Monday, December 16, 2013

Saucy Mustard VS Steam #3: Snuggle Truck

Snuggle and Truck are simply two words you never hear together. Trucks are not really known for snuggling. When two trucks snuggle, it is called an accident and sometimes people die.


Anyway....eh...this game is about stuffed animals.





Snuggle Truck is a racing/platforming hybrid of sorts. It's like the Trials games, in that you navigate a series of bumpy environments while shifting your weight to avoid flipping over while simultaneously racing the clock, but with the added wrinkle that we have to keep a bunch of stuffed animal bastards within our truck bed until we can get the them to da zoo.

Their words.

It's never explained why this zoo is in such a hurry to procure a collection of stuffed animals, or why it's in the middle of absolutely nowhere, but it paints the picture of it being a rather shitty zoo. Still, it's not our job to worry about the families paying good money to stare at a toy lion, we're just the drivers.

In this game, you're rewarded for both speed and efficiency. Medals are given for fast runs, and for runs without losing too many of the "animals". These can be achieved on separate attempts though, so you can take it slow and steady one time, and haul ass the next while dropping toy pandas all over the goddamn place.

A winning strategy.

If you're willing to give a shit, there are extra animals that fall from the sky that you can catch in your truck for more points or something. Branbekka is above such things.



There's also a powerup that puts a cage over your truck and gives you some rocket power. It really raises the question of why this dude doesn't just get a van and avoid all this shit, but stuffed animal transportation is a new industry and trial and error is to be expected.

Just check out this rad-ass jump!

 With any game like this the physics are the most important thing about the experience. If you don't have a good sense of how your vehicle will react in any situation, you can't be in control of the situation. Most of the time, they are fine. And yet Rebecca, being Rebecca, managed to somehow get her vehicle stuck at every opportunity.

Like, how does this even happen?

Now, if the premise of this game seems perhaps a bit absurd, it may have something to do with the fact that it started life as a game called Smuggle Truck, and was a satirical look at illegal immigration. That might actually give players something to think about though, so it was changed to stuffed giraffes because fuck it.


1 comment:

  1. The smugglers clearly wanted a purple pick up truck so they could sneak across the boarder (of the Zoo... of course) whilst maintaining an etiquette that allows them to blend in with regular traffic. The nitrous helps them accomplish this.

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