By: Aileene-Bjork Novascotia, Staff Writer  

“Happy Wheels” is definitely of its time, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This is a game from when free-to-play browser games were still popular, and “Let’s Play videos were still innovative and fresh. Now, after a whopping 16 years, “Happy Wheels” has finally gotten a full retail release at a price of $4.99. Has it still held up after all these years? Surprisingly, yes. 

“Happy Wheels” has a simple premise: reach the finish line of a level with one of various characters and their choice of transport. Making things difficult is how easily you can die on the way there. 

You’ll have to get adjusted to the rhythm of “Happy Wheels,” because part of getting from point A to point B is making sure your character stays upright. While the up and down arrow keys move you forward and backward, you have to also balance using the left and right arrow keys to make sure you don’t fall backwards or forwards.  

There’s a bit of anxiety that comes with playing “Happy Wheels” because of how fragile your character is. If nothing kills you at first, your character has a very high chance of being injured. Slight missteps like going over a bump or landing too hard on a staircase doesn’t just sprain your ankle–it dismembers the entire leg.  

Gore in “Happy Wheels” is what grants the game its identity. For the first few times you witness your character get maimed, it’s nasty to look at, though once you’ve become used to it, you really begin to smile at the slapstick humor. It’s reminiscent of MTV’s “Jackass” series, just with more blood and bone. There’s something about taking all the necessary precautions to not die, explode and then suddenly exploding that’s worth laughing yourself silly about. 

Even funnier is that you don’t necessarily have to be in one piece to cross the finish line. As long as your vital parts remain intact, you can complete a level without any of your arms or legs, but if you get your head smashed in it’s time to start all over. 

The other part of the difficulty in “Happy Wheels” comes from what character you choose. There’s a wide roster of unfortunate people to send through whatever gauntlets the levels have in store for you, like an old man in a wheelchair, a dad and his son on a bike, or Santa on his sleigh being pulled by elves. Some vehicles are definitely heftier and harder to control than others, but that adds more challenge to the levels. Although not every level grants the freedom to pick whoever you want. 

“Happy Wheels” includes a bunch of featured levels that are a mixture of challenging and unique, each with their own hazards. You might be dodging over Pokémon, navigating through haunted houses, or escaping a large combine, it all depends on the level. 

Once you’re done with those, the user-created levels are usually where things become trickier and more challenging. Sometimes they require more movement, like ejecting yourself from a cannon, or grabbing and throwing objects, ranging from watermelons to your son, to block projectiles. The best part though: the thousands of custom levels from the browser game are still playable in this version, along with the included level editor, eliminating the need to populate the re-release with new levels. That’s extremely important since the community is essentially what’s kept “Happy Wheels” afloat. 

However, it must be asked: now that this is on sale, what’s the difference? Well, there’s a few, but they don’t really change what “Happy Wheels” is overall. 

The most welcome change is that now there are no advertisements that pop up on your screen like in the browser version. Which is great, because those pesky ads were distracting and interfered with my gameplay. 

 On the other hand, you now have features like achievements, being able to download levels to play offline, and controller support. These are small adjustments, but they work in the sense that it’s hard to think of what else you could possibly add to a game like “Happy Wheels.” 

The retail release of “Happy Wheels” might not be anything new, but for some, that’s the best part. Being able to revisit “Happy Wheels” like this is a cheap, jagged, bloody trip back down memory lane with all the best parts still intact, and that’s all it truly needs. Plus, for as much entertainment that this game has given us over the years, I think it’s worth paying the small fee to thank Jim Bonacci for providing us with all those good times. 

I rate “Happy Wheels” an 8/10.