Choice Words: Give Yourself Goosebumps #2: Tick Tock, You're Dead!

Well, a lot of people seemed to like how we handled this concept before, so let's keep going into the weird, wacky world of Give Yourself Goosebumps. And time is not on our side. Literally. Because we have time travel on our hands. It's a subject Stine's usually decent with, so a book with multiple time based paths shouldn't be too bad, right? Well, let's get on the clock with the awesomely titled Tick Tock, You're Dead! 

COVER STORY

As previously stated, Tim Jacobus only did the first cover for GYG. Enter Mark Nagata, who would work on the rest of the holo-cover era of the series. His style is more saturated colors and shocked reactions, which work in his favor. They can be silly, just like Tim's, but more often than not, they work really well. And this is a strong start. I like the color of the clock, it's monstrous green face (unintentionally reminding me of The Haunted Mask) and our protagonist pulling a Harold Lloyd and trying to hang on for dear life. Really compelling stuff.

STORY

Similar to last book, we'll be covering the paths to the good endings of the book. There are technically three in this one, so we'll bring up both good endings on that split. And like last time, "the player" will be listed as "they/them" due to it usually being ambiguous.

The player visits New York with their parents and younger brother Denny. Denny, being a Goosebumps sibling from this era, is a pain in the butt, constantly abusing the player and saying "You're not the boss of me". And you're not so big. As the player and their family visit the Museum of Natural History, they stop in an exhibit about time. Denny kicks the player, whines, then runs off when the player takes them to the nearest water fountain. And unfortunately, it seems that Denny ran into a strange room with a sign mentioning a dangerous experiment.

So, with no other alternative, the player enters the room and runs into a strange man in a lab coat with a long white ponytail named Dr. Peebles, and he's mistaken the player as the volunteer for his big experiment. His experiment is the Chronomometer, a giant time machine, and the player is going to be the first human to travel through time. The player is skeptical, but Dr. Peebles says it should all be fine and regardless which path through time they take, they'll return at the exact same time they left. But the player still considers it. Should they travel through time, or search to find Denny? But this isn't our actual split, as this is another troll option. If you pick "Find Denny", Stine just calls you a moron for not wanting to do this, so we're doing it.

Although this turns out to be a terrible idea as just as Dr. Peebles prepares the Chronoport to the place in time, Denny shows up, says you're not the boss of him, then runs through the Chronoport. He's now lost in time, with no clue as to where he ended up. And to add an extra beat of concern, if he's not found within two hours, he'll be lost to time forever. So the player is now tasked with finding him. They must be touching Denny when they go through the Chronoport or else this will still fail. But when did Denny go, past for future? And after all of this build we finally get to our actual first split in the story.

PATH #1: BACK TO THE FUTURE

This is the path that technically has two good endings so we'll bring both up when we get there. 

The player takes a trip to the future. They're given the options of a future with flying cars, or a more near future New York as it's mentioned that you can still see the Empire State Building and the World... Trade Center... Look, it's a book from 1995 I'm not going to dog Stine for hindsight. And the digital edition changes it to One World Trade Center, so this is more of a collar-tug but nothing more. The player spots a kid who looks a lot like Denny run off in the New York timeline, so the player follows him there. Turns out that this is the future... one day in the future. 

Feeling burned, the player is about to head back to the Chronometer when they see themselves, Denny and their mother crossing the street. After the shock of seeing themselves wears off, they then notice a truck is careening towards them. As the player heads to the nearest newsstand, they see Denny from their timeline is there as well. He's still a pain to deal with, but aids in the distraction of throwing around some free money from the stand, which is enough to save their family from being flattened by a truck. So the day is saved, right? Well, Denny is still a pain in the butt, and doesn't want to go back to the present. But when the player says that there's something really cool waiting in the present, Denny decides to come with and the story ends there. 

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So that's good ending #1 for this split, but what happens if the player chose to stop the truck instead of their family? In the alternate path, the player goes back an hour earlier via the Chronometer and heads to the company of the truck, Herring Bros. Deliveries. They arrive at the company and has to either tell the dispatcher to stop the delivery, or try to talk to the truck driver instead. By choosing the dispatcher, she mistakes the player as an employee and tells them to hurry up and not keep Abe waiting. Abe is angry and forces the player to lift cargo into the truck. 

But with the truck driver heading inside and Abe approaching. It's now or never. But the player needs to wear something green to trick Abe into thinking it's the truck driver. But don't worry about the honor system here, the wearing of the green actually leads to a bad ending. By not wearing green, the player gets taken to the red truck where the crates are full of white mice headed to a laboratory. The player opens the crates, but now are being swarmed by mice. That's enough to keep the truck from leaving, so the player's family survives. So good ending... though the player never is confirmed to find Denny, I guess so maybe not?

