If there’s any indie studio that deserves a go with anything they put out, it’s Strange Scaffold. They’ve quickly made a name for themselves with gritty slammers like El Paso, Elsewhere and I Am Your Beast, but also proven they can handle big boy properties with licensed games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown. They’re inventive, funny, and offbeat in the most charming ways. Thankfully, Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! is a continuation of that flair . . . mostly.
Having played the demo for this game during Steam Next Fest in June, I was wondering just how much they could elongate its premise and gameplay. Rather, maybe the question should have been, should they elongate it much more? Too much and you risk the fun burning out too quickly. How long can one reasonably isekai (Japanese for “other world” and a genre of story where an ordinary person is transported to a place very unlike their own via unexplainable means) people into a fantasy world so the businesswoman you killed with your truck can fight them and return to the real world? The answer, per my experimentation-turned-review, is just long enough.
It’s Just Like My Favorite Anime!
This one’s a little bit silly even my Strange Scaffold standards. Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! houses its own elevator pitch in the title. Truck-kun and the Driver must run over anything that isn’t bolted down in order to help rescue Carissa Ward. Carissa, an aspiring ladder-climber in the cutthroat world of marketing, was well on her way to a promotion when she’s ran over by the magical Truck-kun in a crosswalk. Instead of just plain old dying like any other boring game, she actually gets isekai’d into a fantasy world just like in her favorite anime and video games. The Driver now has no choice but to help her return to the real world so she can start her new job on Monday! I mean, it’s the least he can do, right?
The Driver achieves this by hitting pedestrians who also isekai into where Carissa is as enemies for her to fight, grow, and open a portal back home. What happens to the people who transform into monsters and defeated? One of the many moral quandaries that Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! contends with. Carissa would say it’s best not to think about it, just do it!
Shipping and Handling
More literally, your job is to amass tons of stars in order to progress through the story. You earn stars during outings, 90-second drives around Wenvale where you’re free to roam (get it?) and complete objectives using Truck-kun’s numerous abilities. One objective makes you drive in reverse for 100 meters, and another will have you hit 10 wooden objects. You always have three different objectives to focus on so you’re never bottlenecked too hard as far as progression. This makes the game feel more free-form and welcoming. Don’t feel like hunting down billboards to crash through? Good, then just find a way to jump in the air for a total of five seconds instead. Many objectives also extend your time limit in an outing, too.
“This Tight Moveset Makes the Game Easy to Pick Up”
Nearly anything except buildings and trees can be sent flying in pursuit of bringing Carissa home. You can simply drive into things with Truck-kun, but you can also boost, drive, and sideswipe into them. This tight moveset makes the game easy to pick up for anyone who has ever played a driving game. The problem is that Truck-kun is frustrating to control sometimes from his (yes, Truck-kun is a boy) awkward steering arcs to the delay between accelerating and reversing, and vice versa. You never feel wholly, viscerally in control of him. While I won’t be silly enough to expect Forza Horizon out of a small indie studio making a satirical racing game, it certainly could use fine-tuning.
The environment complements Truck-kun well with big ramps, boost pads, style rings to drive and fly through, and more. Wenvale’s a pretty diverse area, too. You’ll find a beach, industrial zones, cozy residential space, and a highly populated market area (hint hint). Since the Driver’s looking to cause as little trouble as possible as he wrestles with his new job, he must also complete deliveries for his old job. Pick up a package, deliver it, earn stars on the way!
One pedestrian smacked with Truck-kun equals one monster for Carissa to likewise smack with her sword. Every five enemies defeated grants a star which gives you another way to stack stars during outings. You can always see how she’s doing through the isekai window at the bottom of your screen. Carissa has autonomy and attack on her own, but she needs your help to power up her ultimate ability. Hit any ten objects – including pedestrians – and you can then honk Truck-kun’s horn to make Carissa vaporize all foes.
