OnlyCans: Thirst Date

Submission 30,980

Part of a series on Gaming. [View Related Entries]

About

OnlyCans: Thirst Date is an erotic photography simulator and rhythm game parody that tasks players with spraying and photographing cans of soda. The gameplay involves clicking the left or right arrow keys when told to either spray the chosen can with water or snap a photo of it. The cans moan when the player does well. OnlyCans was released in February 2021 and saw a surge of popularity in June 2022 as the game's theme song, "Vending Machine of Love" by The Stupendium, went viral on TikTok.

History

On January 26th, 2021, two promotional videos for OnlyCans: Thirst Date were uploaded to YouTube:^[1]^[2] an advertisement for the fictional in-game soda company Shize (shown below) and a trailer for the game itself, showing people streaming it, gaining over 1,200 views in a year (age-restricted). On February 12th the game was released on Steam.^[3]

Online Presence

Since it was released, the game has inspired Let's Play's and reactions, often focusing on how bizarre the gameplay and overall premise is (examples shown below).

On May 8th, 2021, Game Theory posted a video to YouTube^[4] about the game, delving further into its lore, gaining over 6.5 million views in a year (shown below). The video discusses the game's dark lore about how the founder of the Shize soda company traps the souls of people in certain cans of soda as a result of looking for a way to bring his dead son back to life.

"Vending Machine of Love" by The Stupendium

On February 12th, 2021, the day of the game's release, YouTuber^[5] The Stupendium posted a music video for his original song "Vending Machine of Love," produced for OnlyCans as the game's theme song (shown below). The video gained over 1.1 million views in a year.

So slot your pennies in the vending machine of love
And pick that fizzy little minx that you've been dreaming of
If you're cursed with the thirst of a lonely man
You can get your juices flowing with some OnlyCans

Over a year later in June 2022, the song became popular on TikTok,^[6]^[7] gaining over 11,000 uses under its original sound that month. Some of the most popular videos follow the "dating sim trend," which sees users show the characters they would include in their personal dating sim (example shown below, left). Others are dance videos expressing shock over how catchy the song is (example shown below, right).