Fortnite’s shopping cart is a complete joy

Fortnite’s latest patch brings us the game’s first real vehicle, the shopping cart. It’s going to change how the game is played in some very interesting ways, from what we’ve seen. I’ve had a chance to play a few rounds with the shopping cart, and I have some thoughts on the matter.

The cart fits two people, but you can use it solo just fine: Get a running start and hit the space bar to coast along at a good clip. You can’t fire while you’re just driving the cart however, although you can shift to the passenger seat and take a few shots if you don’t mind giving up control.

The real fun comes when you take the cart to the top of a hill and get some serious speed zooming down the side of it. You only have limited steering ability when going that fast, so you’re going to want to make sure you’re aimed in the general direction of where you’d like to go.

I haven’t had a chance to do any serious testing with the game’s highest peaks, but so far I have yet to take any falling damage while driving the shopping cart, even after getting air and falling a pretty significant distance.

Epic Games via Polygon

This could actually be a problem with more competitive players; we’re seeing video where players are building from the shopping cart and then surviving huge falls that should kill them when the other team destroys the base of their structure. That ... has some pretty big implications for strategy.

But this gets to the heart of why this is such a great addition to the game: It subverts a lot of the actions you’d expect from a vehicle in a battle royale game, and shifts things just enough that people are sure to get weird with it. Expect to see people pushing the cart off big hills before jumping into the passenger seat to do cartoonish drive-bys of the game’s well-populated areas. Well-organized duos might be able to do some serious damage with the right weapons, map placement and planning.

Epic Games via Polygon

It’s going to add a bit of chaos to an already hectic game, but there’s also the possibility of dedicated players doing amazing things with the shopping cart — there’s going to be a really high skill ceiling on what you can do with ‘em if you have a good working knowledge of the map and are able to aim from a moving platform. Expect to see some some weird, wonderful replays and clips from players in the next few days.

Vehicles have come to Fortnite, but at least they did so with a bit of flair. This is going to be fun.

Epic Games via Fortnite