YoImagine a new racing video game. Whatever you imagined, What the Car? is not it. In a world where racing games pride themselves on the increasing authenticity and detail of their driving experiences, pushing the speedometer towards realism with cutting-edge game engines and perfectly simulated motors, this is the opposite. This car literally runs on foot.
Described as “an absurdly silly adventure full of racing, laughter and surprises”, What the Car? sees you take on the role of a car with legs, racing and overcoming increasingly ridiculous obstacles to reach the finish line. “None of the team owns a car, or likes cars,” says Tim Garbos, the game’s creative director at Copenhagen studio Triband.
“That may seem wrong when we’re making a car game, but it’s allowed us to naively misunderstand all sorts of things about cars.”
In addition to moving on two legs, this car can play foosball and chop vegetables. It’s still technically a racing game, but it’s best to think of it as a collection of crazy mini-games. Each of its hundreds of levels requires a different challenge to reach the end point, from paragliding to playing soccer to turning into an accordion to stretch your wheels through cracks.
Unsurprisingly, this not-quite-racing game doesn’t count Forza, Gran Turismo or even Mario Kart among its influences. Instead, the team at Triband cite the adventure worlds of The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario 64, and there are flashes of Katamari Damacy amid the mayhem (when your car grows too many legs, you tumble around the track like a ball). “The ever-changing format of the game is great when you’re drawing inspiration from all sorts of things,” Garbos adds.
A version of the game was released on Apple Arcade last year and won a Dice Award for Best Mobile Game. The PC version has been expanded and will continue to receive monthly updates. Another addition is a full level creator, giving users the ability to create and share their own wacky worlds – something Garbos hopes will be tackled in a suitably absurd way: “People will create absolutely terrible levels and force their friends to play them.”
The studio has previous experience in bringing a humorous edge to cult films such as What the Golf? and What the Bat?, which use baseball bats instead of hands. “As a studio, we focus on comedy games, and when you create a joke, you start by setting expectations, usually by providing a mundane context, and then you subvert them by doing something different,” explains Garbos.
As other successful parody games like Goat Simulator have shown, there’s an art to creating beautifully silly works. How exactly does Triband strike that balance? “A complete disregard for realism, car fans, and real vehicles, but also a strong focus on creating a great experience as a whole. Sometimes we just need the car to have bigger legs, to be able to fly or swim, and then we make that happen… (but) even though we have stupid, simple laughs, it also has to work as a game. It has to provide hours of playtime. That takes time and dedication.”
Games can be great at comedy, especially physical comedy – think Octodad, Gang Beasts, Untitled Goose Game, and indeed any game where a character moves around the environment in a funny way. What the Car? joins the recently released Thank Goodness You’re Here! and the upcoming Baby Steps among the games that are actively trying to make us laugh this year.
“I think the comedy genre is underrepresented in video games compared to, say, television,” Garbos says. “We take comedy very seriously. When you want to make someone laugh, you have to start with yourself. If you find it funny or ridiculous, you’re on the right track… Personally, I love showing people the game and seeing their eyes light up at the jokes while they try to hide a little laugh. That’s the reason I make video games.”
I can’t help but wonder what will get the Triband absurdist treatment next. “We’re just getting started,” jokes Garbos. “We’re considering making a parody game of the most mundane and well-known things… including newspapers.”
