Overrated! #8

Destruction Derby (1995)
By: Reflections / Psygnosis Genre: Racing Players: 1-2 (via link-up) Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation First Day Score: 108
Also Available For: Saturn, PC

Unlike the poor old Saturn, the PS1 had a good few decent titles available at launch, including some that did a great job of showing off what the system could do. One of the more popular was Destruction Derby, a vehicular combat game developed right here in spiffing Blighty! Sadly, this was not enough to win my favour, and it wasn't even to do with my strong Sega allegiance as the Saturn got a version too! Indeed, as boring as it might be, I didn't like the game at the time, simply because I didn't enjoy playing it much. I was clearly in the minority though, for it was enthusiastically received by gamers of the time, many of them eager to impress all-comers with their fancy new consoles, and the series is fondly remembered today as well, so I thought it was high time I went back for another, perhaps less scornful look.

The first course - Speedway - is simple enough...

That said, I had every intention of coming here to mock it and tell you all how stupid and crappy it was in its day and how it's even worse now after dating so badly, etc, but I've actually had a reasonable amount of fun playing it for this review. It definitely still has some shortcomings though, but more on that later. First, for the benefit of the unacquainted, the lowdown: as you may have guessed from the title, Destruction Derby is a racing game with a difference. That being, an emphasis on destruction over driving skills. There are three cars to choose from on the options screen which work like difficulty levels - Psygnosis (rookie), Grim Reaper (amateur), and Smoothie (pro). After that you can choose a play mode from Race Practise, Championship, Multi-Player, and Duel. The first two are self-explanatory but the multi-player mode is for two players over link-up only, while the Duel is you versus a single CPU opponent.

Much mayhem ensues on Crossover, a figure-eight...

You can then choose one of the five courses (Speedway, Crossover, Ocean Drive, Cactus Creek, City Heat) if you're in practise mode, and there are also four game modes for practise or championship modes - Wreckin' Racing, Stock Car Racing, Destruction Derby, and Time Trials. The Stock Car Racing is basically like a normal racing game where the object is to finish in the best position possible, with points awarded accordingly when in the championship mode, while the Destruction Derby mode itself is a single contest which takes place within a circular arena known as The Bowl. It's contested by 20 cars which all just smash into each other until all are beyond repair. The driver with the most points is the winner. The Time Trial is again self-explanatory, but it's probably the Wreckin' Racing mode where you'll spend most of your time which is like a mixture of the Stock Car and Destruction Derby modes.

Chaos reigns in The Bowl...

Finishing in a good position will benefit you but you also earn race points for smashing up the other racers - far more points in fact. Indeed, you could in theory finish in last place but still win the race if you dished out the hurt sufficiently. The points system is the same as in the Destruction Derby, with the amount you get dependent on the impact and damage caused by your hits - causing an opponent to spin 360° is the ultimate and is worth 10 points, for example, and you can do as much damage driving in reverse as you can going forwards. However, one thing to bear in mind before running riot is that your car is not indestructible! It has ten impact points - two on the front, two on the back, and three on either side - which are represented in the corner of the screen by coloured triangles. They all start out green but once any of them reaches red you're in trouble. Any more damage here and your car will be 'wrecked'.

Wouldn't fancy sunbathing with all this going on!

This, unsurprisingly, means your race is over. Happily, however, you still receive the 'smash' points you earned up to that point and you can continue on to the next race regardless of where you finished amongst the 20-strong field. The field is split into five divisions though, and you'll only win the championship if you finish in first place in the first division. This obviously means winning the previous divisions in order to gain promotion to the next, so wrecking your car too often probably won't help you fulfil your maximum points potential (chortle!). It's a pretty comprehensive game in terms of options and play modes and stuff, and if you enjoy the style of play there's enough here to keep you occupied for some time. That was always the issue for me though - I didn't particularly like the style of play much.

In first place! Not that you'd know from this carnage...

I think my problem with the game is that I wanted and tried to play it like a proper racing game, but that isn't what it is. The cars don't move very quickly and the handling is very basic, as are the courses themselves I suppose, so you won't exactly be powersliding around a long curve, struggling to maintain your racing line as you overtake a rival. The courses here are short, and accordingly, each race is over a greater number of laps than most other racing games, but combine that with the mostly-basic course designs and limited scenery, and about the only thing left to maintain your interest is smashing up your opponents. This is admittedly good fun, at least in bursts, but you can't even get too carried away doing this as you'll wreck your car too quickly. I've pretty much always preferred arcade-style games over the type where you have to spend hours learning corners, timing gear-changes, braking points, etc, but Destruction Derby is perhaps a little too far the other way.

It has good points though, and holds up well considering when it came out. The cars look good for one thing, particularly the crash-damage and polygonal debris that flies around, and I also like their unique paint-jobs so if someone is a dick, its easy to identify them on another lap or in another race and exact revenge! They have pretty cool engine sounds too, and the music, while far from extraordinary, suits the action well, as does the voice guy who makes comments here and there. As mentioned, I did come here primarily to slag the game, but it's actually not that bad. I suppose the trick to enjoying games like this is to take them for what they are, not be annoyed for what they're not. I do still think it's rather overrated, but I can also see the appeal. I guess PS1 owners would soon have plenty of racing games of all types anyway, and this one, when played strictly for laughs and short-term thrills, isn't too bad.

RKS Score: 6/10

Gameplay Video: here's a video of the whole game being played by one of the talented fellows at World of Longplays (check out their great channel here). Oh, and don't watch if you want to avoid spoilers!