You are clearly someone who has been using the internet for a while, so you’ve seen that “This is Fine” meme before, be it in a forum, on social media, or just by visiting any random site. That gag came straight from a webcomic called Gunshow, and it was originally published in 2013. The fact I had to inform you of the name of the webcomic goes to show how little you’ve ever cared about the origin of that meme as a whole. Anyway… for reasons beyond my comprehension, that meme just got its own licensed video game. To make matters even more shocking, it’s not a poorly made joke game. It’s a fully-fledged metroidvania…

This is like when Crazy Frog got its own game. But this time around, the game is good.

What’s more, the oddly named This Is Fine: Maximum Cope is not a particularly bad metroidvania. Its premise is a bit odd, but it revolves around the protagonist of that cartoon, named “the Question Hound”, exploring his inner self, shaped like a bizarre theme park. Sections include a recreation of his high school days, a horror-themed area based around the dog’s fears, and so on. In essence, it’s the Question Hound’s distorted, depression-fueled mind palace. The game just “starts”, with no fanfare or background. Then again, its plot is not something I cared about, or felt like I should. I guess the main appeal of the game was the fact you can play as the “This is Fine” dog in a platformer, not its setting itself.

Levels don’t look impressive, but characters are well-animated.

Thankfully, the gameplay ended up being quite decent. This is not a revolutionary metroidvania in terms of mechanics or controls, but they work well enough. You explore some visually underwhelming, but well-designed areas, do the occasional platforming gauntlet, solve puzzles, and defeat enemies with a very basic, but functional combat system. Kill a boss, earn a new ability, which allows you to explore further. That’s basically it. Branching paths can lead to you earning additional currency (in the shape of coffee beans), and you can upgrade your stats by talking to a shady-looking merchant. Nothing you haven’t seen a million times before. But not broken at all.

I’ll be honest and say I went through the motions with the game. Whilst I wasn’t impressed with the backgrounds, character animations were quite good, in a pseudo handdrawn way. Even if the combat felt half-baked at best, boss battles were fun and challenging. There was always something positive to make up for another element that wasn’t bad per se, just underwhelming or generic. At the end of the day, pros did manage to outweigh the cons.

The game shines whenever you’re thrown into a boss battle, even if the combat itself isn’t that impressive.

In no moment did I feel annoyed whilst playing This Is Fine: Maximum Cope, to my absolute surprise. It was a competent, somewhat well-designed metroidvania, with decent level design and boss battles to make up for underwhelming visuals and a generic combat system. Is it my favorite metroidvania? No. I also doubt I would have ever considered playing it if it wasn’t for this reviewing opportunity, as I have zero interest in the meme that inspired the game as a whole. But I’ll be honest with you: I expected a LOT less from it. Actual effort was put into crafting a decent enough platformer, one that won’t impress, but won’t disappoint either.

This Is Fine: Maximum Cope is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB and Asus ROG Ally.

A copy of This Is Fine: Maximum Cope was provided by the publisher.