Destruction Derby 2

The Good
Let's be honest: you like to smash other cars and you like it a lot. At least when playing videogames! So wouldn't you love to play a game that placed the emphasis on exactly that?? Thankfully for you prospective road warriors looking to blow some steam off there's Destruction Derby 2, sequel to the first generation psx sleeper hit that also got ported to PC.

The main premise behind DD2 is that of a racing tournament where points are gained not just for winning the races but also by causing enough metal mayhem to take the other racers out of the tournament... permanently... hehehehe (evil laugh) hehehehe.... Ahum, anyway, the game plays like any other arcade racer but with the above mentioned twist. However instead of turning everything into a chaotic mess where you just ram other cars continually watching the nice damage models do it's job, the designers made it so that you only get points for causing creative spins or pileups to the other competitors. Senseless damage only manages to get you out of the race and thus what initially seemed like a braindead exercise in automobilistic destruction turns into a challenging and fastpaced gameplay experience. Couple that with imaginative tracks that combine ramp-filled stunt courses, as well as pit-like arenas that turn the game into a "last-man-standing" diversion at the end of each round and you have one killer arcade racer.

As usual each of the challenges can be played later individually (provided you have unlocked them) with added customization options (like turning every opponent against you, or modifying time limits, etc.).

The Bad
While the pounding rock&roll music is good the annoying announcer is not, being surpassed in it's annoyance level only by the grating Crazy Taxi voice actors. The graphics can be pretty chunky, even for a 1996 game. The interface is excessively "consolistic" ported directly from the original psx version without any regard for such PC luxuries as a keyboard or a mouse (you know things are bad when you have to select letters with the arrow keys when prompted to input your initials...).

Last but not least the pit-stop option is a nice addition but practically useless because of it's weird-ass implementation (don't ask me to describe it, I've never understood it's mechanics) and the game could have used more varied options or game modes and cars!! There's like three cars in the whole game and they all look and handle like differently colored versions of the same one!

The Bottom Line
Great arcade racer that provided a rocking gameplay experience in it's day. Somewhat lacking in the finer details and with lots of room for improvement and expansion, but still fun and entertaining.