Coffin Dodgers from Milky Tea Studios and Wales Interactive is a very entertaining cart racing game on PlayStation 4 where you play as one of seven elderly individuals living in a retirement village. They have all banded together to race against the Grim Reaper to save their souls. Do you have what it takes to win? Then come read our Coffin Dodgers review to learn more!

 

Each player rides around on a modified mobility scooter. Collecting coins in each race will allow you to make modifications to your ride in the garage. Upgrade your engine paints, repaint your mobility scooter and upgrade your weapons to gain an edge against the competition to come on top!

The selection of characters is very varied. For example, you have Jeremiah, a retired Amish sheep farmer with a top-secret love of technology. Then there’s Martha, an extremely feisty person who is not afraid to always speak her mind. Or how about Lucy who used to be a centerfold model for Playman magazine waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day? As you can see, this game features a crazy cast of characters from some weird backgrounds.

As soon as you select someone to play with, you’ll enter a short tutorial that will teach you the basics of the game. You’ll be required to drive down a road without hitting any of the traffic cones in the way. You steer with the left analog stick, brake and eventually reverse with the L2 button, and accelerate with the R2 button. You’ll also learn about going over the yellow boost arrows to greatly speed things up.

The game will then teach you about using the Circle button to attack your opponents – if you hold it down, you’ll be able to increase the impact of your melee weapon. Finally, the last part of the tutorial will inform you about pickups. These are the glowing briefcases in your path which you can use to give you access to a weapon that can be activated with the X button. The weapons and items inside of the glowing briefcases include a machine gun, a protective shield and a very handy oil can that will send your opponents flying out of the track.

You can play in a single-player experience where you can take on the game’s Story mode – this will task you with completing each of the available races to “finish” the game. You can also enjoy a quick race, try out some time trials, or even enter an open world mode where you can explore and scout the location. The open world mode has a section called Crazy Granddad in which you drive around town searching for, well, crazy granddad items. There’s also the option of diving into some multiplayer fun if you’re into it, greatly extending the game’s replay value.

Trophy hunters are in for a treat because Coffin Dodgers features a full trophy count with a Platinum trophy at the end of the road. The best part is that it should take you around 5-7 hours or so to get the Platinum trophy if you do things right! As long as you make sure to always win each race in first place – if you don’t, restart immediately – then you’ll be well on your way to adding this one to your collection.
I enjoyed my time with the game for my Coffin Dodgers review, and will soon come back to it to get the final set of trophies I need for my Platinum. The developer is currently working on a sequel, so it will be interesting to see what they’ve learned from Coffin Dodgers to improve the next one.

[review
pros=”Fun and quirky premise.
Solid gameplay mechanics.
Easy and fast Platinum trophy.” cons=”Controls might feel a bit floaty for some.” score=83]

Disclaimer
This Coffin Dodgers review is based on a PS4 copy provided by Wales Interactive.