Destruction Derby Review

By Retroman

The PSN is well known for its hit's (Kula world, Crash team racing) and its misses (Hardcore 4x4, fade to black).

Is destruction derby a hit or miss? Let's find out….

Released in 1995 the aim of the game is to race, smash and rack up as many points as you can leading to a path of destruction which sometimes and by that I mean most time it will lead you to a blown radiator. The controls are fairly simple with X to accelerate and square to break but when you take enough damage your steering will go off.

There are 4 different types of races you can have fun with:

Wrekin racing - Where you have to rack up points by smashing into other racers, even though you may win first place in the race it doesn't guarantee you 1st spot on the ladder.
Stock car racing - You don't need to worry about other racers smashing into you in this type of race as finishing the race in first place is all that matters.
Time trials - A good way to learn the track as you are the only car on the field.
Destruction derby - This is where all hell breaks loose and all you have to worry is about smashing the other cars till they start giving off black smoke..

Each with 4 modes of gameplay…..

Race practice - Like time trial but with all the cars in, so if you fancy a quick game go to this mode.
Championship - Where you do a series of races trying to reach the top of the ladder.
Multiplayer - You can have up to 20 players but sadly its all pass the controller around once your friend finishes his/her race kind of multiplayer.
Duel - 2 cars enter, 1 car leaves.

I'd also like to point out that there is in game advertising in this game but it is advertising for other Psygnosis games like Wipeout and Krazy Ivan, hell there's even a Lemmings 3d advertisement, it's a great way of reminding you of some of the games of yesterday and bringing back some memories.

For a PS1 launch title it looks pretty good but not as impressive as what it did when it first came out. The game will suffer from looking jaggy on a PSP screen but it's not too serious and for the most part the framerate holds up well.

You will hardly notice the music in this game as you will be having too much fun smashing into things but the music itself is ok, not great but its bearable except for that announcer guy, but thank goodness you won't have to hear from him much but why are these announcer guys in racing games so annoying?

Overall this game is very good for a 3D racer that came out in the mid 1990's, but still doesn't hold it's age very well like other games that come to mind. In saying that, it is my personal opinion that this was the best game to be released in the Destruction Derby franchise.