Emergency Buddies is Steam's answer to friendslop meets Grey's Anatomy

If you fancy yourself as something of a Meredith Grey or your very own McDreamy, Emergency Buddies could be the one for you. 2026 has seen the rise of the friendslop genre since R.E.P.O. really bucked the trend in 2025.

It seems that barely a day goes by without a new physics-based co-op hurtling into our lives with adorable little creations flopping around, and while there's admittedly a lot of variation in terms of quality over on Steam, some of them look to be diamonds in the rough.

Although you might've seen the recent buzz around FLEXUS' Dear Passengers, as you had to manage a chaotic airline, that game largely hit the headlines due to an apparent homage to Jeffrey Epstein.

Hopefully avoiding that kind of scandal, Emergency Buddies looks like it combines the madcap medical madness of Grey's Anatomy with all that friendslop fun.

Emergency Buddies gets first trailer

Putting you in the uniform of the world's least-qualified paramedic crew, Emergency Buddies lets you and up to three others race to the scene of an incident, scoop up your patients, and get them to the emergency room (hopefully in one piece).

As you'll likely know from all these types of games, that's easier said than done.

You'll have to "hoist, haul, and wrestle" patients into the back of the ambulance, which is giving us some serious Moving Out vibes. Getting into the ambulance is only half of the problem because one of the team will have to take over driving duties while the rest of you fight to keep them alive.

While speed keeps them alive, remember that reckless driving does the opposite.

Over on Emergency Buddies' Steam page, we're reminded: "Every call is a race across the city, and the way you drive is the way your patient feels. Crash into something or take a corner too hard, and the person in the back pays for it."

We're told to expect absurd emergencies, and even though Grey's Anatomy has covered everything from ferry crashes to sinkholes, plane crashes to hospital explosions, Emergency Buddies clearly brings the wacky.

Don't feel too pressured to squad up, though, as developer Gestalt Studio confirms you can play Emergency Buddies solo as AI takes over the other roles. Who knows, the machines may be better teammates than your actual friends.

Does Emergency Buddies have a release date?

At the time of writing, there's no release date for Emergency Buddies, so it's a good job none of our limbs is hanging off. You can already wishlist the game, but yet again, there's no price either.

There's a lot of variation on the cost of 'friendslop' games, but with the award-winning Meccha Chameleon being a massive hit and only costing $5.99/$5.29, let's also hope Emergency Buddies costs less than the price of a coffee.

Even though there were the typical complaints that the friendslop genre is getting out of control in the aftermath of RV There Yet?, other eager medics flocked to the idea with gusto when it was shared on X.

One happy gamer cheered: "This is going to be hilarious! 😂 It feels like a comedy movie."

Another added: "This looks like it'd be absolute chaos with my friends lol we'd definitely kill the patient before even making it out of the parking lot."

A third said, "This is the perfect co-op premise because the real enemy isn’t the patient. It’s three friends confidently giving medical advice while one person drives like they’re in Mario Kart 😭."

Here's hoping it doesn't have a mortality rate quite as high as Grey's Anatomy.