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But there's also that other future path that does give the player a more "It's an ending, that's enough" style ending. The player heads into future New York and instantly gets arrested by a robot cop because humans aren't allowed on the streets. Taken to a robot judge, the player is given either the sentence of being taken to school or a zoo. The teacher asks kids questions and when they get them wrong, they're put in something called a Frammelizer and disappear. 

The player is next to answer a question. And that so happens to be a trivia question from Goosebumps. Because I guess this is a timeline where Goosebumps trivia is part of the curricular. What were the three magical objects Morgred used to send Susannah and Edward to the future? Those are of course the three magic stones. After getting it right, the player heads further into the future where they're now on some sort of ship about to dock. The player sees kids in jumpsuits being led by robots, so they grab a suit and follow to see what's up. They follow Denny into the engine room, and of course Denny sucks and doesn't want to go, even with laser toting robots showing up.

Denny kicks the robot in the shin and runs off, but the player is now about to be executed for seeing the ship's antigravity program. The player escapes and tries to use the Chronometer, but it's busted. So they head for a room called "Teletime", hoping that may be time related. In the room are TVs with historical events and items on the screens, as well as a robot in a lab coat who draws a gun on the player. The player manages to trick the robot into giving them technology to return to the present. They manage to get Denny and return to the present, back with their parents. But Denny is still a brat, so it's an ending.

PATH #2: PAST TENSE

The player takes the trip to the past to find Denny and is presented with two options. A medieval setting involving a knight, or a stone age setting involving dinosaurs. They go with the medieval setting. The player arrives to a castle where the drawbridge is lifted. Oh, and a knight is running towards them with a giant spear. Hop in the moat or face the knight? Turns out facing the knight is the right path. The knight mentions that this is the castle of King Ruthbert and the only way to gain access is to best the knight in a duel. Oh and the moat was filled with crocodiles, so that was a close call, huh?

The player spots an apple tree and mentions that they and the knight should hit an apple with a club and the furthest to launch is the winner. As far as if the player succeeds in this early era baseball match, that's determined on luck. Yup, this is an interactive one. Flip a coin twice. If both flips land on the same face, that's one path. If both flips land on different faces, that's another path. And as we've learned by now, with these books, you don't want the perceived "good outcome" of these challenges. It's all opposite day nonsense. So the player gets a heads and a tails. So the player bested the knight and is allowed access into the castle. Then the knight, having lost, leaps into the moat and gets eaten alive, but mentions avoiding the lair. Damn, they're super literal in ye olden days.

Entering the castle, the player is surrounded by darkness and strange screams. It's here where they have to choose to run for it, or press further. Pressing on is the key as the player makes it to two doors. One is marked the throne room and the other is the lair. And remember what we just said about opposite day nonsense? Yeah, turns out that this time you don't play that game as the player needs to go into the throne room. Inside is a fat man and a small child. The man is King Ruthbert and the boy is Denny. But the king has since adopted Denny to be his son, Ruthelford. The player tries to get Denny to leave with them, but he says "You're not the boss of me" and has the player sent to be boiled in oil. You know what, maybe letting this kid get erased to time isn't as bad an idea as it sounds.

But before the player is executed, King Henry's army arrives and attacks the knights. Cool, the Renaissance Men finally came to town. Before one of the opposing knights kills Denny, the player manages to knock them out. The player grabs Denny and turns on the Chronometer. However, it sends both of them to a strange land where the people there dub the player as their ruler. And now Denny will be the player's servant for eternity. I mean, it's cruel, but this kid was super ready to watch his sibling get murdered, so yeah, screw him. 

So those are the good outcomes. But what happens with the bad ones? Let's reveal and rate the bad endings. 

BAD ENDINGS!

#1: Denny runs off again as the Chronometer goes off, causing there to now be two Dennys. The present and future versions. 

RATING: 3. Solid enough "Screw You" ending.

#2: As the future version of the player and Denny fight, the player and their family are hit by the truck.

RATING: 2.5. Dark, but also not too incredible.

#3: Forced to leave Denny behind after he smells like fish.

RATING: 2. No, seriously, how is this a bad thing?

#4: The player manages to veer the truck from their family, but end up running into a wall and presumably dying with Stine saying you really don't want to know what happens next, but the player was definitely a "Hit" on Broadway. 

RATING: 3.5. Decent, but earns point for the silliness added on.

#5: The player ends up involved with a group of rebel humans, but when they choose not to join, the player is used as bait to lure the robots.

