History VideoGame / MySummerCar

See also ''VideoGame/MonBazou'' for the [[CanadaEh French-Canadian]] equivalent of this game.

* AprilFoolsEpisode: The 2021 update introduced a GameWithinAGame rally game named "Conan [=McGuinness=] Global Rally Grand Prix 95". The download file size to download in the Mkropekka computer is 13 MB and the game's internet is just 3 KB speed so it will take 3 hours. Upon entering the game, the game struggles to load the intro and the menus are the only interactive part of the game. Choosing any car will make the Mkropekka computer crash or freeze depending on the graphics, with the latter giving you an [[AchievementMockery achievement]]. Not to mention the fact that the game's file size isn't even enough for a game like that as similar games like ''[[VideoGame/ColinMcRaeRally Colin McRae Rally 2.0]]'' and ''Mobil 1: Rally Championship'' has over 100MB+.

In the summer of 1995, a 19 year old kid finds himself alone in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Finland}} Finnish countryside]] with a lot of free time on his hands. Dirty jobs, [[ForeignCussWord bizarre Finnish]] [[SirSwearsALot swearing]], [[DrunkDriver drunk driving]], [[ExcrementStatement spontaneous urination]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking car building]] ensues. The main attraction is [[ConstructionIsAwesome building the eponymous car, the Satsuma, from square one]], but it also involves a healthy dose of [[SurvivalSandbox not dying]]. The car building part is perhaps [[FunForSome a bit too accurate]] to real life, what with the game just giving you a bare car frame, a garage with [[ComplexityAddiction a couple hundred car parts on the shelves]], and a bunch of tools for putting it all together. Bolt by bolt. [[TryEverything Each requiring a different size spanner to fasten]]. [[GuideDangIt The game will never tell you anything]], so you either have to be a MrFixit or a GreaseMonkey by trade to assemble the car without an online guide. All the while the survival part... [[OhCrap Is equally realistic.]] You'll often find yourself having to drive down several kilometers of dangerous Finnish dirt roads just to buy much needed sausages and beer, or else it's [[{{Permadeath}} game over and all progress on your car is lost]]. While there is no ultimate goal yet, you can do various jobs to make money for better car parts that you order via snail mail.

* PowerLimiter: Of the revving sort. Satsuma will never go over 200kph - [[LudicrousSpeed not like that's slow or anything.]] I mean, it ''is'' way past the speedo range.

* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: When you overturn your vehicle in the middle of nowhere and there's no button to reset to track. Or rewind time.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can punch a guy unconscious, drink his booze and [[ExcrementStatement pee on him]]. And of course, you have a wide variety of vehicles to choose from for running people over. Or alternatively, empty out someone's septic tank, get paid for it and then just dump all of it in their face. Maybe go to the village shop, smash all the windows, go in, throw everything around, pee on the floor, light up a cigarette, [[FlippingTheBird flip the shopkeeper off]], then leave. Yet another, more subtle way is making one good batch of moonshine and a huge batch of terrible moonshine, sell a single jug of good moonshine to Jokke and unload the crappy moonshine on him at the same price. Or you can just skip making crap moonshine altogether and just sell him jugs of water after the first jug of moonshine.

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: [[spoiler:If you steal Jokke's briefcase full of money and beat him in the fight, he will [[DrivenToSuicide hang himself]] from the bridge and will be permanently dead. Not only do you lose a significant source of income but you also indirectly caused the death of one of the few friends your character has and [[YouBastard it's all your fault]]!]]
** Doing most of the above will now have some kinds of consequences: not bothering to properly empty out the septic tank where you should will result in a fine for polluting the environment, and selling crap moonshine or just plain water to Jokke after he agrees to pay you the highest possible amount for your moonshine will result in an angry answering machine message and slashed Satsuma tires.

* WhatAPieceOfJunk: The best case scenario.

** Doing mean things in the dance pavilion (peeing, engaging a fight, flipping the middle finger in front of the security guard or climbing in the stage when the band is performing), the guard will chew you out and throw you out of the building. Doing so repeatedly times and the owner throws you out of the pavilion as soon you enter.

* TheAlcoholic: About half of the NPC's are this. The biggest offenders being Pena (the drunk driver in the little green car) and Jokke (the drunkard you drive home from the pub and sell kilju to). According to the player character's grandma, alcoholism runs in the family; his grandfather, uncle, and the aforementioned Pena (his cousin) have all succumbed to heavy drinking. Your father on the other hand, [[TheTeetotaler doesn't drink]].

