Supermarket Shriek

My first session with Supermarket Shriek lasted about forty minutes before my flatmate walked in, watched me slam a shopping cart into a giant rotating meat cleaver for the sixth time, and immediately asked to play. That right there is the game's whole pitch in a single anecdote. It is a local-multiplayer party game dressed up as an obstacle-course racer, and the absurd premise completely earns its runtime. The control scheme is the thing that grabs you immediately and refuses to let go. Left trigger makes the man scream, which turns the trolley left. Right trigger makes the goat scream, which turns it right. Both triggers together send it lurching forward. It sounds simple on paper, but the trolley physics are deliberately wobbly - the cart spins, drifts, and behaves like a shopping vehicle piloted by someone who has never been inside a supermarket. If you are playing solo you are wrangling both characters yourself, which is its own kind of sweaty challenge. In local co-op, one player controls each character, which splits the responsibility and the blame in equal, hilarious measure. On PC, microphone support lets you literally scream into a headset to steer, which is exactly as chaotic and neighbour-disturbing as it sounds. The 38-stage campaign runs through a variety of shop types and throws new hazards at you constantly - swinging axes, conveyor belts, fire pits, sumo wrestlers, electrified pools, and yes, a dedicated mode where the entire point is to knock over as many tins of beans as possible. Level objectives rotate between obstacle runs, timed collectathons called Shopping List, and Grand Prix races where you chase down an AI opponent. Each street of shops introduces a fresh theme and the level design is inventive enough that repetition is not a serious issue in the first half of the game. Where things get complicated is the back half. The difficulty ramps sharply toward the later stages, and the no-checkpoint structure means a single mistake sends you back to the start of the level. For a game this physically chaotic, that can tip from challenging into genuinely aggravating. The constant screaming audio is also a polarising design choice - funny for the first ten minutes, but reviewers consistently flag it as wearing out its welcome on long sessions. The Party mode, which supports up to eight players in PvP across Shopping List, Race, Sumo, and Elimination modes, is the game's highest-value asset for groups, but it requires completing a co-op stage first to unlock, which is an odd gate to put on the most social part of the experience. For the "is it fun for four friends on a Saturday night" test, the answer is a clear yes, with one caveat: keep sessions short and loud. The trolley controls are immediately funny to anyone watching and genuinely satisfying to anyone willing to learn them. Solo players who care about star ratings and clean runs will find real depth in chasing perfect times across 38 stages and unlocking the cosmetic options - over 50 customisation items for the man and goat. Players expecting a traditional kart racer with weapons and lap counters will need to recalibrate expectations fast. This is closer to Gang Beasts in a Tesco than anything Mario Kart adjacent.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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