This shopping cart racing game is more than a Jackass copy

In Slackers – Carts of Glory, You have a big problem: you’re out of beer, but the grocery store is closing in a few minutes. To make matters worse, you don’t have a car or a bike, just a shopping cart with enough WD40 on the wheels to break the sound barrier. So, for lack of a better choice, you must climb onto the metal scaffolding and fight your way to glory. Hence the subtitle.

Accomplishing this feat is as difficult and dangerous as it sounds, with your hooded shopping cart pilot more often than not being thrown into tree trunks or over cars in ways that would be horrifying if the game weren’t in the cartoon style. But despite all the failures I experienced while sliding down the hills of suburban neighborhoods and rural highways, Carts of Glory has never left me angry, frustrated or even stressed. Why is that?

The game exudes a coldness. I think it helps that the starting character is essentially The Dude from The Big Lebowskiwith long hair, dark sunglasses, and a loose wardrobe that suggests nothing can ruin this California kickback, not even his shopping cart careening off a cliff. But what calms my brain isn’t the look or even the twangy country-rock soundtrack (which you can get a taste of in the trailer below). It’s the feel of riding in the shopping cart — the way the cart floats on its wheels.

Steering the cart down the hill is like steering a hockey puck that has been hit toward a goal. The cart moves in the direction of its momentum. You have no gas or brakes, just an inclined plane. To steer, you point the rider’s body in a new direction and lunge to change your trajectory.

For example, if you are making a gradual left turn, you can look to your left and give the cart a little push so that it starts to lean to the left. To brake, you can turn the cart around and slide it away from the direction the vehicle is rolling, gradually counteracting the natural momentum of the downhill.

In practice, driving a shopping cart feels similar to drifting: momentum pulls in one direction while pushing in the other. The most experienced drivers make the most of the tension to navigate through traffic effortlessly.

At first glance, older millennials like me might get it wrong Slackers – Carts of Glory as a Donkey-inspired novelty game, a fun gimmick with weak gameplay and zero depth. But despite the title, there is nothing “slacker” about this game. Instead, the creators did something I adore in art: they took a silly idea and made it serious.

The game features multiple characters, a variety of hills with different looks and challenges, and one of the most joyful multiplayer modes in recent memory. There’s even a first-person mode that I highly recommend not using at all, but instead trying once to experience the sheer, stomach-churning terror of being whizzed by a pickup truck at 90 mph with nothing between you and certain doom but a flimsy metal cage.

Can you get to the supermarket before closing time? Yes, definitely. But who needs beer when riding in a shopping cart is so much fun?