| WHAT THE CAR? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay & Story | Release Date | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
WHAT THE CAR? is a racing game where the cars don't function as they normally would. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well , and if it's worth buying.
WHAT THE CAR? Review Overview
What is WHAT THE CAR??
WHAT THE CAR? is the PC release of Triband’s highly-rated mobile game. While the gameplay itself is straightforward, the variety in the car gimmicks and level designs are what gives it a lot of replayability and charm.
WHAT THE CAR? features:
⚫︎ Dozens of different car gimmicks
⚫︎ Various environmental effects
⚫︎ A variety of obstacles and objectives
⚫︎ Time-based leaderboards and achievements
⚫︎ Community-made levels
⚫︎ Level customization
 Steam |
$9.99 |
WHAT THE CAR? Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Good Gameplay Variety Peak Engineering Designs Low Skill Floor, High Skill Ceiling Community Levels Are True Rollercoasters |
The Music Is A Road Casualty |
WHAT THE CAR? Overall Score - 84/100
WHAT THE CAR? is a dynamic and entertaining racing(?) game featuring obstacles, jumping ropes, and cucumbers. It offers a wide variety of levels and themes that’s only rivaled by the number of different car designs and quirks available for each stage. However, its real claim to fame is the community levels, which are full of wacky custom stages for everyone to get their feet on. You can even design your own levels and compete on the leaderboards!
WHAT THE CAR? Story - 8/10
Honestly, I almost forgot that this game has something that qualifies as a story. Maybe it’s because the story is never really explored beyond the occasional mention that you’re trying to save your friends from… being locked behind a road barrier? That’s all well and good, though, because WHAT THE CAR? doesn’t actually need a story to function. In fact, the game does itself a favor here because a real story mode (or something similar) might actually butcher the base game’s pacing. That’s because any amount of story would cut into the gameplay, considering each level takes about 30 seconds to complete.
WHAT THE CAR? Gameplay - 9/10
A, D, and the spacebar. Those are the only keys you need to play this game. Well, I guess you also need your mouse to navigate the menu occasionally. Anyway, WHAT THE CAR? has managed to condense its controls to such an extent that you only really need one hand and three buttons to enjoy it. To be fair, that might be due to its origins as a casual mobile game. Even so, the gameplay itself is engaging, interacting, and frustrating enough to make you keep telling yourself that you would stop playing it "after just one more level." My only real complaint is that the onboarding for this game is pretty terrible, which is actually a pretty big deal.
WHAT THE CAR? Visuals - 9/10
Despite originating from our innocent mobile devices, WHAT THE CAR’s PC release had a very nice touch-up to ensure that it would look appealing on a much wider physical resolution. Not only are its lines crisp, but the visuals as a whole look neat and tidy. Of course, the best part about the game is all of the insane "car" designs it has. That is, if you can call them that. What matters is that they’re entertaining, though, right?
WHAT THE CAR? Audio - 7/10
Considering the number and variety of obstacles and, uhh, roads in the game, WHAT THE CAR? has done well with its sound effects. They’re quite distinct from each other, ensuring that the engagement aligns with the tempo. The same cannot be said for the background music, though. While the background music functions adequately for the base stages, the community levels, which often feature chaotic and fast-paced tracks, can easily leave the BGM in its dust. In fact, due to the prominence of the background music amidst the sounds of bears running away and crates being crushed, it can sometimes even slow the tempo.
WHAT THE CAR? Value for Money - 9/10
While the base game is good enough to enjoy as a casual player, the real joy and timesink of this game comes from its custom levels. These tracks are made by players like you and I, for players like you and I. Predictably, they range from some of the most bafflingly easy courses to the most unhinged, sociopathic, and confusing levels I’ve ever seen in the past half a year.
