Road to Silly: WHAT THE CAR?
Wheels? Who needs wheels in this comedy 'racing' game?
‣ WHAT THE CAR?
From: Triband
Platforms: PC
Release: 5 September, 2024
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site
I've developed a habit of calling this game 'Car With Legs' because that's what the first level throws at you. A cute little car spawns and literally runs along the track as you guide it around the curves to the finish line, smacking the A button for delightful honks.
This was off to a weird start. Then, WHAT THE CAR? doubled down. Almost every level starts with a unique and often wacky car design. My next car had too many legs, and another had two giant legs. It's not only human appendages. Another level strapped office chairs to the car. In another, the car wore a jetpack and rode a bicycle. There's a shark car. This game is wack.
WHAT THE CAR? isn't a conventional racer. It's more like a novelty trick track racer (but not exclusively—there are odd diversions such as chopping vegetables, scoring a goal on a Foosball table, or getting flung from a playground horse). In most cases, you race along a track, navigating corners in the road, ramps, and such while colliding with the various objects of the different level themes, ranging from chairs and safety cones to lots of bears. Some tracks are outdoors, others are inside office blocks. In a few, the car swims. Almost every level has a unique car configuration, of which there are many, and they get bizarre.
It’s all for a laugh. Yet, there is a challenge level to this. Many levels have tricky detours where you can find collectable cards, a small reward for taking the road less travelled. So, there is scope for a more intense game, and the harder 'skull' levels really up the pressure; the demo has two, one of which I was barely able to start before failing.
The full game has potential to get really hard, but that isn't the primary goal. Comedy is. The overt humour on display makes sense when you learn developer Triband calls itself a 'comedy game developer'. WHAT THE CAR? goes all out on being silly but adds proper gameplay for a casually challenging experience that stays fresh thanks to the eclectic variation of racing cars (a description I use as loosely as possible). The delightful art style combines cell-shaded visuals with colourful and cartoony designs. Even the soundtrack is quite something, amplifying the goofy experience.
Triband has made several of these games (WHAT THE GOLF? And WHAT THE BAT?), and WHAT THE CAR? is a PC port of a very successful mobile game (which won Mobile Game of the Year at the 27th annual DICE Awards). Not that you'd notice it—the PC experience feels very native and provides excellent controller support. Don't use a keyboard; this is a racing game! Yes, even though the cars sometimes have legs.
📽 Demo Moment: Cars can ride bicycles
WHAT THE CAR? daft. At one point, you control a car with flu, propelled by its sneezes. And I'm not going to explain the 'a-car-dion'. But it all still comes together in a captivating, sometimes challenging, and persistently ridiculous experience. Good fun!
WHAT THE CAR? is set to launch 5 September 2024 on Steam.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
📽 00:06 Honk if you like bears
📽 00:30 Car with legs
📽 01:07 More legs
📽 01:47 Rocketz
📽 02:18 Let's get weird
📽 03:48 Car with jumps
📽 04:55 Big legs
📽 05:30 Umbrella time
📽 06:12 Get flicked
📽 06:28 Ball!
📽 07:03 Office chairs. Why not?
📽 08:14 Bounce!
📽 09:12 Car with cold
📽 09:59 Are we... cooking?
📽 11:14 The real game starts!
📽 12:03 Car on bike with jetpack!
📽 13:02 Need for RC speed!
📽 15:17 A-car-dion
📽 16:13 Into the water
📽 17:30 Carp
📽 18:48 This skull level is nuts
📽 20:37 A series of failures
📽 24:26 Finally, a clean run!
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This game is amazing! (As well as other games of this studio) So full of charm and fun