Review
Played on: PlayStation & Saturn
Released: 1995 (PS1), 1996 (Sat)
My first encounter with Destruction Derby was through the Demo 1 disc packed in with the first year, or so, of PlayStations. Being a huge fan of racers, I was very intrigued by the concept of smashing cars and it did something different from massive racing titles like Ridge Racer and Daytona USA at the time. The latter perhaps being the closest with the racing American stock car theme.
If I remember correctly, the demo was just the destruction bowl; a wide-open arena where all the cars just smash together. The objective is to crash as many of the other cars to rack up points and survive untilthe last man is standing. It was, and still is, fantastic fun. The mayhem of car debris and wrecked cars sparked my interest so much back then!
I wouldn't personally get my hands on a PlayStation until 1997 and by then the excellent sequel, Destruction Derby 2, was out. Luckily, for my limited teen budget, the first original was rereleased on the Platinum series which meant half. the retail price of a full title. I jumped on the chance!
My first impression was a little underwhelming; I'd become used to DD2's large racetracks with jumps and hills and this first game was anything but this. It featured crammed and short racetracks all set on a completely flat surface. It was a massively simplified racetrack experience compared to more modern racers in 1997. It was indeed a time where game development was rapidly developing for every year of major releases.
However, I was still impressed by the bowl arena and the car damage, held my ground and ended up completing the entire thing. Recently, I was nostalgically reconnected with it again through an episode of "Weekend Rental" by Classic Gaming Quarterly, check it out here, nd decided to replay it! It didn't take long to realise why I love and respect it more than ever, put in context of its release date.
Let's take a trip down memory lane and crash some cars!
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Progression through the campaign is built like a football league with 8 races in each season. Ranking top of the league moves you up to the next of the four leagues and finishing top of the last league rolls the credits. While playing I realise this might be one of the strongest titles of the Western PS1 launch. The more I played, the more I appreciated the amount of content, physics damage and lifespan it had compared to the sweet but short experiences of Ridge Racer and Daytona USA.
You see, Destruction Derby never was an arcade game to begin with and thus it offered a more substantial playthrough for home consoles. It would be Newcastle based studio, Reflections, first car related title which was followed by a sequel, then Monster Truck Madness and finally reaching their famous Driver series towards the end of the same console generation. With publishing done by Psygnosis, just before they were bought by Sony, it was released on all the main platforms; PlayStation, Saturn and PC.
While many racers from the early days of 3D were experimental, basic looking and barebones, Destruction Derby is surprisingly well crafted, even down to the menu design. The sheer ambition of having 20 cars on track, all destructible with visual damage, is an incredibly impressive feature considering the limitations of hardware and being an early 32-bit release.
Sure, Daytona USA had between 20 and 40 cars depending on the racetrack, but they all raced in an autonomous manner and couldn't be smashed around properly, sent backwards or find the right way to steer through a massive pile-up of crashed cars like DD1. Both games smartly used the exact same 3D models for all cars, but with damage on all of them rather than just the player car, Destruction Derby outperforms it in certain ways.
That said, it has its shortcomings. While there’s a healthy number of racetracks; totalling 8 versus Daytona USAs 3 or Ridge Racers 1.5, with some alternative versions featuring different layouts and daytime settings, they’re all set on a flat surface, short in length and narrow. There are no hills or elevations at all and come off as simplistic looking compared to grandeur of Daytona USA and Ridge Racers detailed racetracks.
It sets some limits to the player from truly putting the great physics to a proper test like in the destruction bowl arena. Although racetracks like Crossroad and Cactus Creek, which cross themselves per lap opens for some true chaos and random races!
Talking about randomness, this is where the gameplay appeal just stays fresh for hours; the races are extremely unpredictable. It's the kind of sensation we so rarely see anymore, with exceptions like Wreckfest. It's underrated what crashes do to the flow of races, making it not only about getting first place, but also about keeping your car alive and using dirty tricks to push competitors away. Every race ends differently because of this freedom, a stark contrast to the extremely predictable patterns of Daytona USA and Ridge Racer from the same era.
The unpredictability doesn't come without a cost though; it’s a frustrating game to master. Especially the way your car too easily spins out of control, making it incredible disorientating in bumper cam. Should you dare drive the Pro car, rather than the stable Amateur, or slightly faster, Rookie one; you’re in for a test of keeping the car straight when somebody even slightly bumps into you.
Same goes for the detection of crash points; the actual contact between cars and impact has physics, but the way it awards points is extremely unprecise and unfair. Should you be lucky enough to spin an opponent 360 degrees, but at the last second another car touches it, you don’t get your hard-earned points. Other types of crashes are awarded points too, but it’s difficult to understand when it's a proper hit or the game just screwing up and not counting them.
It makes the “Wreckin’ Racing” mode tricky; winning a race and at the same time consistently stack up points by spinning or crashing competitors is hard. Through the campaign league system, you may find yourself stuck for another season before reaching top position by pure luck. Learning how to race up behind an opponent and slightly nudging their rear end to spin them out is the where the skills need to be honed. Even after countless races, I still find it challenging.
