Happy Wheels

Happy Wheels is a singleplayer racing game made in flash, notable for it's unique gameplay, superb gibbing system, and and ability to create humorous situations. It's yet another instance of an obscure game instantly becoming popular upon being mentioned by someone who is moderately well-known, in this case Adam Kovick, or even worse, UberHaxorNova. It is decent as a timewaster, but not deserving of the 50 page threads it has spawned in a number of gaming forums. 99.9% of the user generated content is people opening the map editor and raping the keyboard, with the final end result being a mass of random blue blocks and cool things.

Gameplay

The goal of Happy Wheels is simple: get to the finish alive. You are permitted to lose any nonessential body parts and even your vehicle, as long as you are not killed in the process. A wide variety of deadly obstacles can be found along the way, from everyday deathtraps like spike pits or landmines, to more unconventional things like a giant shotgun or satan's mouth. Most people ignore the goal and simply try to get their character killed in funny ways. The controls are fairly standard, with the exception of the ability to let go of the vehicle and subsequently flail around on the floor like a paraplegic child fallen out of it's Wheelchair. If you join and log in to the website, you can save replays of your runs for other people to see and rate. The most popular maps in Happy Wheels typically involve falling off ledges, running away from a large moving object, or sitting inside a special vehicle designed to travel down a pre-set path while getting bombarded by wrecking balls.

Level Editor

Happy Wheels' level editor primarily uses geometric shapes for construction. These shapes can act as a foundation, physics objects, part of a series of moving shapes, or a combination of the aforementioned things. Shapes can be connected by joints, which can either move freely or rotate automatically. Most of the other things are what you'd expect to find in a racing game, boosters, finish lines, spikes, etc. Most map-makers for Happy Wheels are autistic basement dwellers with the attention span of a goldfish, so expect most of the user-submitted levels range to be extremely boring and predictable with text plastered all over the level saying "PLZ RATE 5" and sometimes going as far to give out their Facebook and Twitter accounts because they think they have 'fans'. But to be fair, it's better than the level editors in many retail games

Characters

Happy Wheels currently has 9 playable characters (11 if you count the son and girlfriend). Each one rides a different kind of vehicle and has up to two riders. There is some variation in how they control, but they are all easy to figure out. Details on each character are listed below.

Wheelchair Guy - An old homeless man in a rocket powered wheelchair. The rockets can be adjusted and activated to either move very quickly or become airborne in places you wouldn't be able to. Using him is often considered to be cheating, so he isn't used terribly often. Not that you're losing much from this, as most replays of the Wheelchair Guy either involve flying to the finish line completely unharmed or slamming into a wall at at least 100 miles per hour.

Segway guy - A suited man on a segway. There is little else that can be said about him, he has no gimmick to speak of. In spite of this, Segway Guy is played fairly frequently.

Irresponsible Dad - A guy on a bike with his son. Was the first character to have someone accompanying him, which was found to offer many opportunities to create lulzy situations. Several maps have been designed specifically for riding off a ramp and tossing your son into a basketball hoop.

Effective Shopper - A fatass riding in a powered shopping cart full of groceries. Tends to either be the easiest or hardest character to play as depending on the map, due to the size of both the character and the vehicle.

Moped Couple - The first new character to be added to the game, Moped Couple is another pair of characters on a bike. This time the second rider is normally sized, but she will tightly cling onto her boyfriend even when he is dead and the bike is heading straight into a pit of death. Has a weakened version of the Wheelchair guy's rocket boosters instead of a jump.

Lawnmower Man - With the obesity of Effective Shopper, the jump of Segway Guy, and the age of Wheelchair Guy, the Lawnmower Man is the second addition to the Happy Wheels team. He features a lawnmower with spinning blades with which to destroy anything he rides over. Unfortunately, it is just for show, as they do absolutely nothing. He also has the unique feature of being the only black man in the game so far. Common sightings are chomping down on the watermelons and raping the white wimmin with 7 foot spears.

Explorer Guy - Indiana Jones on a minecart. This guy is extremely glitchy, wears tattered rags for pants, and has no redeeming abilities whatsoever.

Santa Claus - Pretty much Santa Claus with elves pulling him. Only thing special is that he can fly for a few seconds.

Pogo Stick Man - He has a fucking pogo stick. Only redeeming ability about this guy is the fact he can crush skulls with his pogo stick ,it's entertaining to flip around like a motherfucker while crushing skulls at the same time, DID I MENTION HE HAS A MOTHERFUCKING POGO STICK!?