Destruction Derby 64
System: Nintendo 64
Publisher: THQ
Devloper: Psygnosis
Released: 2000
Capabilities: Controller Pak Compatible, Rumble Pak Compatible, 1-4 players

The Game

THQ teams up with Psygnosis to bring a port over the famous race car destruction madness game known as Destruction Derby. It’s a racing game where the object is to blow up as many as the other cars as you can. Will this be a great game for your N64 collection, or will it just end up just collecting dust in your closet. Let’s get onto the review and find out.

Graphics

I gotta say, all the cars look beautiful and are nicely detailed down to the very number, stripe, and logo. The hidden cars look pretty cool to, like the taxi cab and Street Rocket. The scenery looks great to in the single player races, and you get great views of the ocean, tunnels, and the city. The cars have great animation whenever you crash into them, like you can see sparks flying from the car and the hood flying off and smoke coming out from the engine. I wish there was expansion pak enhancements though because these graphics look like they could’ve used some more polishing.

Everything still looks great in multi player mode. There’s no slowdown at all, and even with all the info boxes(your score, place, and damage meter) you still got a great view, even with 4 squares of action all in one. Plus you still got all the great animation for all the cars like hoods flying off, and smoke from the engine too.

Sound

You got some pretty good background music, just some generic heavy metal tunes. They sound alright, but you’ll be barely paying attention to it at all during the game. The sound effects are pretty good. All bumps, crashes, engine revs , and the explosions are all well done. The announcer is pretty accurate too as he makes sure to let you know when your hood pops off, or if you’re low on time, and whenever a car is eliminated, but he sure does get repetitive real fast, plus include generic background music, and you may as well might want to mute out the sound for this game.

Game play

The controls are pretty tight for this game, instead of using the “Z” trigger for acceleration you use the A button, and the control stick is way too fast to respond, which result in really bad turns, but after an hour or so of playing you get use to the controls and you’ll feel like you’re a natural at the game.

For the game modes, you can start you have World Championship, which you can do at 4 different difficulty levels. You start off doing “Destruction Race” which is just basically racing with a time limit and all where you have to get check points, but the main ranking system is done by the number of points you get for colliding into opposing cars and crashing them. You get bonus time by getting so many points, but even if you’re the last car left and you don’t have that many collision points you may wind up not placing first. You must place within the top 4 to move onto the next race. You also get to race in Destruction Derby’s where it’s an all out last man standing wins brawl! Win later Destruction Derby levels and you unlock them for play in multi player. Also after beating a regular track you unlock one several different hidden cars.

The next mode of play is arcade play, where you can race against the computer in any destruction race just for fun, or race against the computer in a destruction derby for fun too, nothing counts to unlock hidden stuff, it’s just a mode to practice your skills against the computer. You also got Time Trials to practice any of the courses by yourself, without going against the computer, so you can get use to the track and get ready to race these levels in the championship.

Finally there is arcade mode. Up to 4 players can play this at once. Up to only 2 players can do destruction race, and up to 4 players can do a death match, which is basically, a Destruction Derby. Then there’s Bomb Tag which is a lot of fun to play, you race in a destruction derby track, but you get no damage for colliding into the other cars and all, instead there’s a little counter at the corner of your screen ticking down, that’s the car with the bomb, and the number is the seconds it’s away from exploding, once the car who’s “It” touches another car, the counter goes up another 5 to 10 seconds, and once it hits 0 it explodes, this is a really fun mode to play, and me and my friends were on our feet the whole time while playing it. And the last mode to play is Capture the Flag which is designed for 2 or 4 players where you can go against each other solo or in teams of 2 trying to capture a flag and bringing it back to there zone, the team who brings the flag back 10 times first, wins!

Replay Value

This game can keep you playing for a while because the multi player games will keep you playing for hours, my favorite is Bomb Tag, and me and my friends were playing it for hours on end. Plus while your home alone, you can always play World Championship to try to unlock the hidden cars and tracks or practice your skills in Arcade and Time Trials mode. Both single and multi player games are great for this game! But of course, if you’re not a fan of destruction derby at all, you’ll most likely not even take a glance at this game.

In Brief

+: Lots of way to play, lots of hidden stuff to unlock, multi player is a blast to play!

-: Graphics need to be improved, the sound, though average, still is pretty lousy

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 8.3
Sound: 6.7
Game play: 8.8
Replay Value: 9.0

Overall: 8.2

Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 8

Final Analysis

It’s about time this game came for the N64. What the game lacks in graphics and sound, it makes up in game play and replay value. Multi player is another great way to play, and the destruction races are just as fun too. So if you’ve been a fan of the series, or like blowing up cars, then don’t miss out on this game!