In addition, there's something lacking in the driving model to slide properly around corners. The narrow racetracks don’t help either, making cornering feel awkward. Expect a lot of scraping along the sides of the racetrack and never having enough power to properly power slide through them.
While there are single race and time trail options, the meat on the bone here is the league system. You can either delve into it with the standard "Stock Racing" league, which omits the bowl arena entirely from the season and points are only awarded for your race positions. Stock Racing kind of avoids the whole point of Destruction Derby, but it works surprisingly well. It's like a bonus mode of a traditional racer within the crashing concept, only here you also must deal with damage and crash physics as you race!
The "Wreckin’ Racing" league, however, is where most players will end up; the proper Destruction Derby experience if you will. Here you can take two approaches to winning: either race properly while scoring hits and smashes while you race or just forget racing entirely and drive the wrong way around the racetrack and cause enough havoc to earn massive points that way! The latter is very hard, and perhaps only recommended on the crossing racetracks.
It’s a tricky affair though; balancing your damage and hitting your opponent's correctly for points. Sure, you get good at it, but had the racetracks been wider and the points system better, it would've been perfect.
As you progress through the league system, you’re awarded new rooftop colours, indicating what league you’re in. Reaching the end will reward you with credits and a hidden bonus racetrack. A reminder of the great rewards old games had back in the day. Then again, maybe that racetrack should've just been in the main roster, available from the get-go?! It reminds me of that fantasic, but hidden Firestar racetrack from wipEout!
Visually, I feel it has held its ground for a launch title. Like I mentioned; the fact that it throws 20 cars together, with tons of debris and damage, is incredibly impressive considering the time of release and hardware. It has a sparse amount of roadside detail and comes off as simplistic in comparison with Daytona USA and Ridge Racer. While the racetracks are small and narrow, they at least don’t have any draw distance, considering you can see all areas of the racetrack at once!
Interestingly, there's noticeable slow-down at specific areas on certain racetracks, even boosting the game though an emulator doesn't fix these fluctuations, but they’re not that bothersome. Impressively, the bowl arena holds its framerate well considering the number of debris and cars smashing into each other in one dense area! It's a showcase, once again, that the PS1 hardware balanced the act of 3D well, outperforming with 30fps the Saturn port of Daytona USA running 20fps.
Speaking of the Saturn; on paper Destruction Derby is a title that should suit the system well. Indeed, the developer of the Saturn port has smartly offloaded the flat racetrack surface away from the VDP1 processor, which handles the 3D, to the VDP2 processor which results in a "Mode 7" like 2D rotation. Not a common move as many multiplatform titles overloaded the VDP1. However, it's not enough optimisation to save this version from running poorly and in addition the way the ground texture is handled isn't optimal either as it floats and bends near the camera.
So, despite the extra year of a Saturn port effort, the PS1 version is clearly the best one version; holding a fairly stable 30fps, while the Saturn is capped to 20fps and drops beyond that frequently. PS1 has more debris from the cars, better smoke effects and much better loading times. Plus, it's the version that is the most common and therefor the cheapest to get hold of.
One can argue that the framerate isn't as obvious on a CRT TV, but it's a clear win here for the PS1. That said, the Saturn version is playable and keeps the fun aspect of the gameplay, just be aware of the framerate and badly optimised loading.
Regardless of system, technical limitations like debris not staying on the ground on any versions and front wheels not animating in turns are obvious cutbacks to save performance back in the day. Another quirk worth mentioning is that the shoulder buttons on the controller can be used to turn even more sharply, a sign of the era it was released, but you need to use this together with the d-pad to counter oversteer!
Music is a little silly and basic, but it somehow feels uplifting, vibing into that simple techno of the early 90s. There are some catchy beats in there which suit the mayhem on screen. While it's nowhere near the brilliance of Psygnosis' other launch racer, wipEout, I feel the soundtrack suits me much better than Daytona USA and Ridge Racer.
Audio has the right crashing and crunching sounds as well as an over-the-top, Americanised commentator and stupid voice cues from your competitors. While the commentary adds an extra spice to the races, the competitor comments are repeated too often.
Destruction Derby is a racer that needs some time to master; avoiding spinning out, being aware of your amount of damage, learning how to smash opponents into the sides without losing control of your own car. Once you master this it offers a surprisingly substantial playthrough with a novel league system. The unpredictable nature of races makes each one unique, even with skills it can suddenly throw you into a terrible position.
While the sequel massively improves on visuals and racetrack design, this first one has some stronger sides; the bowl arena is a more tactical and less chaotic affair. The point system is dubious, but the actual detection of metal against metal seems more precise with less clipping errors than the sequel. Plus, in the sequel it's a little too easy to rack up insane crash points.
Back on the launch of the PlayStation and Saturn, Ridge Racer and Daytona USA were the two major racing titles everyone spoke about, but looking back Psygnosis published two amazing racers for the Western market on PS1. Namely wipEout and Destruction Derby!
The more I compare DD1 to titles from the same era, getting to grips with its gameplay, the more I appreciate the entertaining gameplay and technical features it had. Hidden beneath simple racetrack designs and less impressive visuals tham the major releases, Destruction Derby is perhaps one of the best of the early 32-bit titles.
