World-building & Story
There’s no story in Destruction Derby – you merely compete in an escalating series of races with the focus being to inflict as much damage as possible on opposing vehicles.
With that said, the game does manage to craft an identity for itself that’s quirky and uniquely British, helping to make it stand out in a sea of PS1 racers. Your competitors are a varied selection of people from all walks of life (you’ll face both the taxman and the trashman) complete with cartoon-y portraits that spout hilarious insults at you as you hit their cars (“beginners luck” or “you’ll pay for that!”). Many titles in this genre have other drivers as faceless nobodies defined by their vehicles, so it does a lot here to have them with some personality.
Presentation & Sound
Like many early PS1 driving games, Destruction Derby‘s presentation has aged somewhat poorly but it has a certain charm, making it far from a looker but still perfectly serviceable to this day.
The vehicles here are simply modelled – having plenty of sharp pixel edges and blocky colours, far removed from other PS1 games like Gran Turismo. That said they move well enough in motion and there’s various effects the game uses that impress – one is the damage model where bits of cars go flying off on collision (even if these are always triangular pixels, it’s still neat); the other is the sheer volume of stuff going on (tracks will often have 16 vehicles all jostling with each other, which is hugely impressive considering the time this released).
There aren’t a great many tracks to race on, but the ones included here are decent enough to look at – all tarmac and barriers with blurry colours for the spectators, their best features are the skyboxes which accompany them which range from gorgeous blue sunlit views to more brooding oranges and purples, they make the races more memorable and embody what PS1 was brilliant at doing. Menus on the other hand feel like a developer trying their hand at 3D for the first time and throwing in a load of un-necessary effects for the sake of it – serviceable, but far from great.
In the sound department, as previously mentioned there’s plenty of humorous one-liners delivered by campy VA that fit the slightly bonkers tone of the game perfectly. Music is a more mixed bag and while there are some disappointingly generic tunes here, there’s also some bangers reminiscent of the best that 90’s gaming had to offer (alongside things like Tekken and WipEout).
Gameplay & Content
The type of car combat game you just don’t see made anymore, Destruction Derbyharkens back to an era when a title was constructed around one simple idea – in this case, it’s causing as much damage to your opponents by ramming into them while racing around a number of city circuits.
The cars here don’t handle particularly well – they drive a little bit like they’re tracking through mud, which can make things like cornering more difficult than it needs to be. Thankfully the game is pretty forgiving with its AI – they go for other vehicles as much as they go for you meaning with a bit of careful planning and a few good reactions you can usually dodge your way through the carnage ahead of you.
Of course, you’re encouraged to do the exact opposite – the main game mode (Wreckin’ Racing) awards points based on your position at the end, but more are awarded for causing other vehicles to spin out of control and crash, which is achieved by nudging the back of them at the right angle. It’s actually supremely tricky to pull off (you’ll miss more often than not) but you aren’t gonna win without it, which often means hanging back to be in the midst of the action and waiting for your opportunity to strike.
You can’t just go smashing through tracks though as your car has a damage meter in the bottom corner that you’ll need to monitor – if you break any of the indicators, your race will be over and you can’t score points if you’re not in it! This adds a nice extra layer of strategy to playing ensuring that you play both defensively and offensively, picking your moments but then really going for it when they appear.
Courses are designed to maximise the carnage, often looping and crossing over themselves to ensure the cars at the back collide with those at the front regularly – the only problem is they’re fairly small and there’s just not enough of them to provide a decent variety, but at least what is here is solid. The best of all is the dustbowl, a simple open space where you can pick opposing vehicles off at every opportunity – I would’ve appreciated more arenas like this but sadly there’s only one.
In terms of game modes to play, there’s a few decent choices here – Wreckin’ Racing is the main one that as previously mentioned focuses on both driving and destruction and is easily the most fun, but you can also take part in stock car racing that is more traditional and only based on finishing position (although you can still take out your opponents along the way to ensure you perform better). There’s also the very traditional destruction derby which as the name suggests is just a mad battle to be the last car standing – although this can only take place in the dustbowl arena which is a shame.
You can play all of these in just single races, but the main way of keeping the game fresh is through championships – these involve racing on all the tracks consecutively and gaining points from each, which are tallied at the end and you’ll be put into leagues based on your score. Coming top of your league means you can progress to the next and so on – it’s a somewhat addictive but fairly shallow experience, that at least means you’ll know who your competitors are in any given race.
Overall then, Destruction Derby is a nostalgic car combat experience that may be light on content, but offers an enjoyable time nonetheless. It’s not something that’s going to keep you hooked for hours, but it’s something I plan on keeping on my PS1 memory card so I can dip into it every now and again – it’s a fantastic pick up and play game that offers a unique brand of driving that you just don’t see anymore.
Conclusion
Destruction Derby is like a trip down memory lane, to a time when games were first finding their feet in 3D and focused on exploring new mechanics. It’s not an overly pretty, lengthy or mind-blowing title but its brand of demolition focused driving delivers the kind of wacky fun that’s difficult to come across these days and it has aged better than its contemporaries such as Twisted Metal and WipEout, making it an enjoyable distraction for a good price on PS1
7/10