obstacles a bit easier to manage, but it also makes the game lose some of its charm too. But then playing the intended way ends up being extraordinarily tough without the perfect setup, so it’s a case of which method you prefer.

VERDICT
Don’t let the control quirks put you off. It’s a daft title that costs only €4 and offers a unique experience with a pleasant visual presentation and catchy background music. It may not be a perfect experience, but I applaud the developers for doing something that nobody has ever thought about doing before. It doesn’t work perfectly, but it at least works well enough.