Do you want to have a homoerotic experience with your manual transmission? Yeah, of course you do. Come on, you saucy saucepot, don’t tell me you never found it a little hot, all that ignition, the sleek, firm bulb of the gear shift trembling in your palm.
Robert Yang’s latest game, Stick Shift, explores the intimate relationship between a man and his gay car, although you don’t need to be a man or a vehicle to enjoy it. The game opens with all the familiar auditory foreplay that comes with driving: The click of the seatbelt, the hum and thunk of the dashboard lights. Then you give it gas and flick-tug into gear, and as the car vibrates to life, you, the driver, are washed in bug-eyed bliss and the nocturnal luminescence of the road.
It’s worth trying for that moment alone, when Davey and the Chains‘ “Crybaby” smacks you in the face. And also for the red-faced humiliation you’ll feel when you stall, rattling and screeching.
I’ve never felt so impotent. I wish I’d learned to drive standard. No idea. You can laugh.
Robert Yang’s Stick Shift is free to download, but the developer accepts donations toward his ongoing work (you’ve already read about his game Hurt Me Plenty here on Offworld). Stick Shift contains no actual sex or nudity and is safe for work.
