SG Bumper Cars: How to Play

The goal

Each level is a drive to a destination. Reach it before your health bar runs out. Traffic and hazards chip your health when you hit them; clean, skilful driving builds your score. Levels are played in order (clear one to unlock the next), and every few levels you earn a new vehicle for the Garage.

Controls

Desktop (keyboard)

Action	Keys
Steer left / right	Left / Right arrows, or A / D
Accelerate / brake	Up / Down arrows, or W / S
Boost	Shift
Horn	Spacebar
Pause	Esc or P

With ?debug in the URL, number keys 1 to 9 jump between levels and an FPS/AI overlay appears, handy for a quick look around.

Phone & tablet (touch)

• Steer: drag inside the steering zone across the bottom of the screen; the further you drag, the harder you turn.
• Boost / Brake / Horn: the on-screen buttons at the corners.
• Pause: the button at the top-right, any time.

Scoring & combos

You score for distance and for near-misses: squeezing past traffic without touching it. Consecutive clean passes build a combo multiplier that keeps climbing the longer you stay clean. A crash resets the combo, so the high-score game is really a nerve game: how long can you keep threading gaps at speed before you flinch or clip someone? Boost raises your score rate but shortens your reaction window, so it's a risk-reward dial.

Pickups

Pickups appear along the road at a pace set by each level. Grab them by driving over them:

• Repairs restore health. The Chapter 3 Hiap Joo banana cake is a big one.
• Shields (the Kiasu Shield) briefly absorb a hit.
• Boost / power-ups top up your boost or give a temporary edge.

New pickup tiers are drip-fed as the campaign goes on, so you're never handed everything at once.

Traffic types: read the road

Every NPC car runs a small "bad driver" behaviour. Learning to spot them on sight is the core skill:

Type	Behaviour	How to handle
Cruiser	Holds its lane at a steady speed.	Predictable; use them as moving cover.
Drifter	Wanders across lane lines.	Give width; don't commit to a gap it's drifting into.
Braker	Stabs the brakes for no reason.	Never tailgate one; leave following room.
Speeder	Comes up fast from behind.	Check before you change lanes; let it blow past.
Rammer	Actively steers into you.	Bait its line, then cut away late.

On top of these, set-pieces throw curveballs: the Jam Wall (a wall of cars with one gap to find), buses and market lorries pulling out from the kerb without warning, and PMD swarms weaving through.

Boss fights

Each chapter ends with a three-phase boss on an eased-traffic stage so the fight reads cleanly:

• DEXTER: the ride-hailing driver, on the Marina Bay street circuit (end of Chapter 1).
• The Karang Guni King: 40 years collecting, at the Kranji scrapyard (end of Chapter 2).
• The Klon: same car, darker soul, in Forest City (the finale).

Watch for the phase changes: each boss shifts pattern as its bar drops. Save some boost and a repair for the last phase.

The campaign

28 levels across three chapters, each with its own map, weather and hazards:

• Chapter 1, The Drive Home: Yishun to the Merlion. CTE jam, Bukit Timah flash flood, Orchard downpour, Newton hawker rush, and the Marina Bay finale.
• Chapter 2, The Morning After: Tiong Bahru market, Changi final boarding, the PSI 400 hazepocalypse, and the Causeway Crawl, the densest traffic in the game.
• Chapter 3, The JB Run: across the Causeway into Malaysia, where prices switch to ringgit: autogate queues, EDL potholes, kampung cows, floods and the Mat Rempit midnight GP.

Bonus modes

Unlocked as you progress, each is a self-contained mini-game. This is the short version; the Bonus Modes guide has full walkthroughs, scoring and unlock details for all five. Every mode also opens with a briefing screen explaining each of its meters, which you can reopen any time from the mode's card:

• Tailgate Champion (after Level 3): a meter dares you to ride the lead car's bumper, then it brake-checks. The game models your own reaction delay, so tailgating physically can't end well. That's the point.
• Lane Splitting (after Level 7): a delivery rider on a kapcai filtering between cars against a countdown. Clean rides earn bigger tips.
• PMD Grand Prix (after Level 10): a 2 AM checkpoint race on a park connector, dodging LTA officers for kopi money.
• Mabuk Express (after Level 14): a private-hire shift where the uncle's pedal-pumping "fuel saving" trick is really a cleaning-fee racket. Pump at the right rhythm, not the hardest, and keep the passenger queasy but never alarmed.
• Teh Tarik Run (after Level 25): carry a tray of scalding cups across town in your Saga without sloshing them; every hard brake and swerve costs you.

Tips for a higher score

• Following gap is everything. Most crashes are a braker in front; leave room and you'll never get caught out.
• Bank your combo. A long clean streak is worth more than a reckless boost that ends it.
• Boost through gaps, not into them. Only boost when the hole is already open.
• Learn the weather. Rain and haze cut visibility and grip; ease off and read further ahead.
• Save a repair for the boss. Don't grab a health pickup at full health right before a fight.