Thirty bucks sounds like the perfect price for a PS2 game, doesn’t it? Especially for a new game that’s hot off the press. And on top of that, it’s a sequel to one of your favorite series. Could you turn it down? Would curiosity cloud your judgment?
Yeah…that’s what it was. It had to be curiosity, because a gamer such as myself knows better than to fall for this trick. But I gotta give Super Target their props…they suckered me good.
Destruction Derby Arenas, the fourth installment of the Destruction Derby car combat series, has arrived for the PS2. We all remember DD from the PSX era…a game that was definitely worth it, but stayed in the Need for Speed’s rearview. Now, it’s finally made that 128-bit leap of faith. However, as we all know, that leap can sometimes drop a title flat on its face.
Strap up…Destruction Derby Arenas for the Playstation 2.
Gameplay
Even for a racing/car combat game, DDA is very pick-up-and-playable, so you won’t even have to bother scanning the manual. This is demolition derby style racing, so naturally there’s not going to be a lot to it; you have a button that makes you accelerate, one that stops, one that reverses, and your directional for steering. Yeah, it’s simplistic, but this is also a next-generation racer. So, as with most next-generation racers, you have a nitrous oxide boost. Throughout your races, there will be N2O tanks lying about for the taking, so you can pick them up and buzz past, or in this case “through”, your competition. Along with the nitrous, there will be other power-ups strewn around the stage, such as repairs, shields, bonus points, and electromagnetic pulses, which can temporarily disable another vehicle.
DDA gives the player a selection of up to twenty-five deathtraps (cars) to choose from, each with its own level of performance. Their abilities are categorized in three areas: Speed, Strength, and Handling. At the onset, you’ll have four to choose from, and the rest are unlockable.
“Championship” is your one player race mode where you compete with the other contestants for points and unlock your goodies. In DDA racing, the place you finish in isn’t nearly as important as how much mayhem and destruction you cause, so placing anywhere first through fourth is merely bonus points. Points are rewarded for smashing objects, catching air on jumps, and annihilating the competition. The more chaos and disorder inflicted, the better. And, as you progress, you will gain upgrade kits for your car, adding to its overall performance, which is something, I will touch on later in the write-up.
Each track and arena has a champion driver who is a playable character, and the only way to unlock them is to outscore him on his own turf. You can beat them in a lap race, but it won’t mean squat if you don’t have the points to back it up. The arena battles hold the same rules, but in this case, it is every man/woman for him/herself, and the one that raises the most hell wins.
The racing and the demolition derby arena matches are also available in two player mode, known as Wrecking Racing and Destruction Bowl, respectively.
Doesn’t sound that bad, does it? Hold that thought.
There are some major gripes in gameplay that need to be addressed. The main issue is the level of difficulty, or rather, the lack thereof. Let me be blunt-- you can be the noobiest of noobs and still run through this game in well under an hour and unlock the majority of the characters, tracks, and arenas. And to put it plainly, that’s the extent of its replay value; after you clear it, all that left is the matter of beating it with all the cars and collecting their upgrades.
Another thing that kills this game is the total lack of realism in the collisions. The hits look great, but the effects don’t go along with the crash; every now and then you’ll really lay the steel to someone, but more often than not, you’ll sit there and wonder, “How in the hell did they just drive away from a shot like that?” I don’t care if the creators made the game that way just to make the races and matches drag out; if you smack another vehicle head-on using a nitrous boost and sandwich it between you and a brick wall, you would think that’ll be all she wrote.
The overall driving mechanics aren’t terrible, but they can be troublesome at times. While each car has its own attributes, none of them really matter because the steering is so loose; you can’t help but plow into a wall more often than usual. And the braking…if you’re driving straight and decide to slam them on, you’re good to go, but whatever you do, don’t try any “Dukes of Hazzard” power slides, because it ain’t happening. The touchy brakes will have you either have you drifting too far into a turn or flat out facing the wrong direction. To add to the aggravation, the camera tends to confuse itself whenever you wipe out. This happens only on occasion, but when it does, it’s costly.
I said something about the car upgrades earlier. This seems to have become a staple in racing games, and I’m not complaining about it. But, this game’s definition of “upgrades” is the saddest I’ve seen. After each round in Championship mode, your vehicle gets a souped-up body kit that does indeed bulk up your look and performance. But, as you complete the game with different cars, you’ll start noticing a trend, and pretty soon all the cars you cleared it with will start looking the same. There’s no customization to it whatsoever, so in the end, you’re stuck with a fleet of cars that look like locomotives.
The total lack of gameplay options is another downfall. Including online play, there are four modes of play, and the only real multiplayer experience you will get is online, where there are five. The game is already too easy to go through, so why is there no option to crank up the difficulty level? This makes the single-player experience even more stale, and it’s definitely enough to make a player only play it online or just flat out get rid of it.
Online Play
Here’s something to look forward to-- DDA is playable over the network adaptor. Up to twenty players can pollute an arena or track and tear each other apart. And to sweeten it a little more, it’s all headset-compatible, so you can trash your opponents while you trash their rides. There are a few online game modes to choose from— Wrecking Racing, Destruction Bowl, Speedway, Pass Da Bomb, and Capture the Trophy, which works just like Capture the Flag in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games.
Of course, there are going to be a few problems with online play, but this is with all games, so it’s really nothing new. If I had to pick one gripe, it would be the fact that you can’t use any upgraded cars you earned in Championship mode, but then again, that puts everyone on a even playing field. There is no real lag, except in some collisions where you’ll hit someone and they spin out a second later than they should. Other than that, the online play is reasonably solid and is probably the one real factor that saves it some replay value.
Graphics, Sound, and Animation
Graphically, DDA isn’t groundbreaking. In fact, the graphics look no smoother than those in Ridge Racer. The game portrays the drivers as cartoons on the character selection and loading screens. There are no real lighting or shadow effects at all, and the creators had to nerve to have you race through a casino. The racing and arena environments aren’t necessarily shallow, as they are cluttered with plenty of jumps and obstacles, and each track leaves the possibility of huge collisions with nasty intersections. Like I said before, the animation of the crashes and the maneuvering of the vehicles is done well, but that’s about the extent of it. When you get into the destruction of objects, nothing looks more generic. Evidently, the production team didn’t jump from the past when everyone else did. With the exception of a few larger and more explosive obstacles, everything you plow through shatters like glass but sounds like wood.
Other than hearing cars crunching and exploding, the sounds is nowhere near desirable, more specifically the commentary. The announcer has about one catch phrase pertaining to each character, so if that driver does something special, you’ll hear it more than once in that match along with his own witty comments. Here’s an actual quote from the game:
“These guys are so tough, they blow bubbles with beef jerky!”
Now that’s some killer material right there, let me tell you. Shut him off in the options menu. While you’re at it, go ahead and nix the music, too. The game’s soundtrack is so thin, you’re better off looping your favorite single by Prodigy.
In conclusion
You get what you pay for, no question about it. Overall, Destruction Derby Arenas will give you a few days of enjoyment, but after that there’s pretty much nothing except for the online play. Lack of challenge, mediocre presentation, and unfriendly driving simulation makes DDA an unworthy contender in the racing game genre, especially with Gran Turismo 4 and Need For Speed Underground 2 coming later. Rent it if you want a weekend of chaos, but other than that, you may as well leave it in the rain and let it rust.
