Destruction Derby Arenas

Written by Matt Swider  on June 22, 2004

Full Review: More like Self-Destructive Derby

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Destruction Derby defined the demolition side of the driving genre in 1996, but while it did some serious damage on the PlayStation and Saturn then, Destruction Derby Arenas in no match for the current generation now. This breakdown doesn't occur because the game has changed, but rather because little has improved over the years. There's nothing to get excited about other than the online mode, and even that area of the game isn't as impressive as it could've and should've been. Since it does keep the Destruction Derby gameplay intact though, fans of the series may be willing to stop and give DDA a chance. Everyone else is better off not even breaking when better car crashing imitations are out there.

The offline championship mode takes players on a tour of three wrecking races and finishes the set off with one destruction bowl. The object of both of these modes is to earn points through out of control driving in either the race or arena environments. Out of control driving consists of crashes, spins, jumps, flips, and just about anything else that causes damage. It's just a shame that these racing styles don't stand out on tracks where truly unique jumps and corkscrews are few and far between. Sure, the race tracks are lengthy and the destruction arenas include many cars to cream, but none of this is helped by the seemingly flat level design. The game doesn't take full advantage of the destruction elements expected from a Destruction Derby game on PlayStation 2, which causes the entire to feel as well as look flat.

The track design isn't the only aspect of the game that leaves more to be desired, as the graphics also lack polish and polygons. Granted, the aim was never to create a realistic racing game, but this doesn't meet the inspection standards of most arcade racers either. In addition to the levels being bare, the cars appear to be average in most respects. On the flip side, I can say that DDA uses a decent amount of color and comes through with some nice explosions in the end. It's not enough to outrun other racing games in its class, but at least it gets it to the finish line.

As players earn points in the championship mode, new upgrades and additional cars are unlocked with each win. The game actually features a healthy selection of cars and a decent amount of tracks, but the offline portion is limited to the racing and destruction modes. The online end of the DDA does take advantage of four more modes: speedway, capture the trophy, pass da bomb and last man standing. As you may expect, speedway is all about racing, capture the trophy is exactly as the name reads, and last man standing leaves the picks-ups out of this car crash fest. Pass da bomb is somewhat different in that three bombs places within the arena and players must pick one up to earn points, but pass it off before it's countdown reaches zero. It's the most fun of the six modes, but again the level design hurts some of the other modes and the fact no truly unique mode makes an appearance doesn't help as well. It won't keep you offline, though, as this is certainly the selling point of DDA.