Ever heard of My Summer Car? This aging gem of a game was made by a solo dev with the help of his wife and some friends, and was inspired by his childhood. The game now holds nostalgic meaning to thousands of gamers who enjoyed the punishing experience.
If you were around for that, you might not know that a sequel is well on its way.
My Winter Car
The follow-up to the charming (and supremely infuriating) My Summer Car is called My Winter Car, and we can be sure we’ll have more beer-drinking, sausage-eating shenanigans to look forward to. As well as another immensely complicated car to build from scratch.
The game is slated for release in December 2025, but at this point, we might well be facing a delay, as the year is almost over. Still, that doesn’t mean we might still get it sometime this winter, and to me, it would be the perfect game to fight the winter blues and have another grand time in the beautiful Finnish landscapes.
But why am I so eager for this game – Myself and 18,000 other followers? I’ll explain.
My Summer Car Explained
I first came across this game via YouTuber GrayStillPlays, and it looked genuinely hilarious. I picked it up and thought that I’d watched enough videos to know what to do. Boy, was I wrong. You see, this game has a form of permadeath that was really brutal. No matter how far you are, no matter how much work you’ve done on your car, crash, and it’s all over.
Yeah, you literally need to start from scratch.
And by crash, I don’t mean taking a turn at 90 miles per hour and hitting a tree dead on, no. Gently tap a fence at two miles per hour, and it’s tickets. The vehicles in this game must have a safety rating of negative 9,000 or something.
There are also a couple of “rivals” who speed around the map, largely ignoring road rules. So even if you’re being super careful, one of these morons could come speeding around a corner at any time and end your run for you.
Don’t worry, though; there are many ways to save your progress now. Gone are the days of ultimate brutality, though that option is still there if you prefer.
Then there’s the insane complexity of actually building up your car. You find it in the garage in pieces, and you have to put it all together again without a manual or help of any kind, really. Make the simple mistake of connecting the battery incorrectly, and that’s it, back to the start with your now crispy fried ass. Yeah, this is one game in which looking up a guide really is not a gaming sin. I know I did.
The map itself also has so much to discover, and you’ll even end up driving a sewage truck and pumping septic tanks for an income at some point, all on a diet of beer and sausages.
It’s funny, it’s challenging, and, most importantly, it’s incredibly fun. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend you check out My Summer Car, so you can get as excited as I am about My Winter Car. With the release schedule as slow as it is over the holidays, this would be an absolute Godsend.
Ever played My Summer Car, Destructoid? If so, what was your fondest experience? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