* TheAllegedCar: The stock Satsuma. In particular the radiator is a pile of garbage that overheats just going to town and the tires you can find for free are a massive safety hazard. It'll start to get away from its status as this as soon as you replace those things in particular, with the Racing Radiator not overheating for no reason and the Gommer-Gobra tires actually having grip, while not being over-specialized like the other two sets of tires (the price difference between Standard and Gommer-Gobra tires, both of which can pass inspection, is not big enough to justify ever getting the Standard tires since the Gommer-Gobra tires are strictly better).

** The Gifu, the massive vacuum truck that you use to do sewage jobs, is the big truck version of this. Despite ''appearing'' in better condition than some of the other cars, the thing is a bear to handle on the backroads where you will most often be driving it, and good luck if you get stuck at the bottom of a hill. [[ShownTheirWork Being modeled after an actual big rig's operations,]] starting and driving it is ''very'' complicated and the truck is extremely finicky about its operation. There will be times where it will stall out and simply refuse to start.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: If you find driving stick too daunting, you can enable autoclutch in settings.
** Mosquito repellent and sauna can be used to get rid of the annoying insect sounds.
* AprilFoolsEpisode: The 2021 update introduced a GameWithinAGame rally game named Conan [=McGuinness=] Global Rally Grand Prix 95. The download file size to download in the Mkropekka computer is 13 MB and the game's internet is just 3 KB speed so it will take 3 hours. Upon entering the game, the game struggles to load the intro and the menus are the only interactive part of the game. Choosing any car make the Mkropekka computer crash or freeze depending of the graphics with the latter give you an [[AchievementMockery achievement]]. Not to mention the fact that the game's file size isn't even enough for a game like that as similar games like ''[[VideoGame/ColinMcRaeRally Colin McRae Rally 2.0]]'' and ''Mobil 1: Rally Championship'' has over 100MB+.

* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Jokke, a local drunkard, reveals to the player character that he won the lottery and [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney hid his prize money in a briefcase]]. Should the player steal the briefcase, Jokke will come to his house and try to kill him with an ax.]]

* {{Backstory}}: The intro sequence shows the birth of the player character. There's also a lengthy note on the fridge door explaining some of the more recent events and player character's family. The player's grandmother sometimes tells the player about the lore.

* BookEnds: [[spoiler:If you hang out with Suski for a while, there's a chance where you'll recieve a phone call from her claiming that she's pregnant, demanding the PlayerCharacter to take responsibility as a husband. As the result, the game ends with the same sequence from the intro except the player is shown rushing Suski to the hospital in the Satsuma while the credits roll. However, [[PostEndGameContent you can still continue playing the game after that]].]]
* BoringButPractical: The tractor can't go over 40kph, but it has a working forklift attachment and can produce some serious torque when pulling vehicles out of ditches.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: In one of the radio programs, the host says that if any listeners are playing video games right now, they should stop and go outside.

* CommonplaceRare: Booze is hard to come by, particularly since the free bottle at the shed near your house was removed. It can only be purchased at steep prices one night out of the week, and other than that usually requires some sort of harm done or crime committed to get ahold of, and the only way to get a wristwatch so that you can check the current ingame time is to find a guy who has one in the dance pavilion, knock him out and steal it from him.
* CopyProtection: With the rollout of the October 2018 computer update introducing the [=MikroPekka=], a purchasable in-game home computer, a mild anti-piracy measure was integrated into the computer. Players running ''My Summer Car'' without Steam will download a virus into the [=MikroPekka=] alongside any game they acquire through the in-game bulletin board system. The virus will then format the computer's drive upon restart, bricking the computer for good and locking players out of the computer's features.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: There are several meters monitoring your condition, and if any of them is left unchecked (except Dirtiness and Fatigue, the former of which has minimal adverse effects and the latter of which will cause you to pass out), you will die. Up to that point, though, you won't notice a thing.

* DeathCourse: ''The average grocery run''.

* EarnYourFun: Pretty much everything you might decide to do will take you several hours, if not tens of hours.

* MustHaveCaffeine: Drinking too much coffee to relieve fatigue will result in a caffeine addiction

* MyCarHatesMe: When it gets really mad, pistons fly. And that's just the Satsuma. ''Every single drivable vehicle'' in the game loathes you to some degree: The van bounces around like no one's business and is prone to spin out when not loaded down with cargo, the [[BigBadassRig Gifu]] guzzles diesel and sometimes just seems to quit working on a whim, the Moped will fall over onto its side and stall out if you brake and turn too hard, and the Ruckso is a barn find that barely runs on its own and ''is filled with wasps'' when you first find it. Even the boat, which is far and away the safest vehicle in the game, tends to lean if you have some things loaded onto it, and God help you if you run out of fuel in the middle of the lake and didn't have the foresight to leave a canister of two stroke fuel on it.

