Happy Wheels

By: Derek Yu

On: November 20th, 2010

Dammit, why are ragdolls so much fun? In Jim Bonacci’s Happy Wheels, you’ll have quite a few to choose from, from “old man in rocket-powered wheelchair” to my personal favorite, “irresponsible dad”, a man with his toddler riding behind him on a bicycle. The goal of the game is to get to the end of each level alive, but in this case, it really is about the journey itself – the best levels in the game are cleverly designed to inflict pain on the happy wheelers in the most absurd ways possible.

Happy Wheels comes with a built-in level editor and users can easily share their morbid senses of humor in-game. Jim is also continuing to work on the project, adding new features and characters (the latest addition is a young couple riding a moped).

TIGdb: Entry for Happy Wheels

  • Ben Foote

    The trailer is much more fun than the actual game. Love the idea though!

  • RParkinson

    Meh

  • Subs

    wow this thanks for this terrible game that came out like a year ago, youre really ontop of things here

  • http://s.hryx.net/ hryx

    Great, this trailer is going to give me nightmares.

  • J1MB3AN97

    Well, you guys are no fun. I've been waiting for Derek to pick up on this for a while now.

  • Phubans

    After checking out this guy's stuff, I'm kinda in the “meh” consensus. Okay, you're going for that edgy, ultra-violent Flash game stuff that New Grounds started doing 10 years ago; I get it. But from a gameplay perspective these games are completely devoid of substance. I don't mean to be such a harsh critic, but clunky interface, annoyingly difficult without inspiring me to continue, and the only rewards coming via watching my character die gets old pretty fast.

  • John Sandoval

    Fun for five minutes. Tiring for anything longer.

  • Guess-T

    No place for love like TIGS!

  • Anonymouse

    I wanted to like it more than I did.

  • Vania

    Its not a new concept and its not even well executed.

  • http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

    Yeah, oh well. I think it's super fun! Seriously had me in stitches, and I think the physics are pretty nicely modeled – it's cool that your intestines are a rope that connects your upper body with the lower. Nice touch. :)

  • 1wheel

    elasto bike mania is a lot better

  • Barold

    what a bunch of babies

  • Michael J Caboose

    I hate babbies.

  • Babby

    WAAA THIS GAME IS TOO OLD AND TOO POPULAR FOR ME TO ENJOY

  • http://nostalgium.com Roo

    I seriously never, ever imagined indie video games would attract such cynical hipster elitists.

    BUT U CNT HAVE INDIE W/OUT HIPSTERZ AMIRITE

  • MachoMadness

    There's just no satisfying them!

    Funny thing, though. As I typed that the first category to the right to catch my eye was “Circle-jerking”

    derp

  • Is it just the same guy (possibly the creator) posting in defense of this game with different anonymous names? Seems like the obvious answer is “yes!”

    Sorry, but this game just wasn't that good.

  • Phubans

    I can't edit my post… But I think I gave constructive criticism as to why this game didn't appeal to me… It's not a matter of really being an elitist asshole.

  • DustySpur

    are you just a cunt? seems like the obvious answer is “yes”

  • http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

    C'mon, Paul, you know if someone was this “constructive” about one of your games, you'd be hurt. Let it go.

  • Phubans

    You're right, I'm sorry. Can you please delete my last two posts?

  • http://twitter.com/HeroOfTheFSA Joseph Gibson

    fight for your right to party, indie nerd man. don't let them push you around like this. model a few forces of your own, a force to be reckoned with, forcefully speaking. we in the business have a lot of names for this, but in a land that speaks with only its eyes i find it hard to elucidate on these terms. we're on my terms, you'd better come to terms with that. i brought a baby to term and the miracle of creation wasn't that great because the baby farted on my face immediately post delivery. i suppose we all felt like that, in a lot of ways.

  • jimb

    hey, actually i'm the creator and i'm just reading this stuff now…. so the obvious answer is “no”

  • alastair_jack

    This game is pretty poorly designed, but its good for a short session of laughing and tears.

  • http://twitter.com/HeroOfTheFSA Joseph Gibson

    hey, what's up. you ever witnessed an aviation disaster at a public air show? it's not very cool. crowds screaming doused in burning jet fuel, physical form and psyche alike irreparably scarred. there is no benign existence in this fundamentally rotten world.

  • anonymouse

    Super Joe-

    why do you no longer grace the pages of the TIGForums?

  • http://twitter.com/HeroOfTheFSA Joseph Gibson

    i was unjustly banned by the cruel and wicked despot derek yu. unban super joe, the aung san suu kyi of bad video games.

  • Anonymouser

    Why “bad”?

  • http://twitter.com/doomlaser Mark Johns

    I, for one, think this game is fun and hilarious, and have come back to it several times. I don't understand why it's getting so much hate.

  • J1MB3AN97

    You know what? Neither do I. It has it's flaws, and it does get tedious after a while. That's why there's community levels! =D

  • anonymouse

    SuperJoe

    SuperJoe

    please have my retarded baby

  • http://twitter.com/HeroOfTheFSA Joseph Gibson

    this game is fucking stupid, it turns out you're a robot and there's some rabbits or some shit? i don't know, it was all a bit above my head

  • Skofo

    I love it! It's like an absurd XMoto.

  • Hipsterasfuck

    where are the pixel graphics in glorious 2x or even 50x zoom. this isnt indie.

  • Sfs

    and i though that the indiegames.com community was bad…

  • starvingindie

    sorry but this game is way too violent.

    games like this are why games will never be art. disgusting, just mindless random violence. i did not know this was 1992, are we playing mortal kombat again

    i can't believe how far we've yet to go until our medium is recognized for what it truly is.

  • Denim

    they're not even indie

  • Stellan

    ugh violence

    pass.

  • ttt

    idiot. Marquis de Sade is why literature never can be art.

    “our medium” is a big plenitude of things and not one single of them makes the medium any less interesting or worthwhile, obviously it's quite the opposite.

    please, hurry up with the starving.

  • Guestotron

    “you ever witnessed an aviation disaster at a public air show?”

    No, but can somebody do a game about that? That'd be awesome.
    Also, please use 16 color xtra lores pixel sprites, so the hipsters dont
    need to wear down their keyboard fighting flame wars.

    Seriously: Elitist hipsters in a scene concerning computer games? Come on.

  • Brett Olson

    I really don't understand all of the hate this is getting. I have been playing this game for months and I can't stop playing it. Great art, fun physics, ability to make basically whatever you want. I guess I still haven't caught on that for some reason indie HAS TO BE PRETENTIOUS BULLSHIT.
    Whatever, I'm gonna go chop my kid in half and body slam him into some spikes. Cuz I know how to have fun.

  • anonymouse

    There were two people who disliked it for pretentious reasons.

    The rest dislike it because of some glaring design issues.