RATING: 4. Super dark. Works enough for the impending dread attached to it and the idea that the robots and rebels share one thing in common and that's a lack of empathy. 

#6: The player is tasked by the rebels to blow up a robot facility, but the player ends up becoming a teacher at a robot college. 

RATING: 1.5. ROBOT HOUSE!

#7: The player places the bomb in the power room, only the door locks behind them. The book ends with a literal bang. 

RATING: 4.5. Wins points for being super brutal and dark. Top marks.

#8: The robots catch the player in the air ducts and cut off the oxygen, causing the player to suffocate. 

RATING: 4.5. Another wickedly dark ending. Where was all this cool stuff in the good paths? 

#9: The player is "Frammelized" AKA being put in a metal box and disappearing.

RATING: 2.5. It's fine enough. Gives us an answer as to what being Frammelized is. 

#10: The Chronometer is destroyed and the player gets Frammelized.

RATING: 1. Eh, pretty much the same thing.

#11. Robots throw the player out of the spaceship and they end up exploding in the pressurized airlock.

RATING: 5. Holy crap this one rules. Hit me with that dark stuff.

#12: The player is forced to spend eternity watching a clip of George Washington crossing the Delaware. 

RATING: 1. Stine predicted those "Insert video" for "insert hour length" videos on Youtube. I keep telling you, ahead of the curve.

#13: A giant plant wraps up the player, causing Denny to never notice them. 

RATING: 1.5. Solid enough screwover.

#14: The player lives the rest of their days as a "couch potato" at the zoo.

RATING: 0.5. Probably the weakest outcome so far. Not bad per se, but just lacking.

#15: The player watches as a giant dinosaur egg hatches, only for it to be a giant chicken.

RATING: 0.5. Well something laid an egg alright.

#16: The player and Denny sink in quicksand and presumably die. 

RATING: 3.5. At least Denny suffers. So, happy enough ending? I mean, you die as well, but...

#17: The knight wins the match and the player is thrown to the moat to be eaten alive.

RATING: 3.5. Pretty much what we knew the outcome would be, so not super shocking.

#18: The player is stuck with a dragon and must entertain it forever lest they be eaten. 

RATING: 1.5. Just okay.

#19: Believing to have found a wizard, the player instead finds a lizard named Wizard. 

RATING: 2. Earns point for silliness at least.

#20: By answering the wizard's question wrong, the player is sent to the Corridors of Time with an elderly Denny.

RATING: 2. Behold the ravages of age.

#21: The player finds Denny in a giant web along with giant trapped bugs. The player gets caught as well just as an equally as giant spider is approaching.

RATING: 5. Nopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenope. Earns top marks for literally feeling like a nightmare scenario what with the imagery of the giant dead bugs on the web and the description of the spider.

#22: The player leaves Denny with the king and returns to the present, but their parents are mad for losing Denny. 

RATING: 2.5. Mediocre, but cathartic enough to be decent.

#23: The player leaps into the moat to avoid the knight, but gets eaten by the crocs within. 

RATING: 2. Okay enough, but given another ending is almost the same, not super dynamic.

BEST BAD ENDING: Giant Spider Web

WORST BAD ENDING: Cluck-o-Saurus

CONCLUSION

Tick Tock, You're Dead is just okay. Definitely lacks the same energy as the previous GYG book. Not to mention to mission to save Denny just isn't fun. And any outcome with him erased from history sounds far better. The obvious comparison is Tara from The Cuckoo Clock of Doom given that she too was a nightmare. But somehow I can stomach Tara's crap where Denny's just a whiny brat. Honestly the best endings of the book are the ones that just get rid of him in one way or another as even most of the good endings end with it feeling like while this was the right thing to do, the player doesn't really feel like a winner with how much crap they still take from him.

As for the two paths, I'd say the one involving the truck and the player's family is oddly the more interesting plot given how much more agency it has. Yes, the other ones have robots and rebel forces and knights to battle in baseball, but I feel that the concept of having to stop a horrific event from happening comes off as far more of a unique idea. I also like the medieval path as well. I do wish a lot more interesting side games and even more Goosebumps references were involved, but it's never a bad thing to reference Terror Tower, so points there. But yeah, after a frigging wheel game, going to coin flipping and changing your shirt feels lacking in oomph. 

In conclusion, this one, like I said, is just okay. Never really gets the ball rolling with its ideas and most of the more interesting paths just lead to bad endings while the good ending paths lack much to them other than maybe a solid moment here and there. But it's still a decent recommend. Just not one you need to spend too much time on. Tick Tock, You're Dead! gets a B-.