There are games that challenge your reflexes, games that challenge your intellect, and then there’s My Summer Car—a game that challenges your will to live. Released yesterday (though it’s been emotionally tormenting early access players for years), My Summer Car is a hardcore vehicle simulation indie game, a lovechild of a fever dream and a Finnish mechanic’s therapy journal. Players must assemble a rusted heap into a functional vehicle while managing hunger and thirst under the constant threat of permadeath.
Welcome to Finland: Hope You Like Sausages and Sadness
Imagine this: It’s the summer of 1995, and you’re stuck in the fictional Finnish countryside of Alivieska. Your parents are gone and your only companion is a half-built car that hates you. Your mission is to put together a car from this rusted pile of parts strewn about your garage.
It’s not just the car you have to worry about, though. You also need to manage your own survival—eating sausages, drinking beer, and using the sauna to stave off death. Forget hydration and proper nutrition; this is Finland, and your body runs on pork, booze, and spite.
The Dark Souls of Car Ownership
Building an engine in My Summer Car feels like assembling IKEA furniture, drunk, without any instructions, and all the wrong parts. This game has no tutorials, no handholding, and no mercy. Did you forget to tighten that bolt? Enjoy watching your engine fall apart at 100 kph. Every bolt, every screw, every gasket is your responsibility.
Permadeath: Because Finland is Hardcore
One wrong move, and it’s back to square one. You can die from hunger, thirst, exhaustion, or even getting hit by a drunk cousin barreling down a dirt road in his junker. Survive long enough and you’ll make it to Teimon Kauppa, where you can buy beer and parts. It’s inspired by a real place, Sepon Kauppa in Yttilä, Säkylä.
The Joys of Finnish Engineering
Despite the torment, there’s a wonderful satisfaction in finally getting your car running without any explosions. “After 40 hours of painstaking work, my engine started. It sounded like a dying cat, but it STARTED.” Tremendous work.
One player recounted spending 20 minutes flipping a tractor off its side, only for a cousin to T-bone it at 50 mph. Another detailed how they peed in their radiator to make it home. These are not bugs; they’re features. Welcome to Finland.
In addition to the main car, the Satsuma AMP (modeled after the Datsun 100A), there are several other vehicles in the game: a cargo van, a two-stroke moped, and even a dilapidated station wagon infested with a wasp’s nest that you can win from a ventti dealer.
Graphics? Who Needs ‘Em?
If you’re the type who cares about graphics, move along. My Summer Car is not about photorealism—it’s about survival. The real beauty lies in the gameplay, which is so punishingly realistic that it borders on satire. Forget AAA gloss; this is a one-man labor of love from game designers Johannes Rojola (a.k.a. ToplessGun) and Kaarina Rojola, and it shows. Every small victory feels monumental, every setback a lesson in humility.
The developer’s own words sum it up best: “This is not made because this is fun game, but because it is NOT!”
Final Thoughts: A Masterpiece of Misery
With a Steam page full of overwhelmingly positive reviews describing tales of despair and triumph, My Summer Car has cemented its place as the most hilariously infuriating car simulator of all time. It’s so insane, it is even in a museum.
Oh, and for those eager for more punishment, a sequel—My Winter Car—is currently in development.
