Trover Saves The Universe

Developer: Squanch Games, Inc. | Publisher: Squanch Games, Inc. | Release Date: 2019 | Genre: Action / Adventure / Indie | Website: N/A | Purchase: Steam

From the twisted mind of Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland comes Trover Saves the Universe, a VR (and non-VR) experience that feels exactly like something Rick and Morty might watch on Interdimensional Cable. It’s absurd, irreverent, hilarious, and just coherent enough to carry you through its colorful chaos. But beyond the barrage of jokes and profanity, does Trover actually hold up as a game?

You play as a nameless “Chairorpian,” a humanoid alien confined to a high-tech floating chair. Your adorable dogs have been kidnapped by a grotesque alien overlord named Glorkon, who’s shoving them into his eye sockets and using their life essence to destroy the universe. Naturally.

Partnered with Trover, a very reluctant purple, eye-hole monster, your mission is to traverse bizarre alien worlds, recover your dogs, and stop Glorkon’s apocalyptic scheme. The story is filled with Justin Roiland’s signature humor: surreal, dark, frequently improvised, and almost always profane. If you’re a fan of Rick and Morty, you’ll feel right at home as Trover basically is Morty, and most enemies sound exactly like Rick.

While the overarching plot is simple, the details make it shine: extended dialogue tangents, optional conversations, and characters with names like Doopy Dooper and Comedy Guy. In fact, with something like 20 hours of voice lines recorded (far longer than the actual runtime of the game), it’s worth sticking around after the main interactions are over just to hear the extra insanity unfold.

At its core, Trover Saves the Universe blends light platforming, combat, and puzzle-solving. The game is intentionally forgiving as puzzles are easy, platforming rarely punishes mistakes, and combat leans heavily on hack-and-slash basics with a simple three-hit combo and a jump attack with splash damage.

That said, the game adds some spice as you progress. Trover unlocks new abilities like double jumps and dodge rolls, while your Chairorpian gains new powers (courtesy of being spat on by NPCs, of course), such as object manipulation and levitating your chair to different heights. Later levels demand a bit more coordination as some enemies are shielded or armored and require you, as the chairorpian, to toss objects at them to strip away their defenses before sending Trover in to slash away.

The balance between controlling Trover and repositioning your Chairorpian for better views or attack angles makes for a surprisingly fresh dynamic in VR. Your enemies focus solely on Trover, so your job is to keep him moving and help out where you can. It works and is fun without the usual drawbacks of VR games.

Exploration is also incentivized. Hidden throughout the environments are “Power Babies” that can be used to upgrade Trover’s health. Just don’t forget to grab them before moving on, as there’s no backtracking, except for restarting the entire level again from the main menu, though the game does warn you ahead of time.

While Trover won’t win awards for graphical fidelity, its art style is perfectly suited for VR. The environments are imaginative, colorful, and packed with oddball details that make each alien planet feel unique. Despite their simplicity, the visuals are immersive, thanks to clever design and the freedom to look around and interact with the world from your hovering chair.

Character models are intentionally weird and cartoonish, which works well, given the game’s tone. From gelatinous monstrosities to bulbous NPCs with ridiculous voices, Trover doubles down on its absurdity and never takes itself seriously, which is precisely the point.

The soundscape of Trover Saves the Universe is a chaotic delight. The catchy soundtrack complements the offbeat action, but the real star is the voice work. Justin Roiland voices most of the characters, often improvising entire conversations. This gives the game an unpredictable, unfiltered energy that’s hard to find elsewhere.

Notable guest performances from Steve Agee as “Downgrade Donny,” Mary Mack as “Doopy Dooper,” and Doug Benson as “Upgrade Teddy” add to the madness, but let’s be honest: It’s Roiland’s show. His overlapping voices may blur together at times (especially when all the enemies are Glorkon clones with identical tones), but the sheer volume and variety of dialogue keep things engaging.

The controls in VR are well thought out. You sit in place as the Chairorpian and use controller input to issue commands to Trover for actions like jumping, dodging, and attacking. You can adjust your chair’s height to get a better vantage point, interact with objects, or scan the environment. It’s a clever use of the medium that doesn’t rely on constant locomotion, making it comfortable for longer play sessions.

You’re never asked to do anything overly complex, which makes the game very approachable. The simplicity might be a downside for hardcore gamers, but for what it aims to be, a humorous, weird VR romp, it nails the experience.

The free DLC, Important Cosmic Jobs, offers even more ridiculous content by letting you explore Trover’s workplace. It’s not essential to the main story but adds new jokes, mini-challenges, and another excuse to immerse yourself in the Roilandverse. If you enjoyed the base game, this is an easy recommendation.

Overall, Trover Saves the Universe is less about tight mechanics or complex challenges and more about delivering an experience. It’s weird, crude, and packed with personality. If you’re a fan of Roiland’s humor and are looking for a VR title that doesn’t take itself seriously, this game is an easy sell. Just be ready for a lot of profanity, plenty of fourth-wall-breaking, and gameplay that serves as a vehicle for one of the strangest (and funniest) sci-fi stories in gaming.