WHAT THE CAR? Review: The Fun Is Almost Frightening
Remember The Flintstones? The American sitcom by Hanna-Barbera Productions, yeah. If you do, then, man, we’re old. Otherwise, for the uninitiated, The Flintstones is a cartoon about a family from the Stone Age with a romanticized setting. It featured stone houses, dinosaur-driven taxis, and most notably for the purposes of this review, "pedal-powered" vehicles.
By that, I meant you had to pedal with your feet. On the ground. It’s basically a giant scooter.
Now, take that image you have in your mind, take out the human’s upper half from the waist up, weld the lower half to the car, and you’ll be one step closer to discovering the essence of what makes WHAT THE CAR? such a joy to play.
Its concept is essentially no different from imagining humans running through obstacle courses meant for high-powered motorized vehicles. However, since that would be a surreal sight, the developers might have thought that replacing our upper halves with a car body would somehow make things less weird. There’s still legs sticking out underneath the car, though?
Anyway, as mentioned, WHAT THE CAR?’s gameplay involves obstacle courses. As a motorized (legified?) vehicle, the game only provides you with the bare minimum of controls in order to navigate through its courses. That is, there’s the A and D buttons for turning left and right, as well as the Spacebar for different functions depending on the car gimmick.
For example, if you’re using your car’s normal form with two legs (yes, that’s the norm here), using the Spacebar would allow you to go forward. If you have an umbrella on hand, the key would let you deploy it and catch the wind. There are also gimmicks that allow you to jump, use jetpacks, and a myriad of other things.
Huh? Is there a way to go in reverse? We only move forward here, just like in real life.
Admittedly, the obstacle courses that the base game provides are enjoyable, but not very challenging. If anything, you might get tired of playing after just an hour or so. Fret not, though, for WHAT THE CAR? has a level creation feature that allows its community to create their own tracks! This is the crowning glory of the game in terms of content and can single-handedly make players sink dozens of hours into it.
That’s not even mentioning that you can play the custom levels of other players. These are, more often than not, much more fun than the levels the base game provides due to how unhinged and messy they can be. They are also much more challenging.
But that’s where my one major gripe with the game comes from.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the game has had some thought put into its audio design. It works very well for the base game, and the sound effects are much more enjoyable on the custom levels due to some people’s uninhibited use of the various obstacles and doodads they can scatter. However, the issue is in its music.
While it works in the base game due to its more refined level designs, it simply cannot catch up to the more disorganized and fast-paced levels from the community. Maybe it’s because the developers underestimated their own level creator, but it sometimes feels like the music is what drags the experience down.
That said, WHAT THE CAR? is still an incredibly fun game that you wouldn’t want to miss out on. It’s rather cheap, but you can easily sink dozens of hours perusing the community levels or designing your own. There are even leaderboards you can tryhard on if you so wish.
Pros of WHAT THE CAR?
| Things WHAT THE CAR? Got Right |
|---|
|
Good Gameplay Variety Peak Engineering Designs Low Skill Floor, High Skill Ceiling Community Levels Are True Rollercoasters |
Good Gameplay Variety
In this game, you have but one objective: take your car (which is launched from a cannon for some reason) and get it to the finish line. You have only three usable buttons in order to achieve that: the A and D to turn left and right respectively, and the Spacebar to… uhh… it depends. We’ll get to that later.
With such a simple design, you would think that its gameplay would get old really fast. This is, after all, not a hyper-realistic simulator that players could engage in with several hundreds of dollars’ worth of equipment in order to achieve peak immersion. It’s the complete opposite of that.
All it is is a game about running through obstacle courses. The variety itself comes from the car gimmicks, which often look like they were conceptualized by an adult with a child’s heart and imagination, as well as the tools provided to its players to customize levels.
Peak Engineering Designs
Cars with legs. We’ve truly reached the peak of engineering this time. It can climb stairs, jump obstacles, and even slip on tar. And that’s not even the end of it. There are cars with springs glued to its body, cars with giant arms on its sides, cars with a rocket-powered roomba on its feet, and a whole lot more!
