Ready, Steady, Ship!

featured image showing two characters to the right, one with an opened box with a broken vase falling to the floor, the other with their foot on top of a box. Both characters are stood in a warehouse and a forklift is behind them.

Read Time:3 Minute, 50 Second

Have you ever received a parcel and thought you could give that a go? Well now you can, with Ready, Steady, Ship! From Solo developer Jollybits Games and published by Untold Tales. This parcel packing puzzler will bring you perilously to… prustration* Yeah I know, the alliteration kind of lost me there. Pop the right word down in the comments if you fancy a suggestion

Evri Time, Always on Time!

Releasing on the PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 as well as Nintendo Switch and Xbox. Ready, Steady, Ship! brings a puzzler for you and a couch coop buddy to get your brains around. So sit down relax and get ready to see whether you should answer the door when the delivery man comes.

Gameplay

At its core, Ready, Steady, Ship! is a straightforward puzzler. You are tasked with sending specifically coloured parcels to a specific loading bay. Sounds simple right? Well it’s anything but!

To start with your conveyor belt is conveniently dismantled, so first job is to put it back together. Simply drag the pieces into the right position, then orientate them so that they are pointing in the right direction. Easy. Well, it is until you get further into the levels, the conveyor parts get heavier so they are harder to manipulate. Even rotating becomes a trip to the spinning machine, but definitely don’t stand in it yourself. (You should, just to see what happens) Adding to the list of tools for the job are the forklifts, cranes, even springboard conveyor belts throwing parcels into the air like some strange Cirque Du Soleil adaptation.

Playing in cooperative, two character models that you start the game with are on either side of the screen. With select a character at the top. In the background is a cartoon style factory — Plenty Of Unlocks Await

Fear not, because not only with the puzzles get harder with all the tools above, but the actual warehouse itself will start getting weirder and weirder. So not only are you having to deal with using a packing foam dispenser, but then you have to deal with a space vacuum causing chaos. It’s actually pretty fun!

Better Together

Add to that the fact that this is purely a couch co-op game, although you can get around that by using Steam Remote Play Together on the PC. Ready, Steady, Ship! will have you having a tonne of fun! Having a dedicated single player campaign to play through as well as the co-op option, there’s plenty to get stuck into.

The game does a great service of introducing you to the controls as and when you need them. I always go into the control options to find out which button does what job, and I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed when I first checked them out. There was buttons for forklift up, buttons for interactions, buttons for sprinting. Thankfully the game eases you in gentle with some introductory levels, before throwing you well and truly into the deep end.

Using a star system for progress to the next levels, I guarantee you will keep coming back to make sure you take 3 stars from each level!

Graphics & Audio

With its very cute graphics the game can often mislead you into thinking that its going to be an easy ride. It isn’t. Although I did enjoy stopping for a sip of – I’ll assume it was coffee, but it may have been some soup. Those of you that have been to factories or garages will know what I’m talking about there.

image showing a dismantled conveyor belt, there are packagine boxes all around, both in pink and traditional brownn. A machine to rotate the pieces which one player is standing on as well as a coffee machine. — You Spin Me Right Round…

The animations are great, the character models have been given plenty of care and time.

As for the audio, I found myself nodding and tapping along with the soundtrack, and all the accompanying sound effects.

Longevity

So according to the press release we got before launch, the game is around 5 ish hours for the single player campaign, and around another 5 ish hours for the co-op element. Needless to say I didn’t watch the clock at all during my play through and thoroughly enjoyed the entirety of my time with Ready, Steady, Ship!

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a great co-op game to play with your friends, or loved ones. Ready, Steady, Ship! should be right on your radar. Giving enough mental exercise to cause a challenge, but not too much to stop you from playing, the game is charming and charismatic.

Ready, Steady, Ship! Receives the Thumb Culture Gold Award

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

About Author

Stuart

Been playing games since I can remember, from spectrum all the to current consoles. Always been interested in video game news and recently got the opportunity to head up a great team of eager people. I’m generally a man of many words but I try and be succinct and to the point in everything I write.

See author's posts

Ready, Steady, Ship! – PC Review