* NoPlotNoProblem: The game will supposedly have a light plot, but it's not like it really needs one.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The car inspector is a minor version of this in that you need to have your car pass the inspection to race with it and it's not immediately obvious what you need to do to make it pass, although you get a list of missing things afterwards if you don't. He's also often surprised if you DO manage to pass the inspection and says he can't understand how you managed to pull it off and always adds "to be honest, this car is a piece of junk" to the paperwork afterwards.
** He's more this toward Fleetari, since they're in the middle of a long-standing feud and he refuses to let Fleetari's car pass inspection, which is the main reason why he wants you to empty a septic tank on the inspector's yard.

* OnlyShopInTown: The shopkeeper runs the store during the day and the bar during the night, and he also handles any mail orders and gas purchases. If you flip him off for any reason, one of his replies points out that "if you don't like to shop here, feel free to find another store...[[OhWait oh wait, you can't".]] This is even lampshaded with the slogan of the shop, "Se ainoa" ("The only one").
* PigMan: The ventti dealer has hooves of a pig and when he loses, he squeals and runs away on all fours.

* DevelopersForesight: Escaping from Alivieska's jail is impossible in the stock game, but the police are still programmed to hunt you down and throw you back in jail should you break out using a third-party mod.

* DeveloperForesight: Escaping from Alivieska's jail is impossible in the stock game, but the police are still programmed to hunt you down and throw you back in jail should you break out using a third-party mod.

* WhatAPieceOfJunk: The best case scenario.
* WhatTheHellPlayer: Plenty of them!
** Doing mean things in the dance pavilion (peeing, engaging a fight, flipping the middle finger in front of the security guard or climbing in the stage when the band is performing), the guard will chew you out and throw you out of the building. Doing so repeatedly times and the owner throws you out of the pavilion as soon you enter.
** Refusing to bring back Flettari's Ferndale when he finished of working with the Satsuma, he gives you an angry letter and dumps the Satsuma in the swamp.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The municipality of Alivieska, which the game takes place in, doesn't exist. While there is a municipality called ''Y''livieska and Al''a''vieska in Finland, the setting looks like it could be based on any rural part of Finland in general.
* WizardNeedsFoodBadly: If you don't eat, you die of hunger. The same goes for drinking, peeing, and managing stress. Sleep deprivation used to be fatal, but this was at some point changed so that you just start blacking out instead.
* WorkOffTheDebt: If you order a bunch of expensive parts, you'll have to work extra hard to pay for them. Breaking either or both of the breakable windows at Teimo's store while he's around will also get you a stiff bill added to your next purchase.

** The "Hayosiko" van in the game is based on a late 1970s Toyota Hiace. In a Finnish joke, "Hajosiko Toyotasi" is the name of a Japanese car mechanic or just "car mechanic" in Japanese, the joke being the name translates back into Finnish as "did your Toyota break down." [[spoiler:Ironically, the Hayosiko never breaks down.]]

* HalfHumanHybrid: The ventti dealer has hooves of a pig and when he loses, he squeals and runs away on all fours.

* TheNineties: It's explicitly stated the game takes place in 1995. The universe is largely modeled after what rural Finland looked like around that year.
** That being said, the game follows more of a [[TheSeventies '70s]] aesthetic with the rural Finnish town being TwoDecadesBehind. Most of the cars (including your Satsuma and van) are from the '70s, the interior of your parents house (presumably built in the '70s) is almost 90% woodgrain with comfortably stylish green and orange furnishings, some of the tacky shirts a few [=NPCs=] wear are very '70s, even the game's official logo's typeface resembles various bubble-lettering typefaces that were popular in the '60s and '70s. The song "Nasta lautaan" also has some '60s vibes.

* OnlyShopInTown: The shopkeeper runs the store during the day and the bar during the night, and he also handles any mail orders and gas purchases. If you flip him off for any reason, one of his replies points out that "if you don't like to shop here, feel free to find another store...[[OhWait oh wait, you can't".]] This is even lampshaded with the slogan of the shop, "Se ainoa." ("The only one.")

* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: Finishing the rally in 2nd place (with permadeath enabled) grants you the achievement titled "First Loser" with the subtitle "Coming in second is just a first loser."