I still question the existence of the so-called rage-inducing meme games like Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy and A Difficult Game About Climbing, even if the latter, as annoying as it is, is nowhere near as obtuse and obnoxious as the former. Why not just make a meme game in the same premise, but with actually good controls? Let the difficult level design and premise test your skills, not your patience. This is basically what Driving is Hard is. It is clearly another game meant for streamers to scream at, but it’s a fully playable, completely functional, and actually (occasionally) fun experience.

Jeff, my boy. Be confident. Your bathtub has ABS brakes.

In Driving is Hard, you play as Jeff. Jeff is a bald dude driving a bathtub on wheels. You know, the usual stuff. His objective is simple: he needs to get to the end of each level by any means necessary, all whilst thinking about his family, overcoming past traumas, and trying to redo his steps after making some climbing mistakes. If this premise sounds like something that started off as a reasonable idea, only for it to jump eleven sharks soon after, yep, you’re not alone.

Why is Jeff doing what he does? Well, he wants to prove a point to his dad, apparently. As odd as this might sound, hearing a guy talk about his family issues wasn’t exactly unbearable. I was listening to a guy slowly gaining confidence, not Bennett Foddy telling me “not to hate the player, but actually hate the game”. In a weird way, it was somewhat relatable. This is also thanks to some unexpectedly decent voice acting, which elevated what would have otherwise been a mere bunch of random assets meant for you to overcome. Cohesive random assets, but random assets nonetheless.

And it can float, apparently. Because why not.

Contrary to what its name might imply, Driving is Hard doesn’t make the task of actually driving your V8-powered bathtub overly difficult. Unlike other “rage-inducing meme games”, the controls are simple and responsive. It’s the level design that will test your patience, intentionally so. I find that to be a lot less frustrating. Another key difference is the fact that the game is level-based. So, in a way, there are a few checkpoints here and there. Instead of feeling like an annoying gauntlet meant to make Youtubers shout on camera, Driving is Hard feels more like a well-designed physics-based puzzler… in which you can drive a bathtub. That will never not sound amazing.

It’s not even a bad-looking game. It’s a bunch of random assets, sure, but they feel… cohesive?

It can be annoying, frustrating, rage-inducing, but as far as titles in the microcosm of “rage-bait meme games” go, I honestly think that Driving is Hard is the best of the bunch. It features fine production values, but above all else, good controls; the game feels like an actual challenge, and not just a test to see how much you can stomach it. Would I call it amazing and a must-have? Absolutely not. Still, I had a fun time with it, especially on the ROG Ally, and that’s way more than I could say about some of its peers…

Driving is Hard is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB and Asus ROG Ally.

A copy of Driving is Hard was provided by the publisher.