Zift Advisory
Happy Wheels is the mobile version of a popular physics based PC game in which user navigate throughout a series of obstacles on wheel-based transportation. This app is only available for iOS devices and is rated for users 17 years of age and older. This app features both in-app purchases and advertisements. This app is not safe for kids.
What is Happy Wheels?
Happy Wheels is the mobile version of a popular physics based PC game. Users choose from multiple characters, including a man in a wheelchair and a man with a child, and navigate throughout a series of obstacles on wheel-based transportation.
This app is only available for iOS devices and is rated for users 17 years of age and older. This app features both in-app purchases and advertisements.
Players tap and swipe to complete game's level and keep their character from crashing and being injured.
There are different goals each level and player’s characters will experience death and injury as they navigate through the levels of the game. The developer has stated that his motivation to create the game came from his being tired of seeing games that did not depict realistic consequences to actions.
Players control their characters with the use of on screen buttons, and have the option to save gameplay to share with others. In the Slow Motion Panel, players can view their character’s demise and share it with others via email.
Characters in games often fall or get crushed and are able to bounce up without injury. As a result, Happy Wheels players see the direct physical consequences of unsuccessfully navigating the obstacle course; decapitation, characters being shot with arrows, blood spouting from a head injury and dangling limbs are all injuries depicted in detail within the game.
Is Happy Wheels safe for my kids?
Happy Wheels is not safe for kids and is rated for users 17+ due to intense realistic violence, intense profanity/crude humor, and intense cartoon/fantasy violence.
Parents should be aware that the game's characters will be injured as players navigate through the simplistic but unrealistic obstacles. The injuries are graphic and depict violence, blood, and gore.
The Happy Wheels app is free to download, but ads are heavily featured throughout, in the form of pop-ups, banners and full-screen videos. While there is the option to pay $1.99 for ad-free play, many users say that even that small cost is not worth it for a game that is a simple swipe and tap obstacle course.
Parents should know that players have the option of adjusting settings in the options menu, and setting “maximum particles” to zero will remove blood from being depicted, but will also remove the fallout from breaking glass and wood within the game.
Dangling limbs and decapitation will still be featured when characters mis-judge obstacles, just without all the blood.
Parents may be disturbed by the character named Irresponsible Dad, who navigates through the obstacles with his child. Because of complaints, violent injury to the child is not depicted and the child is the only character in the game who does not get injured.
Happy Wheels was removed from the Brazilian App Store due to the violent nature of the game. Parents should use their own discretion in allowing their child to download and play the Happy Wheels app.
App Screens
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