Highway Mayhem is the skeleton of a racing game created by KingFezProductions on DeviantArt. It follows a group of wacky characters on their routes on a semi-legal race across the United States.
Highway Mayhem contains examples of:
- Big Applesauce: Both "Traffic Drag" and "The Big Apple" take place in and around New York City.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In their confrontation, Cody asks is Sparkplug is saying things in all caps.
- Cool Bike: Those that don't drive cars- Iris, 13, and Nosejob- drive these.
- Cool Car: Everyone barring the three above has one, ranging from luxury sedans to muscle cars, to bona-fide supercars like Baron's McLaren F1.
- Deadly Doctor: Doc Rager turns into this in his ending.
- Descended Creator: Sparkplug is voiced by Brandon Williams himself. Apparently, he found his screaming fun to do.
- Downloadable Content: Six packs, each bringing a new character, course, and schemes for three on-disc characters. Those characters are: Officer Meadows, Kyle, Staci, Agent Zigzag, Private Jones, and Nosejob.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Ernesto, who would rather use the race to expand his territory than simply race around.
- Expy:
- Ernesto is basically Gus Fring, down to being voiced by Giancarlo Esposito.
- Kyle is Robot Chicken's Nerd, down to being voiced by Seth Green.
- Flyover Country: Literally one of the courses.
- Follow the Leader: In the revealing blog post, Williams explicitly compares the game to Cruis'n USA.
- Foreshadowing: A cop can be seen competing in the revamped Mayhem in Sparkplug's ending. This would turn out to be the first DLC character, Officer Meadows.
- Going Postal: A key part of Sparkplug's and Cosmo's backstories.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Both Blue Thunder and Ernesto feature a little Spanish in their lines, and Iris speaks Navajo in her story mode.
- Last-Name Basis: (Samuel) Waversham, Officer (Trent) Meadows, and Private (Larry) Jones.
- Lost in Character: Sparkplug, a former track mascot gone insane. He varies from being aware that he's in a suit ("I'm crying...from my suit? Oh that's not good!") to thinking the suit is his body (exclaiming "MY HAND!" when one of his gloves pops off in Blue Thunder's cutscene). If his appearance in Fez Racing XX1 is canon, he's forgotten what he looks like under the suit.
- Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": Sparkplug made an appearance in another Fez Games production, Fez Racing XX1, as a DLC character in February 2021, about a year prior to his profile's release in January 2022.
- Masked Luchador: Blue Thunder, although he's more a crime fighter than wrestler.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Weaponized by Staci, who intentionally acts like a stereotypical bimbo to make people ignore her.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Postman and 13, fitting their elusive natures. His story mode reveals Postman's surname to be Bundt.
- Nosejob from the DLC is also this, although her story mode reveals her name as Vivian.
- Parts Unknown: 13's given hometown is "three exits out", with an age of "yes" and an occupation of "no".
- Pit Girls: Fitting of a racing game, there's a bikini-clad woman who presents you with a trophy at the end of each race when you win. Humorously, if you go into the settings, you can change it to a speedo-clad man, both the man and the woman, or a robot.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Lenny's schtick.
- Secret Character: Spider-Mom, The Goodboyes, Doc Rager, 13, Blue Thunder, Sparkplug, Ernesto, and Baron.
- Shared Universe: Takes places in the same universe as other Fez Games franchises Charms Dealer, Hot Times On Gladiator Planet, World of Wrestle, MILF Quest, and Board City.
- Blue Thunder appears as a DLC character for World of Wrestle.
- Sparkplug can be found on billboards in Board City.
- Some dialog in MILF Quest implies that Travis is related to Mrs. Foley and Elijah.
- 13 makes an appearance in Horace's ending for CD2.
- Spider-Man Send-Up: Spider-Mom, natch.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: Both Blue Thunder and Ernesto throw this at each other during the former's cutscene for the latter; Blue Thunder at Ernesto for being a drug runner, and Ernesto at Blue Thunder for being a luchador driving a low rider.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In her intro, Spider-Mom states that she was bitten by a radioactive spider while working in a lab. She then notes that she sued the crap out of such a lab that wouldn't keep something like that under tight security.
- Take That!: If the descriptions for the Las Vegas and Orlando tracks on the "Courses" post are any indication, Williams doesn't think too highly of Nevada or Florida.
- Twofer Token Minority:
- Cody is Asian-American and (implied) neurodivergent.
- Patty is an African-American woman.
- Iris is half-Latina, half-Navajo.
- Upper-Class Twit: Baron's profile explicitly calls him this. He's actually a pretty nice guy though.
- Wacky Racing: Well, when your cast includes a psychotic mascot, a drug runner, an eight-limbed spider-woman, a hippie, amidst more weird characters, it's safe to say you're doing a bit of this.
- Taken up to eleven in Sparkplug's ending, wherein he has the racers run through a self-made rally course.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: If you pick the "robot" option for the Pit Girls in Highway Mayhem 2, they'll literally have a flag draped over them.
- World Tour: Highway Mayhem 2, much like Cruis'n World, takes this approach, with the race across the United States replaced by a race around the globe.
- You Do Not Want To Know: Spider-Mom makes several references to shooting webs out of an unmentionable area. Williams would confirm they're from a gland on her taint.
