Game Description

Get ready to hit the pavement when you drive down and dirty with Demolition Racer for Windows 95 and Windows 98. This 3D thriill ride features one player mayhem and two player, split-screen racing demolition action. With action similar to Destruction Derby, it's pure chaos as you race without rules and regulations and with total disregard for another racer's existence.

The object of the game is not only to beat your opponents to the finish line but crush them to pieces as many times as it takes, setting their engines on fire in a blaze of glory. But, pause for a second - what would a demolition racer be without the classic derby bowl games? This game has that and then some.

Choose your own name and enter either a single race or the Demolition League. In the latter mode, you must progress by achieving the highest ranking per race in order to access locked-out arenas or cars. You've got the Rookie League, Semi-Pro League, Pro League, Endurance League and Arena League. Pick one out of eight cars, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Before heading off to the race you can even customize the color of your car, the logo and an optional face to go along with it. How about trying pure blue with a touch of red and white? Or choose a punk's face but hold the smiley logo. In any case, have it your way! With the face option enabled, all cars will have big placards of the faces sitting atop so that you know who's who.

Car selection is based on a set skill level system. While the Bobcat car lets you play an easy game, the Predator is for those who want to play hard. Other cars, like the Vandal and Widowmaker, are special cars only attainable through league play. They are powerful cars that can either protect you like a road block or destroy just about anything in sight.

Put the pedal to the metal as an incremental damage-causing collision system lets car parts and effects fly everywhere. Smoke, fire, shattered glass, flying hoods and wobbly tires become commonplace. Get into the game with plenty of camera angles including a bird's eye view and then kick back to watch it all again with the replay feature.

Score points for spinning a vehicle 360 degrees or kill your opponents with one shot by landing on top of their roof. Run into destructible barricades, barrels, signposts and garbage cans. Randomly placed power-ups that can enhance your chances of winning include picking up a repair wrenchs to receiving turbo boosts for extra speed. Win by mauling your fifteen opponents and getting across that finish line first.

Go the extra mile and challenge yourself with more laps, difficult handling and wacky tracks. Speaking of tracks, the soundtrack is full of heavy music from original scores to re-mixes by Fear Factory, Junkie XL, Empirion and Cirrus. ~ Cal Nguyen, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

It was pretty fun with all the quickness and raw destruction. But it's been done before. ~ Cal Nguyen, All Game Guide

Production Credits

Concept and Design by: Accolade, Inc.

Development and Additional Design by: The Pitbull Syndicate, Ltd.

Produced and Published by: Accolade, Inc.

PITBULL SYNDICATE LTD.

Programmed by: John Blackburne, Gareth Briggs, Graham Blenkinsop, Neil Crossley, Chris Kirby, Chris McClure, Jimmy Parr, Bob Troughton, Mike Troughton, Darren Tunniclif

Art by: Darren Abbott, Steve Dietz, Mike Pirso, Kevin Preston, Tony Pringle, Gareth Pugh, Stuart Neal, John Steele, David Taylor, Katherine Wilson

QA/Design: Tony Charlton, Daz Kelly

Studio Manager: David Burton

INFOGRAMES NORTH AMERICA

Executive Producer: Chris Downend

Producer: Matthew Guzenda

11th Hour Producer: Ken George

Associate Producer/Design: Sean Michael Fish

QA Czar: Sam Newman

QA Lead Analyst: Erik Johnson

Assistant QA Lead Analyst: Ted "the Undead" Tomasko

QA Analysts: Greg Akatiff, Donny Clay, Clayton Wolfe, Shawn Shinn, Peter Sodbinow, Jamie Fike, Jason Cote, Jason Cordero, Christopher Reimer, Ben Skelton, Eric Alberson

Music CD Mastering: Scott Snyder

Sound Effects: Tommy Tallarico Studios

USA Mastering Supervisor: Luis Rivas

Celebrity Tester: Raymond Herrera-Fear Factory

Soundtrack Compilation: Steve Allison

Director of Marketing, Racing: Steve Allison

Product Marketing Managers: Steve Allison, Jack Symon

Documentation: W. D. Robinson

Creative Services: Matt Abrams, Jill Dos Santos, Mark Glover, Eric Larson

Corporate Communications: Erica Krishnamurthy, Mika Kelly, Rhoda Wawrzynski

Licensing: Melanie Sherk, Gabrielle Benham

Online Marketing: Jonathan Tagle, Ray Massa, Daniel Grove

Special Thanks: Jay Stevens, Nathan Leon, John Gillan, Kevin Keenan, Jean Raymond, Wayne Leonard, Phil Patternite, Deb Charlton, Wiebke Vallentin, Jessilyn Guzenda, Nancy Downend, Alex Knastab, Stan Thurgood, Jackie Thurgood, Brian Webber, Rich, John ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

