What the Car?

I don’t care if it comes in the form of walking, dancing or string, I think that people need more silliness in their life. And if it’s silliness you crave, then look no further than What the Car? from Danish developer Triband. This is an endlessly inventive new racing game that is bursting with creativity and more car puns than you can honk a horn at. Could it be that this is the best game in the “What The” series? Find out now when I review all of the absurd silliness that is What the Car?

In case you’re not keeping track, What the Car? marks the third installment in Triband’s popular “What The” series. It all started in 2019 with What the Golf?, which was quickly followed by What the Bat?, a game that incorporated more Virtual Reality elements into the lunacy. Now, two years later, What the Car? returns with a back-to-basics entry that is not just the company’s best game, but also their funniest.

To say that this is not your typical racing game would be a gross understatement. Yes, there’s a finish line and you are being timed, but reducing it down to a racing game completely misses the point. It’s more about adjusting and overcoming any absurd scenario or insane obstacle the game can throw at you. The result is madness. Utter madness. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You’re going to see what I mean from the very start, when your car literally grows legs and starts walking around. Still with me? Now imagine levels that play with this concept, like a stage where you have extremely long legs or use an umbrella to float or try to navigate tough corners while wearing high heels. This will quickly turn into themed worlds where your car will balance on a soccer ball or turn into a shark and swim through the deepest parts of the water.

This is where the game is at its most creative. You’ll start out thinking that you know what to expect, only to have the developer subvert your expectations time and time and time again. Take, for example, the working world, where all of the levels have a job theme to them. This starts out simple enough, with a car rolling around a skyscraper on nothing more than an office chair. This eventually graduates to balancing on a coffee cup and using a couple of watercoolers as a jetpack. But wait, it goes further. At one point our very sick car will propel himself backwards by sneezing. There are also bits where you get to ride on a Roomba or fly through the air like a drone. And yes, you even get to prepare food, which has absolutely nothing to do with cars or racing. Like I said, this game is madness.

And that’s just scratching the surface of what you see and do in What the Car? There are stages where you’ll have a really long car, while others will make your car extra wide. There’s a dust storm world that turns everything into a Mad Max experience, complete with bigger cars with giant bear claws trying to run you off the road. There’s even a bit where you’ll need the help of a sasquatch in order to sneak around guards. And the crazy thing is, this makes complete sense in the context of the game.

There are nine of these themed worlds in total, with the game hinting that more may come at a later date. We start out only having access to one, but once you complete enough levels and unlock the treasure chest, you’ll earn a new bear friend who will help you open up the next set of levels. You don’t have to complete every stage to advance to the next world, and you’ll probably want to revisit the different levels in order to earn a golden crown by making it through the obstacle course a few seconds faster. What’s more, every stage has a Poloroid picture collectible that is often in a hard-to-reach location. In other words, there’s more than enough incentive to keep playing long after you’ve raced through the nine-world campaign.

But let’s be honest here, the real star is the comedy. This is a game designed to keep you laughing through both absurdity and randomness. Even when you know the themes, it’s hard to guess where the game will take you. This is the kind of game where you don’t even blink when it throws you into the Thunderdome or mimics Frogger, because why wouldn’t that happen? You either embrace the unpredictability or you get out of the car, no matter if it has human legs, gorilla arms or is riding a giraffe skateboard.

Much like the other games in the “What The” franchise, What the Car? has more than enough content to keep you busy. And even when you’re played every level and located all of the secrets, there are still a bunch of user-created stages to tackle, some of which are even more over-the-top than the levels the developers came up with. You can also create your own obstacle courses and then upload them for everybody to see. Between all of the Poloroid pictures, the gold medals, the hidden areas, the in-game trophies and all of the user-created content, there’s way more than ten dollars-worth of content packed into this game. This is a great deal.

It's also a great game. In fact, without hesitation, I can confidently call What the Car? one of my favorite games of the year. As a comedy game, this sequel delivers the laughs from beginning to end. It’s charming and cute and endlessly inventive, and all of the random variations and silly car puns worked on me. But even when you strip all of the humor away, this game also works as a timed obstacle course. There are so many types of courses and levels that the racing never feels repetitive, there’s something new in every single stage. The whole thing is an absolute delight that is every bit as good (if not better) than the previous entries in the “What The” series. I’m honestly not sure how you can top this one, but I can’t wait for Triband to try.