CLUTCH!

Ozzie Park passed his driving test this morning, on the second try, and he has joined the high school driving club. His oldest friend Natalie is in it. So is her boyfriend. CLUTCH! is a story told in over-the-top animated clay storyboards, and every line of it is typed.

What it is

Six chapters follow Ozzie, his dented one-dollar hatchback (the Biscuit), the quiet mechanic Pip, the club's loud star Brock, Ms. Reyes who runs the track at the old airfield, and a sponsor in a white glazed jacket whose gifts are never free. You type the characters' lines to say them. Shouts slam onto the screen and must be typed before they fade. Gear changes are typed to a beat. During the races the driving beats are timed: type the move inside its window or the car spins into the cones and the beat plays again. Choices are typed too, and they decide which of ten endings you reach.

How to play

Read the next letter, not the whole line; it is marked for you. In a race, the word to type appears big in the middle of the screen with a bar that runs down: start typing at once. A choice shows two or three answers, each starting with a different word; type the first word of the one you want. Too many spins in one chapter sends Ozzie home to try again tomorrow, and the chapter restarts. The story is saved at each chapter, so you can stop and come back. A practice switch (Tab on the title screen) turns every timer off.

Controls

• Type on the keyboard. Enter starts, continues from a card and confirms. Tab on the title screen switches practice mode.
• On a phone, tap the page to bring the keyboard up.

Rated E10 (everyone ten and up): school rivalry and racing at a closed track, no violence. Runs without WebGL.

Play CLUTCH! (free, in the browser; back to all games)