Imagine a car. Then, imagine a car the way a child does. How does it run if it doesn’t have legs? So maybe your car has legs. But what happens when it enters the water? It’ll need fins to be able to swim. Or maybe it just jumps on a surfboard to make its way across? All of these things, and plenty more, await you in WHAT THE CAR?, a game where you try to get to the finish line in the most creative ways possible.
Plenty of people are convinced that random does not equal funny. Most of these people are pretty bitter at not being perceived as funny themselves, but maybe that’s beside the point. The thing is, it’s hard to find the right balance between random things happening and everything remaining fresh and funny. It’s a balancing act that Danish developer Triband has now attempted for the third time with WHAT THE CAR?, the follow-up to WHAT THE GOLF? and the VR-exclusive WHAT THE BAT?. Now, I’ll be honest here: comedy games usually don’t do it for me. Humour is a pretty subjective thing as is, and most games that try to sell themselves as being laugh-out-loud-funny generally don’t get more than a chuckle out of me, if even that. Luckily, WHAT THE CAR? brings the same level of amusement as its predecessors. The game is full of excruciating puns and wildly inventive ideas of what a car can be and do. I never found myself rolling on the floor laughing, but I did notice a near constant smile on my face as I was playing.
But I might be getting ahead of myself. For those who don’t know, the point of WHAT THE CAR? is to make it to the finish line in each short level, which takes anywhere between ten and thirty seconds. There’s three crowns to be earned: bronze, silver, and gold, so there’s endless replay value here if you’re someone who likes to 100% a game. What makes WHAT THE CAR? so much fun is that no two levels are alike. Your car usually has legs, but in some levels, it might have incredibly long legs, or its legs have become giraffes, or you grew a fin and are able to swim quickly. There’s no end to how many variations the game comes up with, and the developers are still working on new levels to be added later, which I thought was pretty neat. The levels also contain a collectible card each, so that’s a nice little extra to aim for as you try to reach the finish line. In between levels, you run around a world map, where you’ll also have access to player-made levels, adding even more replayability to a game that’s already steeped in it.
But why are you traversing this world and accomplishing all these goals? Well, as you might have noticed from the game’s trailer or gameplay videos, there are a lot of bears here. These bears love to party, but they can’t do that unless you get them everything they need for the best night of their lives. So during the first six worlds, that’s what you do. Each world is themed and ends with a fun and very surprising mini-game—doing CARaoke, filling drink orders, you know, the usual for a walking car—and at the end of the sixth world, you get to make the final preparations for the ultimate party. Now, I hear you: six worlds is not that much. And you’d be correct! Not to worry though, as the game doesn’t end just there. It’s just that the story, insofar as you can call it that, does. Which is weird, because world eight and its Mad Max stylings might be the best bit of gameplay in the whole thing. At the moment, there’s only two more post-story chapters, but the developers are currently working on more content for the game, and the fun part is that you can help them by voting which chapters you’d prefer seeing in the future.
It does make me wonder though: how many more ideas can the developers get from changing up a car? Because while each level presents us with something new, surely there are limits to how you change it up and keep it fresh? Even in the three hours it took me to complete the base game—just finishing levels, not trying to get the gold crown for each one—there were times when things felt just a little bit repetitive. ‘Car has big wheels’ is fun, but ‘Car has even bigger wheels’ might just be pushing it. It’s a feeling that didn’t come up when I was playing WHAT THE GOLF?, for example, and maybe that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, with this being the third game in a series full of pretty similar ones.
As usual, the presentation for the game is completely on point. The developers struck gold with the original, colourful cartoon-like visual style of WHAT THE GOLF?, so they haven’t changed that up too much here. The different designs for the car, as well as other characters in this world like the funky dancing bears, are delightful. Every level springs to life with a literal blast, as your car gets launched from a cannon, and because the levels are so short, they never outstay their welcome. The music fits the absurdity of this game wonderfully, although I can imagine that, if you hear this cacophony of sound interspersed with the occasional ‘WHAT THE CAAAAAAR’ without playing the game, you might get very confused as to who would call this music.
While I had a good time with this game, I’m a little unsure about who I would recommend it to. If you’ve played either of the Triband’s previous games and you very much want more of the same, then by all means: play this game. It’s a fun addition to the WHAT THE universe, and you’ll be surprised at the inventiveness at play and the number of pop-culture references that are hidden within. However, if this is the first time you’ve heard about these games, I would definitely recommend WHAT THE GOLF? over this. That’s the problem with adding new games to a series like this: comparisons will always be made. And in comparison to the original, WHAT THE CAR? just falls a little short. Not by much, but still noticeably so.
WHAT THE CAR? is another hit for the team at Triband and offers a lot of fun for gamers of all ages. The difficulty is welcoming enough for everyone to have a blast with it, while those who want a challenge can try to get all of those gold crowns. While it doesn’t quite live up to the—admittedly very high—standards of WHAT THE GOLF?, this is still a really good way to fill an afternoon or so. And with more content on the way, there are way worse uses of ten quid.
Release Date: September 9th, 2024
Platforms: PC, Apple Arcade
Price: £8.50
Version tested: PC (via Steam Deck)
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