Funny Racer by FunnyPasta (Ryder Booth)
Year: 2024
Platforms: Playdate (Catalog, itch.io – demo available)
Usual price: $3 + tax
Saves: Auto after each race
Let’s get one thing clear: I have a deep love for overhead car games that goes beyond my own understanding. One of my earliest memories is playing Dodgems on the Acorn Electron, not a game known for its physics. But perhaps it sowed the seed of an appreciation for that bird’s eye, remote control view that saw me through classics such as Super Cars II, Iron Man Rod Stewart’s Off-road Racing, Micro Machines, RC Pro-Am, the original GTA and, of course, Skidmarks on the Amiga.
So I wasn’t intrigued by Funny Racer on the Playdate as much I was unavoidably intertwined with it. Tiny cars. Twisty tracks. Sold from the screenshot, to be honest.
All this gushing praise is not to excuse two things though. One, the idea that all top down racers are any good. And two, that I am, in fact, particularly good at playing them. (I doubt my five-year-old fingers ever made it past level 2 of Dodgem.) But how does Funny Racer “line up”? (Better than my vague puns probably.)
First up, the price is good (3 bucks + tax) and low enough that it’s not a risk if you don’t get on with it, at least. And for the cost, you get a decent amount – 10 tracks, 8 cars which gradually get unlocked as you complete challenges, online leaderboards for best lap times. The variety ticks a lot of boxes.
Then there’s the choice of control systems, either with the traditional D-Pad steering or via the crank. The crank is hooked up so that the angle is 1:1 with the direction on screen (so pointing down is always driving down). The rapid change of direction means you can turn more precisely than if using the D-Pad, but personally I just can’t adjust to the crank being on a different axis to the screen for this. I feel like I want to use it as some kind of advanced mode, but honestly, I often stick with D-Pad controls.
The FAQ does say that the crank is faster, but riskier. As noted above, I’m not necessarily good at driving games, even if they are a lot of fun, but maybe the two driving modes could be considered two separate challenges, in a sense. Alongside the challenge of learning the tracks, that is.
And here’s where Funny Racer sucks me back in repeatedly – it’s just harsh and punitive enough to make it more satisfying when you do actually Do the Practice, Learn the Course, and start nailing those corners like a pro. Hitting the track’s edge will slow you right down. At first I thought this was a little off-putting, but the slight dopamine rush each time I cleared a corner properly meant I’ve come to appreciate the harshness. The faults are my own.
There are a couple of gripes I have with the game, the main one being that there isn’t an option to turn the music off, and that the music loop is so short that it rapidly gets abrasive. A simple option for sound effects only would be killer. (The music does seem to have changed since I first bought the game.)
The second minor gripe is that it’s not clear in-game what race setup counts towards which lap records. You can choose to play a set of 1, 3, 10 or infinite laps, but it’s down to some background reading to work out which modes contribute to each high score table. It’s obscure, but the FAQ does note that you can use infinite-laps mode to set individual lap times. This means you can don’t have to restart each time, but also – importantly – fastest lap can actually be from a running start rather than from a standing one, which makes all the difference.
Other than that, this is one of my go-to quick plays. Turn the volume down, stick it on infinity mode, and let the drift carry me off. A lovely little purchase to stick in your pocket.
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