Imagine a new racing video game. Whatever you have pictured, What the Car? is not it. This game flips the script on traditional racing games entirely, featuring a car with legs instead of wheels.
Described as “an absurdly silly adventure full of racing, laughs, and surprises,” What the Car? puts players in control of a car with legs, sprinting and climbing through increasingly ridiculous obstacles. “Not a single person in the team owns a car or even likes cars,” says Tim Garbos, the creative director at Triband. “That might seem wrong when we’re making a car game, but it has enabled us to naively misunderstand all sorts of things about cars.”
As well as ambling around on two legs, this car can play table football and chop vegetables. It’s technically still a racing game, but think of it as a madcap minigame collection. Each of its hundreds of levels brings a different challenge, from paragliding to playing football, and even becoming an accordion to stretch your wheels across crevasses.
Unsurprisingly, this unconventional game does not draw influence from Forza, Gran Turismo, or Mario Kart. Instead, the team cites the adventure worlds of The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario 64. There are even flashes of Katamari Damacy amidst the chaos. “The ever-changing format of the game is great when you are inspired by all the things,” adds Garbos.
Originally released on Apple Arcade last year and winner of a Dice award for best mobile game, the PC version of What the Car? has been expanded and will continue to receive monthly updates. Another new feature is a level creator, allowing users to build and share their own wacky worlds. Garbos hopes this will be approached in a suitably nonsensical style: “People will make some absolutely terrible levels and force their friends to play them.”
The studio, known for cult hits What the Golf? and What the Bat?, focuses on comedy games. According to Garbos, “As a studio, we focus on comedy games, and when you build a joke, you start by setting up expectations and then subverting them by doing something different.” This method taps into the broader trend of successful parody games like Goat Simulator, which find an art in creating beautifully dumb work. Triband strikes this balance by disregarding realism entirely but focusing on making a great experience. “Sometimes, we just need the car to have bigger legs, be able to fly, or swim—and then we make that happen,” Garbos explains. “While we do have stupid simple laughs, it needs to work as a game. It needs to bring hours of playing time. That takes time and dedication.”
Games can excel at comedy, especially physical comedy, as seen in Octodad, Gang Beasts, and Untitled Goose Game. What the Car? joins recent releases actively trying to elicit laughs from players. “I do think comedy as a genre is underrepresented in video games compared to, for example, TV,” says Garbos. “We are pretty serious about comedy. When you want to make someone laugh, you have to start with yourself. If you can find it funny or ridiculous, then you’re on the right track.” Garbos adds that he loves showing the game to people and seeing their eyes light up at the jokes. “That is the reason I make video games.”
One can only wonder what absurd concept Triband will tackle next. “We’re just getting started,” teases Garbos. “We are considering making a parody game of the most mundane well-known things, including newspapers.”
What the Car? is out on Steam on September 9 and is already available on Apple Arcade. With its unique blend of absurdity and humor, it offers a refreshingly different experience in the world of racing games. Whether you love it or find it perplexing, it is sure to leave an impression.
Source: Theguardian