You can imagine just how much those car gimmicks can affect the gameplay. Now, do you remember the Spacebar key I mentioned earlier? Those control the car’s gimmicks. Everything from being able to jump in the air, flail your arms around, activate your rockets, etc., are all tied to the Spacebar key.
The only unfortunate thing is that it doesn’t seem like you can use more than one gimmick at a time. Ah, my dreams of a car with legs riding on a roomba inside a hamster wheel with an umbrella on its right hand, crushed.
Low Skill Floor, High Skill Ceiling
While most games can be played with varying levels of determination, sweatiness, and skill, few are able to tap into such a wide margin as games like WHAT THE CAR? can. Essentially, the game allows you to play it in whatever kind of mood you’re in. There are levels that you can clear by simply running straight if you so choose, but there are also courses that would take you several or so tries before you could get a hang of the tricks behind it. Some even have shortcuts that have such a narrow margin of error that I wouldn’t be surprised if most people didn’t realize they existed in the first place.
It’s actually quite impressive just how much variety in difficulty a game that essentially only needs one hand to play can provide. Of course, we’re not going in the realm of games that were purposely made to be difficult such as Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy or A Difficult Game About Climbing.
What do you do with your other hand, you ask? I reserve it for pulling my hair out on particularly sadistic custom levels, but it’s up to you to decide at the end of the day. The world is your oyster.
Community Levels Are True Rollercoasters
The vast majority of WHAT THE CAR?’s replayability comes from its community-created levels. These are accessible very early on, so you don’t need to worry about having to complete the entire base game before you can get on cracking figurative eggs.
Just like real life, WHAT THE CAR?’s community of level designers are as varied and diverse as their creations. The game allows you to freely select and play custom levels with difficulties that range from simple straight lines to a three-minute gauntlet of precise turns and jumps… and levels that were probably just meant as a funny joke.
I do wish that you could view the runs of those on the leaderboards, though.
Cons of WHAT THE CAR?
| Things That WHAT THE CAR? Can Improve |
|---|
|
The Music Is A Road Casualty |
The Music Is A Road Casualty
Stating that WHAT THE CAR?’s music is bad is just isn’t true. Its tempo and beat endows the game with an excellent and appropriate amount of fervor. However, that’s only really true for the base game’s stages.
Perhaps it was due to them underestimating their own community, but the custom maps are more often than not designed with a pace that’s much, much faster than the original ones. But since the game only has a very limited selection of tunes it can use, it doesn’t take much effort for these custom levels to overtake the music, causing it to feel like it’s dragging the pace instead.
Is WHAT THE CAR? Worth It?
Yup.
That’s it. Get the game. It’s worth the money.
Okay, I do need to pad this out, but the game truly is fun. This is especially true for the Community Levels. They are filled with some of the most unhinged and psychotic designs I’ve seen in a sandbox. Of course, they’re well within design and fully playable, so you don’t need to worry about having to play impossible stages.
The fact that you can join this community of creative and crazy designers and have your own stages be open for the public to play means that it’s entirely possible to sink in hundreds of hours into it. And for such a low price, what else is there to complain about?
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
| Steam |
$9.99 |
WHAT THE CAR? FAQ
Are there co-op maps in WHAT THE CAR?
Unfortunately, it seems like that’s not possible at the moment. None of the custom maps are designed for co-op play, either.
Is WHAT THE CAR? a direct port of its mobile version?
WHAT THE CAR?’s PC version is mostly a direct port of its mobile counterpart. However, there are a few changes, such as the steering wheel being removed as part of the controls, a redesigned main lobby, etc.
Game8 Reviews
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WHAT THE CAR? Product Information
 |
|
| Title | WHAT THE CAR? |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 6, 2024 |
| Developer | Triband |
| Publisher | Triband |
| Supported Platforms | PC, iOS |
| Genre | Sandbox, Racing |
| Number of Players | Single Player |
| ESRB Rating | To Be Rated |
| Official Website | WHAT THE CAR? Website |
