Revisit the shopping trolley pain of Jackass in racing game Slackers: Carts Of Glory

How many bones have you broken? It sucks, the snapping sound they make is impolite. I prefer to break virtual, non-corporeal bones. Slackers: Carts Of Glory looks like a co-conspirator in this endeavour. It’s basically that one bit in Jackass where the gang blast downhill in shopping trollies at great risk to their bodily and mental health, as is their wont. The arcade racing game came out yesterday and features online multiplayer, so you can break someone else’s bones too. Let’s see it in action.

In single player, it’s more of a time trial than a race. In this case, the finish line is a liquor store at the bottom of the hill. The shop is closing soon, and you’ve got to smash yourself through its windows before the clock runs out. There are beer pickups you can nab as you speed down the asphalt slopes. Chug the lager to “satisfy your thirst and push yourself to crazy speeds”, say developers Falling Saints.

It’s a very boozey game, then, maybe good for a hangout play or an idle autumn afternoon with buds who share an uncomfortable fondness for Johnny Knoxville et al jousting in shopping carts and covering the car parks of the United States in thin spatters of their own blood. My own memories of these sequences in the Jackass TV show are hazy, and to be honest, I’m not sure I have the stomach to watch them anymore. The visually explosive but relatively tame intro to the team’s 2002 movie is about as much as I can handle.

But ragdoll video game figurines? That I can do! Slackers: Carts Of Glory was recommended to me on Steam because I like smashy racing game Wreckfest and faceplantin’ skateboarding simulator Session. And wow, yeah, good work, algorithm. There does appear to be some good limb flailing as you barrel uncontrollably out of your trolley (I particularly like the very quick cut to the store’s CCTV just as you crash through the windows). You can grab it on Steam if you too have a repressed thirst for beer and ill-advised stunt work.