Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?!, the latest driving game from indie masterminds Strange Scaffold, feels like a fever dream. I’ve watched plenty of anime over the years, and though we’ve seen plenty of tropes crossover from that world to gaming, this is truly a first. It’s not the screaming protagonist that can’t help but yell out their attacks; instead, it takes the time-old isekai tradition of truck-kun and gamifies it to great effect. Even if the gameplay loop is simple and it stumbles at the end, Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?! is a ton of fun.
Just A Isek-Guy
For those unaware, the isekai genre is one that’s centred on someone, usually the protagonist, ending up in a world different from their own. Whether it’s a portal they fall through or a summoning that rips them from their home, one of the most iconic isekai tropes is one on four wheels. The protagonist, out and about in their daily life, gets hit by a truck, and in death, they get sent to another world. It’s happened enough times that you almost expect it when starting a new isekai anime.
Strange Scaffold flips and plays with that central idea in really fun ways. You play as a truck driver who accidentally strikes down Carissa, a loudmouthed and bullheaded head of marketing, on the day she gets promoted, no less. The capitalistic nightmare ends up in a new world, enlisting the help of the truck driver to bring her back from the dead. How, you might ask? Well, by running down other people to turn them into monsters on her own end, helping her power up enough to get her hands on a Scroll of Resurrection and return home before Monday’s workday.
What’s One More Pedestrian?
The story here is one of the best parts, never taking itself too seriously, but also not shying away from some more personal moments. It’s entirely centred on the relationship between the simplistic truck driver and newly-made elf warrior. The bickering between them, along with the guilt felt by the truck driver, is constantly amusing, especially as the layers start to peel away and you learn more about both characters. There is a heart here, which helps you as you just mow down townsfolk relentlessly.
Each time you start a new vehicular rampage, you have a number of challenges to complete. You have a handful of minutes to do as much as you can, with some objectives extending the time, others adding more stars to your overall total. There are challenges within the level that help you stay in longer, while others that take multiple runs to rack up. Regardless if you’re hitting beach chairs, destroying cement mixers, or flying through billboards, you can never lose sight of the core focus: trucking through unsuspecting civilians to give Carissa something to do. The driver also needs to finish deliveries around town, with all this blending together for fast and frantic runs that keep you glued to the screen.
One World And Another
As you send people to their new world, Carissa battles them in a pixelated section that takes up real estate on the bottom of the screen. She can fight 4 enemies at once, and as you hit objects and complete objectives, you can activate her special ability to shred enemies, leaving her ready for more combat. Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?! feels overwhelming at first, as you frantically try to learn the map to optimize pathways that would make Carissa’s corporate overlords jump with joy. You quickly settle in, learning where market stalls are grouped up, where the parking garage is, where the most people congregate – you learn by doing, and you’ll do plenty of that as you send more townspeople to their lives in a new world.
The driving in Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?! is really arcadey and loose, in a good way. The truck is light and floaty, while also packing enough of a punch that every impact is satisfying. Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?! doesn’t really ever evolve out of this flow of knocking out quick objectives, smoking fools walking around, and helping Carissa out, but it’s short enough that it never really wears on you.
This is a game that’s constantly entertaining and ridiculous, and you start to learn exactly where to go to do what needs to be done. It does falter in its last few challenges, doubling down on repetition that makes the smaller challenges totally unimportant. You end up just drifting and boosting in circles to get the numbers higher, taking away from the fun rampaging through the city. I wrapped up the story in about 3 hours, making Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?! a fun-sized ride of ridiculousness that doesn’t overstay its welcome, even if the final part of the ride is uninteresting.
Verdict
Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?! succeeds because it knows exactly what it is. It’s a bombastic and ridiculous ride through the other side of an isekai adventure, where you’re asked to just go nuts on the unsuspecting city of Wenvale. It’s simple, sure, but it works because of the completely unserious tone and speed at which it throws things at you. It also works because of how much fun the writing is, with the short bursts of character moments between the driver and Carissa being a joy to watch unfold. While the final challenges could’ve used some more variety, Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?! is a fun little indie that feels like an isekai OVA that got truck-kunned itself, and it’s just a blast.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PC
