'Rick and Morty' Creator's New Game Compared to One of the Best Episodes

Justin Roiland’s upcoming VR video game adventure will showcase his wacky, off-the-cuff improvisational comedic style. So it’s no surprise to here Roiland comparing Trover Saves the Universe to his work on the Interdimensional Cable episodes of Rick and Morty.

Squanch Games debuted a new gameplay trailer for Trover Saves the Universe at PAX West on Tuesday, and while the game’s story is starting to make a little bit more sense, it remains as inscrutable as ever. The humor comes off as similarly wacky to Rick and Morty, but it leans even more heavily into the insane and macabre. Adult Swim’s late-night stoner core audience will love it when a beaked cackling demon shoves dogs into its eyes and growls while saying “fucking crazy” over and over again.

In an interview with Tom’s Guide over the weekend at PAX West 2018, Roiland characterized the humor of Trover Saves the Universe as “looser” and with a more “laid-back feel” than Rick and Morty.

“I’m just having fun with the humor,” Roiland said, comparing it more to the improvised Interdimensional Cable story structure from Rick and Morty episodes, an anthological concept that captures the randomness of an infinite multiverse.

“It feels fun and loose, and silly, with ‘I-don’t-give-a-fuck’ energy, in a medium that has to give so many fucks,” Roiland said about improvising for Trover Saves the Universe. “We know what the scene needs to be narratively, so let’s just improv.”

The results of that improv for Trover Saves the Universe means many of the characters ruthlessly swear at each other in ridiculous, and hilarious, fashion. Roiland himself voices many of the characters, and it helps that Trover sounds like Morty and several other NPCs in the game sound like Rick.

So what’s even going on in Trover Saves the Universe?

Many of the characters in this universe (the “Chairopeans”) are bound to chairs, and the player’s character is one of them. Others, like Trover, are monsters that have tiny animals as their eyes. A giant beaked creature (an Abstainer) stole the player’s dogs and is using their life force as a weapon to potentially destroy the universe. Trover forces the player out of their house to teleport around the world to try and save it. So from a gameplay perspective, players see the VR environment from the perspective of a chairbound person teleporting around, but they also control Trover as he slashes energies with a beam sword.

It’s totally insane, and we can’t wait to try it out.

Trover Saves the Universe will be released for the Sony PlayStation 4 sometime in 2019.

For a refresher on the episode that started Interdimensional Cable, check out our analysis of the “Rixty Minutes” story circles right here: