Review: Destruction Derby Raw

From...

	GALLERY

by The Human Tornado

(IDG) -- Psygnosis' famous Destruction Derby is back and ready for more mayhem on the PlayStation. Destruction Derby Raw is the third installment in the Destruction Derby series.

Destructo Mode

The best element in this latest Destruction Derby is the variety and amount of tracks and arenas that you can play in. You can progressively unlock twenty-five tracks in Wreckin' Racing, and Smash 4 $ lets you earn cash to upgrade your current car and buy new ones. Destruction Derby mode is pure crash and bash, but has three separate sub-modes for different flavors. Skyscraper has you mash metal on the roof of a tall building, but don't get too near the edge, because there are no barriers! Finally, Pass Da Bomb is a kind of tag and hot potato game where players pass bombs between their cars.

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Heavy Metal Thunder

The ambient sound in the game is quite good, with deep revving engines and crashing noises backed by an appropriate heavy metal sound track. Graphics are a mixed bag. There is significant slowdown, especially when there are a lot of cars onscreen, but this is pretty much par for the course in all of the Destruction Derby games, and considering that you can see car body parts go flying, it isn't a bad tradeoff. On the other hand, the cars look like they're moving slightly faster on the track than they should be, as if they were skating. There's almost no texture warping, and the tracks have been designed to minimize draw in, but in the four-player mode with all the details toned down, the game is pretty ugly. Still, having a four player smash-a-thon can be quite fun.

Controls are good, with braking and steering that's tight, but it's almost impossible to put your car into a sideways slide to deliver a crunching body hit. You're basically limited to hitting cars with your rear or front unless, of course, they run into you. The game also seems to score hits a bit arbitrarily. Sometimes you'll get credit for putting an opponent into a 90 degree slide when you thought you barely touched him. Other times, you might rock them hard and get no credit. In any case, the game generally seemed to get the scoring right, although the response time was a bit on the slow side.

Crash And Bash

Overall, Destruction Derby Raw is a good third game in this fine series of destructive driving. It's a welcome departure from the hardcore NASCAR and Formula 1 sims and silly kart racing games. There's some good fun to be had in Destruction Derby Raw, just don't expect it to blow your tires off.

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