What the Car? Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Let’s Get This Review on the Road

What the Car is a silly platformer that focuses on alternating the main character across different worlds. It is filled with pop culture references and unique gags designed to make the player laugh. Does it accomplish its goal? Find out in this Rapid Review.

To begin the game, I was told that I needed to collect some of my friends for a party. It is a simple premise, but it got me to explore the various in-game worlds and complete the required levels. The plotline did not play a significant role in the game.

Though What the Car did not have a significant story, there still was some narrative content. Before entering a stage, the game features brief snippets of text describing what will happen. These ranged from simple descriptors of the task ahead to excessive vowels screaming at me. Despite these polarities, I often found that each brought a smile to my face. I enjoyed this small narrative charm, and it made the game far more memorable than it otherwise would have been.

Although I enjoyed these components, for a game to truly grip me, the gameplay also has to excel. Unfortunately, while there were some great elements in What the Car, many other components were not overly encapsulating. For starters, the premise of the game is solid. Within each level, I had to navigate to the end. Sometimes this meant avoiding obstacles along the way while other times I simply had to leverage my unique car abilities. As a premise, this is very solid. The objective was always clear.

Improvements in the Format

I also greatly appreciated how within each level, there were multiple ways to optimize my result. For starters, after completing a level, I got a rank based on how quickly I did it. This was very engaging because the gold times always seemed achievable, and the game outlined exactly what time I needed. This reward system incentivized me to replay levels a lot, which does not happen to me often. Additionally, each level featured a hidden photograph for me to find. These were often quite simple, but they were fun to encounter nonetheless. In terms of adding content within levels to keep me engaged, What the Car does a very good job.

Simultaneously, for most levels, I got to experience a new format of cars. These modulations were often very wacky featuring sasquatches, massive tires, and sometimes even giraffes. Having new experiences in many of the levels was very enjoyable. However, it did not last for the duration of the game. Many of these iterations were marginally different from each other, meaning they often did not feel as unique as I would have liked. Sometimes, even across worlds, cars felt practically identical to one another. This was certainly disappointing, but I still had a lot of fun experimenting with the different cars.

Why Should I Car?

Unfortunately, however, due to the frequent vehicle adjustment, levels were often very simple. This worked well while the car adjustments felt novel. It was so engaging to see what my car did that the simple playground for me to explore did not necessarily bother me much. However, as I spent more time with the game, the stagnant and uninteresting level designs left a toll on me. As a result, segments of the game felt boring. This certainly did not apply to every level, and many of the post-game areas do an excellent job revamping the formula, but it certainly impacted my experience.

On the other hand, upon exploring the overworld, I found puzzles and seriously challenging levels. These were great inclusions to have. The puzzles, while typically not overly difficult, were fun and kept me engaged while exploring the game map. The skull levels were also fun, providing intense challenges and pushing my mastery of certain vehicle types to the limit. Having these segments certainly made the game a lot more enjoyable.

Still, although I enjoyed many parts of the game, as a whole, What the Car left me wanting more in so many areas. I think the core component of this was that since each new level featured a new car, each was not mechanically or technically deep. Combining this with rather basic level designs made the unique premise stagnate far more quickly than I would have liked. There are a lot of highlights, yet I have just as many hesitations.

Silly Band

Although the gameplay left me wanting more, I was not only impressed with the sound design, but I actively vocalized alongside it sometimes. What the Car is filled with catchy jingles and funny phrases. It is a lot of fun to be around. The music, while slightly less memorable, was still solid. It fit the theme of the title nicely and kept me entertained throughout my playthrough.

The visuals are similarly enjoyable. I liked seeing how unique each new vehicle looked. The environments, while nothing too absurd kept me entertained too while I was exploring around each area. The color palette in particular stood out as enjoyable since it was particularly vibrant.

As a whole, I liked playing through What the Car, but I cannot recommend it to most people. It has a lot of fun mechanics like unique vehicles and rewarding challenges. However, the level designs did not encapsulate me in the way I was hoping. This game is packaged wonderfully with lovely music and visual design and a decent game within. However, I think the price is just a bit too high right now. 

3 out of 5

3

You can find and read our reviews on OpenCritic.