Some games begin with a grand quest to save the world. Others cast you as a legendary warrior destined to defeat ancient evils. Do You even Forklift? asks a far more important question: what if absolutely everything could be solved with a forklift?
Developed by Garage 5 and published by Take IT Studio! alongside Kurki.games, this quirky physics-based puzzle adventure embraces absurdity from the very first moment. Set on a peaceful, Ghibli-inspired Japanese island, the game puts players behind the controls of a small yellow forklift and sends them on a journey filled with parking disputes, misplaced vehicles, bizarre obstacles, and more than a few opportunities to flout workplace safety regulations.
It is a premise that sounds ridiculous because it absolutely is. Yet beneath the silliness lies a surprisingly relaxing puzzle game with a strong sense of personality and an infectious charm that carries it through its rougher patches.
Small Forklift, Big Adventure
The structure is wonderfully straightforward. You travel across an island of more than sixty puzzle stages, each presenting a self-contained challenge viewed from an isometric perspective. Your objective is usually simple: move vehicles, clear pathways, manipulate environmental hazards, or somehow get everything into the correct position.
At first glance, the tasks appear almost childishly basic. Pick up car. Move car. Park car. The beauty lies in how the game gradually complicates those simple actions. Before long, you are dealing with electric vehicles attached to charging stations, automated gates, colour-based parking requirements, crushers, car washes, and other environmental hazards that force you to think several steps ahead. The solutions rarely become brutally difficult, but they remain engaging enough to keep you moving from one stage to the next.
There is an admirable understanding of puzzle design at work here. New mechanics are introduced clearly and usually explored thoroughly before another wrinkle is added. Even when the game becomes more complicated, it never seems interested in frustrating players. Instead, it wants you to experiment, fail, laugh at the resulting chaos, and try again.
The Joy of Controlled Chaos
What elevates Do You even Forklift? above being merely a competent puzzle game is its sense of physical comedy. The forklift handles with satisfying weight. Cars wobble on your forks. Objects bounce unexpectedly. Poorly balanced loads can tip over at the worst possible moment. Sometimes a carefully planned solution collapses entirely because you clipped a corner and sent half the puzzle tumbling into a canal.
Normally, such moments would be infuriating. Here, they are often hilarious. The game understands that physics-based comedy thrives on unpredictability. One minute you are carefully transporting a compact kei car to its designated parking space. The next, you have accidentally launched yourself skyward after colliding with an environmental object and are desperately trying to recover before landing in a lake.
Some of the most memorable moments arise when players stop treating puzzles as intended. The game rarely discourages creative problem-solving. If you discover an unconventional way to reach a solution, the game will happily allow it. That flexibility creates a playful atmosphere where experimentation becomes part of the fun.
A Love Letter to Japanese Car Culture
Beyond the forklifts and slapstick physics, there is an undeniable affection for Japanese culture woven throughout the experience. The island is filled with compact streets, colourful storefronts, tiny vehicles, and picturesque scenery that feels inspired by rural prefectures and animated films. The visual style avoids photorealism entirely, instead embracing soft colours and simplified geometry that give the world a warm, inviting feel.
The influence of Studio Ghibli is particularly apparent, not because the game attempts to copy those films directly, but because it shares a similar appreciation for everyday spaces. Parking lots, side streets, service stations, and quiet neighbourhoods become interesting places simply because of how lovingly they are presented.
The soundtrack reinforces that atmosphere beautifully. Gentle lo-fi melodies drift in the background, creating a relaxed mood that makes even failed puzzle attempts feel strangely comforting. It is the kind of game that encourages players to slow down and enjoy spending time in its world.
Where the Fork Starts to Stall
As charming as the experience can be, it is not without limitations. The biggest issue emerges roughly halfway through the campaign. While the game introduces several clever mechanics, it sometimes struggles to build on them in meaningful ways. Rather than combining multiple concepts into increasingly sophisticated puzzles, many later levels simply ask players to repeat familiar actions on a larger scale.
This creates a sense of repetition that is difficult to ignore. You understand the solution almost immediately, yet the puzzle still requires several more minutes of moving objects around before completion. The challenge shifts from problem-solving to task completion, which is significantly less satisfying.
The pacing consequently suffers. What begins as a fresh and inventive puzzle adventure occasionally drifts into routine busywork. The forklift remains fun to control, but some of the later stages could have benefited from tighter design and greater mechanical variety.
Collectables, Cats, and Complete Nonsense
The optional content largely shares the main game’s philosophy: charming, amusing, and perhaps a little underdeveloped. Hidden ramen bowls are scattered throughout stages, while additional challenges prompt players to balance a cat on their forklift while exploring. These activities fit the game’s offbeat personality perfectly and offer extra goals for completionists.
Unfortunately, some of these secrets feel a little too obvious. Hidden items are often visible almost immediately, reducing the satisfaction of discovery. The collectables add flavour, but they rarely feel essential.
Thankfully, the game’s sense of humour remains strong throughout. The dedicated horn button may be one of the most unnecessary features in modern gaming, yet it quickly becomes one of the most frequently used. There is something inherently funny about solving complex logistics problems while repeatedly honking at everything in sight.
Final Verdict
Do You even Forklift? succeeds because it fully commits to its absurd premise. It understands that driving a forklift around a picturesque Japanese island should be funny, relaxing, and slightly chaotic. Rather than chasing complexity for its own sake, it focuses on a steady stream of small, satisfying moments that gradually build into an enjoyable adventure.
The puzzle design occasionally runs out of steam, and the later stages can feel repetitive compared with the stronger opening hours. Even so, the charming presentation, playful physics, and wonderfully ridiculous concept ensure the experience remains entertaining from beginning to end.
Not every game needs to reinvent a genre. Sometimes all it needs is a forklift, a few dozen misplaced cars, and enough confidence to build an entire adventure around the simple joy of picking things up and putting them somewhere else. Do You even Forklift? Understands that perfectly, and for that reason alone, it is difficult not to leave with a smile.
