Three and Out – ‘Trover Saves the Universe’

It’s time to get schwifty! Straight from the mind of Rick and Morty’s co-creator Justin Roiland and his video game studio Squanch Games comes Trover Saves the Universe. An action platformer where rules and logic are immediately thrown out the window. Playing through this wacky game was an absolute treat that had me laughing from one scene to the next. This was taken to a whole new level after I borrowed a friend’s VR headset for my second playthrough. Jumping from the screen to suddenly feeling like I was in an episode of Rick and Morty felt amazing. There were quite a few times where I had to take the headset off to breathe from laughing too hard.

Trover Saves the Universe begins while you are out on a pleasant walk with your two dogs. Everything seems peaceful until a large, eyeless alien named Glorkon steals your dogs and injects them into his eye sockets, providing him with the power to rule the universe. It is up to you and your partner in crime, Trover, to save the universe from destruction. The premise of the game starts off with a bang and never takes itself seriously, but it maintains a cohesive narrative the entire time. Throughout our journey to save the universe, we are tasked with visiting other planets to find tools that will defeat Glorkon. On these planets, we meet a wide assortment of unique characters that just feel natural for this game. One of my favorite characters is Mr.Popup, an alien representation of pop up ads that one might find on the internet. True to his name, he constantly pops up throughout the level and gets in the way of the gameplay in front of you, asking you to kill his annoying neighbor named Michael. It’s moments like this where the comedy of Trover Saves the Universe really shines. Nevertheless, comedy is subjective and it doesn’t always have the same effect on each person. Gameplay in Trover Saves the Universe often takes a backseat to the dialogue, comedy, and story happening in front of you. For fans of shows like Rick and Morty, this game will seem like the perfect transition in terms of storytelling and improvisational humor. I felt right at home with this style of comedy. For many other players, however, the endless rambling and weird characters can be unpleasant and very exhausting. 

Although the gameplay in Trover Saves the Universe is primarily designed for virtual reality, a VR headset is certainly not required to enjoy the game. Players take on the role of a Chairorpian, a race of aliens who are bound to floating chairs and can only move with the assistance of a device that looks suspiciously like a DualShock 4 controller. It is with this controller that you are then able to control the actions of Trover, a purple alien with baby aliens for eyes. Much like yourself, the Chairorpian sits back in their chair and a majority of gameplay comes from Trover instead. Unfortunately, the combat in this game is just lackluster. You’ll learn a couple combos throughout the game but they are almost never necessary for progression. Quite often, I defeated most enemies by simply mashing the normal attack a few times because it was faster.  One of the few times I found it to be fun and engaging was when we had to simultaneously feed a large alien and fight off enemies. Platforming and puzzle solving picks up the slack, though they never do anything mind blowing with it. Like most VR games, the Chairorpian’s movement is done by zooming from one point to another. This effectively limits the range at which you can move Trover around in the game. This creates an added challenge when trying to reach the right button or trying to not fall into a lake of acid. Yet in the end, I was left wondering why the gameplay just felt so uninspired for a game with such a fun story. 

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