Platform: Switch
Publisher: tinyBuild Games
Developer: Landfall Games
Genre: Action, Platform
Players: 1
Release Date: March 15, 2018
There are plenty of games that exist in the medium with in-depth stories that speak to human emotions. Games exist that can make you experience the depression and misery of sadness, the emotional highs of happiness and elation, and the white-hot rage of anger. So many games out there that are designed to make you feel strongly in a certain way. Clustertruck is a game where you jump across randomized, exploding trucks.
Utter Truckin’ Chaos
Clustertruck has an incredibly simple goal: survive the truck carnage long enough to get to the goal, a flying banner at a set distance away. It’s a very basic game, with its depth mostly revolving around the variety of scenarios that you and the trucks get placed in. For abilities, you’ve got a jump, you can sprint, and at the start, that’s about it. Other ones come later, but really, that’s all you need. You jump from truck to truck, and if you touch anything other than the truck, you die. Hit the ground, trees, fences, anything, and you’ve lost. There’s some room for forgiveness, as touching the side of a truck or snagging the back can sometimes net you that extra boost, but these are happy accidents, not something you can count on.
Early levels are simple, with little variation other than the randomness of the trucks. Later levels are where things get crazier. Like giant floating wheels in the sky? How about jumping from one herd of trucks to another? How about a rockslide of gigantic boulders? Or an antigravity field? Clustertruck thrives on making the most out of it’s crazy but simple premise. One of the things that makes Clustertruck shine is that the trucks have an inherent randomness to them at times. 10 different attempts at the same level will result in 10 different outcomes. A single truck could be a millisecond slower on one run, and because of that, it bumps another truck earlier and sends everything flying out of wack. The game demands you pay attention to the inevitable carnage unfolding because you need to parse it to stay in the running.
Truck Track Tricks
As you leapfrog your way through Clustertruck’s many, many stages, you’ll earn style points, which function as the game’s currency. You gain em by, well, styling. Doing risky maneuvers, having close calls, sprinting nonstop, getting airtime, are just some of the ways to nab points. Getting a nice stylish run overall will net you more points at the end of the level, added on to the ones you get just for completion. Considering the chaotic nature of the majority of the levels though, you’ll usually just be happy with surviving.
Once you’ve added up enough, the game will drop you by the ability shop. Here you can spend your style points on extra doodads that’ll make your trucking experience a little less intense. The amount of different abilities they’ve added to such a simple game is impressive. You have your standard options for challenge platformers, like a double jump, a time slow, and an airdash. But there are also some more fun options, like a grappling hook that pulls you towards a truck, or a jetpack. Some abilities really get nuts, like the portable truck, which lets you throw a projectile and spawn your own truck out of midair.
In the spirit of the game, you can’t equip more than two of these at once. One movement ability, from the left side, and one utility ability, from the right. Some abilities, like the double jump, are extensions of your normal abilities. The more out-there ones though, get their own button, so as to prevent accidental usage. These powers make the stages much easier but, of course, there’s a tradeoff. Using these abilities puts a dent in the number of style points you earn. So while abilities make levels easier, using them often means you’ll be getting new abilities less.
A Truckload of Good, A Truckload of Bad
Clustertruck’s gameplay may seem like a nonsensical mess to outside viewers, and yeah, that’s not entirely wrong. But from a game design perspective, there’s plenty of interesting decisions to discuss, both good and bad. On the good side, Clustertruck’s gameplay rhythm is addictingly well-orchestrated. Load times are minimal, and restarting the level once you’ve lost once before is instant. It’s easy to lose yourself in the fast-paced loop of constant truck busting action. Boom, you’re in the level. Bam, you’ve died. Boom, you’re back. Bam, you’ve died again. Repeat ad nauseam. It really is that fast, and the quick rebound times reminded me very clearly of many “quick session” mobile titles that thrive on the same rhythm. It’s the perfect game for doing the classic “trade-off when you die” thing with a friend. If you can stop yourself from mashing the A button and starting another run, that is.
But, with every laugh at a truck that’s exploded nearby, there’s frustration. And I’m not talking “oooh this is a toughie” frustration. It’s more of a “why did they do this way” frustration. Clustertruck’s biggest roadblock on Switch is a controller-based one. The button for jumping, and the stick for looking around are both on the same side of the controller. This means you’ll have to quickly switch between the two for jumps that require a curve, and you can forget about doing both at once. Tauntingly, the game has a “controls” menu that looks as though you could change the jump control to something else, but aside from look sensitivity and inverting axes, the game’s controls are locked off. It’s an unfortunate misstep that the original PC version avoids with mouselook, and it could’ve been avoided here with that one simple option.
The Truck Stops Here
With Clustertruck being as simple of a game as it is, it’s a shame that it’s biggest problems are so truckin’ bad. Something as simple as switching the buttons that activate abilities and jumping, or even allowing the player to do so themselves, would have solved it’s biggest problem. With momentum being determined by the way you’re facing, you can’t curve at all midair without crazy reflexes. In a game like this, that’s a death sentence on any track that isn’t a straight line. It’s one of the worst problems for Clustertruck to have. There are other issues at hand too, like questionable hit detection on obstacles, but even that’s passable by comparison.
With Clustertruck being as much silly, stupid fun as it is, it’s a shame that the Switch version has such an Achilles heel. It’s not a bad game by any means, and it’s certainly still beatable with perseverance and quick reflexes, so it’s not a game-breaking issue. But for right now, because of that problem, the Switch version is notably worse off than it’s PC cousin – you’re better off picking up that version instead. Hopefully, a patch to allow for control customization is in the future, but for now, the Switch version ends up being a bit of a lame truck compared to the original.
Review Copy Provided by tinyBuild Games