You're revving your engine as the stoplight begins to dwindle down to a green "go" and your heart pounds loudly like never before. It's off to the finish line as you're about to embark on a one-way street -- total demolition. Jumping on the Destruction Derby bandwagon comes the much improved yet still buggy Demolition Racer for the Windows platform. The game engine is as smooth and silky as a luxury sedan and as fast and furious as a NASCAR speedster. It's a little too fast, in fact. You just don't know where you are at times.

The game features powerful physics used for the collisions, although there is one contradiction -- horrible collision detection problems don't mix with an effective physics engine. That's right, cars fly through each other more often than you'd want to see. In fact, you wouldn't want to see any at all for that matter. But when cars do hit each other (which is most of the time, fortunately), smoke, fire, wobbly tires and flying hoods become commonplace using the game's cumulative "Real-time Damage" effects.

Destruction occurs on ten wild tracks: USS Demolition, Redneck Raceway, Freeway Driveby, Pitbull Speedway, Meltdown, Hunters Quarry, Parking Lot Pile-Up, Chemical Plant, Scrap Heap, and Go Kart Carnage. The three derby bowls are Lyon Stadium, Pelton Stadium, and in the home city of Infogrames, San Jose Stadium. If you place first in different events in Demolition League, you will unlock tracks for single player mode. The following list of game types are sure to get you in that demolishing mood:

The Demolition's goal is to complete the race with a working vehicle while crunching others. The Chase game has you just going for the finish line while the Chicken is a race where the other racers are driving against your traffic. Last Man Standing has you smashing your opponents in the derby bowl as you avoid others smashing into you. And, last but not least, there's the Suicide bowl game with a difference -- do the most damage to yourself in the least amount of time until you're a dead sitting duck.

Replays exist in the game but for some reason there is only one camera view in the Derby Mode! This is not an impressive feature or a practical one because, simply put, most people want the choice of watching their replays from different angles, especially inside a derby bowl. If there is various angle switching during gameplay then why not during replays? If there were, it would've been nice to watch that top-down, bird's eye view while in replay heaven.

Graphics-wise the game is superior to that of Destruction Derby and its sequel Destruction Derby 2, however, the cars are less realistic-looking with solid colors that aren't exactly dynamic. Sure, there are lens flare effects, black smoke, crispy fire, sparks and dented metal but it's almost like putting Hot Wheels cars on top of a Need for Speed backdrop. Well, there is the nice live-motion video of a car exploding in flames whenever you lose a race.

Sound effects couldn't be better in a demolition game with screeching metal flying in all directions, popping tires like they were helium balloons and the shattering of glass like no other traffic accident. The music is loud with some cool heavy metal. Now if they only had voices...

Movement is fairly standard with some basic controls similar to that of most racing type games but at times I found it hard to see where I was going. Perhaps this has to do with the camera angle but even in the nice bird's eye view it just didn't help. The best part about driving the cars is the skidding because you can burn out and do a 180 like in the Dukes of Hazzard show. The fact that the cars can flip all over the place with their hoods smashed, roofs punctured, hubcaps flying and flames going off in specific areas -- all at lightning speed -- is testament to this game's powerful destruction system that tops Destruction Derby's.

One annoyance is the fact that you have to double-click each option in the menus. Why double-click?

So if you've never played anything like Destruction Derby, you'll want to get your hands on Demolition Racer, otherwise it'd probably be best to borrow a copy to play it for kicks. It doesn't have that ultra-realistic edge like DD had but it sure is a lot faster and smoother! ~ Cal Nguyen, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

Colorful graphics, fast and smooth animation, and cool effects. It's too bad the cars don't match the background. ~ Cal Nguyen, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

Sweet crunching sounds of high impact. Hard, edgy music. But no voices, unfortunately. ~ Cal Nguyen, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

This is a racer, right? This is destruction, right? Well let the game do all the talking. Except for the one camera angle during the Derby Mode's replay, of course. ~ Cal Nguyen, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

20 pages of easy instructions to get you on your way, though it almost seems like they assume you sort of know how to play; it's not exactly detailed. ~ Cal Nguyen, All Game Guide