Strange Scaffold's isekai truck game makes for simple but satisfying fun

Some games offer complex simulations and deep layers of strategy, and that’s great ... but sometimes you just want the simple joy of driving a truck around a colorful city, knocking other cars off the road and turbo-boosting into a sick vault through the air. Truck-kun Is Supporting Me From Another World?! is a little arcade-style driving game, where the goal is to cause as much chaos as possible. It’s a joke premise, based on an anime trope, upscaled into a game.

Building a game around a joke is a tricky prospect for developers, because the punchline has to have legs. Playing Untilted Goose Game is initially hilarious because you are a malicious, aggressive goose, but it remains entertaining because of the puzzle mechanics and the responsive world. Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! is a similarly goofy premise — you are an unfortunate truck driver who, in the tradition of the isekai genre, hits mundane people and sends them to a fantasy world.

I was doubly skeptical I’d enjoy Truck-kun because, well, I’m not a big anime person. The joke is based on familiarity with a genre I don’t enjoy. It’s not difficult to suss out the punchline, but it’s an inside joke of sorts, and I’m an outsider. Thankfully, the game doesn’t linger on the isekai joke. Instead, the campaign funnels you towards what really matters: smashing through the city while drifting in a big truck, mowing down civilians and patio furniture alike.