There are hundreds of different things that could kill you in your everyday life, because us humans are fragile little bags of blood, really. Any day you could just step into the street at the wrong time and end up as roadkill, so be careful and look both ways for trucks. Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! tells the tale of somebody who didn’t heed this advice, and is also the most ridiculously “anime” twist on Crazy Taxi you could possibly imagine.
Hotshot business woman Carissa Ward has just been promoted to VP of Marketing at a big company, but on her way to work something unexpected happens. You hit her with your truck, and send her into another world where she’s stuck as a buff elf. Using her expert knowledge of anime and RPGs, Carissa has a plan to get back to her real body. She needs to kill hundreds of classic RPG monsters and gain stars to open the galactic gate, and needs someone to bring in the mobs. That’s where you come in, because those slimes and werewolves are all currently pedestrians you need to run over in the real world. You owe Carissa a lot for murdering her, so the least you can do is help her out by killing thousands of innocent people (who will probably also be reborn with enough stars anyway). There definitely isn’t an arcade racing game with a sillier story, and I loved every back and forth between this unexpected duo.
Your main objective in Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! is to earn stars, with a limited time to do so in each run. The easiest way to do this is by creating and killing monsters, which means mowing down people wandering around town. The people you splat appear as fantasy creatures on a little screen on your HUD, and once you’ve got four of them there it’s time to slice them down. To power up Carissa so she can do this you need to smash objects to charge her sword, then with a honk of the horn you’ll gain some stars and the cycle will continue. It’s a very destructive gameplay loop that doesn’t get old, especially because of all of the bonus objectives you complete alongside this.
You’ll always have three bonus objectives to complete at any given time during a Truck-kun run, which come in all shapes and sizes. Many of these are incredibly easy, tasking you with driving in reverse for five seconds or honking your horn five times. Others require actual effort, like smashing five fences, ten plastic objects or even delivering a package. It’s in these objectives where you’re rewarded for knowing the map layout well, and learning where to find specific smashables or routes. Completing objectives will grant you extra stars, and more importantly bonus time that means a run can last five or even ten minutes instead of standard ninety seconds.
Rushing across a city and smashing heads and objects is a wonderful concept for a game, but it’d all be for nothing if the controls were poor. Thankfully that isn’t the case with Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World, as your driving skillset makes maneuvering around and through objects a breeze. You can boost and drift like many video game vehicles, but that’s not all. A double tap of a shoulder button will send you slamming into that direction, smashing tough objects and angry cop cars with ease. There’s even a button you can press to flip your direction instantly and easily escape crashes. It just feels so good to get around as a ridiculous arcadey truck, and that could’ve easily not been the case.
Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World may seem like a throwaway score attack game, but it actually has a full campaign and actual progression. New conversations are unlocked by passing certain milestones, and by the end of the three to four hour mark you’ll even have to face a boss encounter. None of this massively changes the way you play (and you can happily continue to play after the credits) but it’s nice to have a goal to hit.
I cannot review Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! without mentioning its soundtrack, which is just sensational. Every arcade score attack experience needs great music to bop along to, and that brief was absolutely nailed here.
I had a wonderful time with Truck-kun, but some will undoubtedly find it a little lacking. There’s only one map you can ever race around, and while it’s fun to master I found myself missing a bit of variety. With runs feeling samey even down to the objectives I found myself playing for an hour then drifting off to another game, and while I may do that regularly for the rest of the year it’s a shame there’s not a tad more substance.
If you find yourself wishing for more anime nonsense in your driving games then look no further, because Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! has all that alongside some seriously fun and frantic action. As long as you don’t go in expecting a ton of variety you won’t be disappointed, and will soon be plowing down innocent people with a smile on your face like a real monster.
