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A fun, free and wacky game that sees the player race a vehicle around a weird track

A fun, free and wacky game that sees the player race a vehicle around a weird track

Vote: (46 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: bufferstudios

Version: 1.0.0

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(46 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

bufferstudios

1.0.0

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • Functional and interesting physics system
  • A building process that puts few if any limitations on the player

Cons

  • Primitive graphics lack a distinct personality
  • Feels more like a prototype for a game than a game itself

Project Wheels is a take on the car racing genre that tests your ingenuity and engineering skills more than your quick reflexes and aggression, testing your ability to create a car that will run and giving you the opportunity to take your creations out for a spin. The evolution of games has taken a compelling turn in the past decade. While the expectation was once that games should sit alongside mediums like film and novels with increasingly mature and complex storytelling, indie creators proved that games can provide intriguing results by removing the need for creator driven narratives in place of makeshift experiences guided by the player. As triple A developers sunk more and more money into increasingly expensive and detailed settings and story lines, an indie darling by the name of Minecraft took the world by storm by offering instead a virtual version of a LEGO toy box stripped of a conventional story. In the time since, independent developers have raced to capture that lightning in a bottle experience, to varying results. While Project Wheels is exceedingly minimalist even by the standards of this emerging sub-genre, the way it fuses player interactivity with a functioning physics engine produces interesting results. It's well worth taking for a spin, but don't expect it to hold your attention for too long.

This is clearly a small game put together by a small developer, and it shows from the first moment you open up the app. There's little in the way of actual environmental effects, and the cars themselves are boxy and oddly shaped. But there's something charming about the minimalist design and geometrical oddities, even if the final product feels more like a personal experiment and less like a game ready for release.

If you're willing to look past the design sensibilities, there's a lot of fun things to play with here. The objectives are simple. You're given a toy box full of parts you can mix and match to create a vehicle, and you're asked to test out their performance on a variety of different courses. While there's little in the way of instruction, that makes for largely unlimited results. Whether you're looking to make a traditional race car or an unmanageable beast restricted to two wheels, you have the option. Just keep in mind that this game won't hold your hand, and you can expect a poorly designed vehicle to not be able to withstand the rigors of the course.

The fundamentals of the game are fun, if basic, but there aren't a whole lot of accessories to keep you engaged. Objectives are limited to the courses themselves, and there's no leader boards, timed challenges, or multiplayer to speak of. It's just you and the blank, open roads, but the drive to beat your past scores could keep players coming back for more.

Pros

  • Functional and interesting physics system
  • A building process that puts few if any limitations on the player

Cons

  • Primitive graphics lack a distinct personality
  • Feels more like a prototype for a game than a game itself