Four Wheels, Three Dimensions, Eight Bits
The design of the game is adorable. From the onset, it has this charming, cute anime style to it. Carissa, the Driver, and the rest of the world are rendered in a cartoonish 3D fashion. It shines the most during conversations between the Driver and Carissa where you can see their expressions and body language more using anime tropes. The best bit is through the isekai window, everything is pixels. Carissa’s sprite is a total throwback to the old NES/Famicom Final Fantasy games, similarly sized, posed, and animated. Monsters are the same as well, beautifully pixelated into cutesy monstrosities from slimes to dragons. You almost feel bad having Carissa kill them.
Wenvale itself reminds of the environments of Crazy Taxi or other similar arcade racers. Bold colors and accoutrements to give just enough details so as not to distract while you drive your ass off. There’s only a handful of pedestrian designs you’ll see throughout the game. This is taken less as a limitation and more as a callback to those same arcade games with a lot of repeat assets you’re not really supposed to scrutinize.
The music is even cute at times. A mixture of ska, rock, and anime themes are employed here, but you can hear some other oddities, too. My favorites are Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’ and Truck-kun Mambo which sounds like the Sex and The City theme (complimentary?). It all enhances the lightheartedness of the game which was for the best from a design standpoint.
Hot Fuzz
Speaking of other games, there are cops in Wenvale. They can’t arrest you, the worst they’ll do it knock into you and totally ruin your momentum. Boost or slam into them from the side to send them flying. I consider the cops more of set dressing in the design than something that full-on utilized the mechanics of the game. They don’t technically up the difficulty or require strategy other than the need to bash them off the road.
“Once the Game is Done, You Really Get a Sense of Just How Small It Is.”
In fact, all they do is add another thin layer of frustration as they always seem to appear at the worst times and derail your plans to plow through an area or get a powerup you needed. They also defy any conventional rules the game has, appearing out of thin air and from within walls sometimes. This is less a complaint and more further justification of them belonging as part of the environment’s design than anything else.
The pacing of Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! is good until it’s not. I love that you can earn stars your way, but the real progression is by meeting milestones. These can vary from earning 50 stars total across outings to racking up score in other ways like total number of objects hit. The milestones aren’t hard to meet, but some can be time consuming like the boosting and drifting a certain distance. These milestones could stand to be lowered a bit as I more than completed every other milestone and had to spend several outings just drifting and boosting around town only. When I finally met them, I found that I progressed enough in the background to view two story progression segments in a row!
Overall, once the game is done, you really get a sense of just how small it is. Wenvale only goes through one sizable alteration for the final battle and it’s nearly all cosmetic and you don’t unlock any regions or areas. It’s the truest sense of what you see is what you get, appreciated to a degree.
All in a Day’s Work
It’s true that things could be better with Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?!, but when you factor in that it’s less than four hours to the credits, it mars the experience less. I found myself annoyed at times with how ridiculously Truck-kun controlled (or rather didn’t), but it didn’t make up a sizable portion of the game as a result. The story is goofy and fun, hardly meant to be critiqued in the general sense. It still sets up the game remarkably well with all the cheekiness Strange Scafford are known to wield. The characters also learn a lot about each other, finding space to interrogate their very different lifestyles and goals in humorous ways. You even learn the Driver’s real name by the end!
After beating the game, you can keep playing to get some achievements that are placed further out than what the story will require. They’re not outrageous either, likely able to be completed with another hour of play. The devs are also hard at work with some post-launch support. First, players can expect a garage that’ll allow you to unlock and plaster some new skins on Truck-kun. Here’s hoping for a magical girl-themed one.
Verdict
Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! is a solid addition to the Strange Scaffold canon. The comedic framing and writing along with the enjoyable core gameplay loop do outweigh its more unsavory aspects considerably. Its annoyances are apparent, but the game’s short length and relative freedom ease the vexation they cause. Come for the quirk, stay for the chaotic fun, and maybe Carissa’s berating. Some people are into that
Rating: 7/10
Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! is out now for Xbox Series X|S and PC. Reviewed code provided by the publisher.
