Gaming Target - Xbox: Cel Damage

Written by Douglas Malcolm on October 11, 2001

First Impressions: Frantic vehicular combat in a cartoon universe. Cool.

I can hear the mutterings starting alreadyЕ Уjust another car combat gameФЕ Уcel shading, how last year is that?Ф Е УOooo, vehicular combat, that's originalФ. To comments like this I say, Pshaw! Yes, I do really say Сpshaw' out loud from time to time. Try it yourself and see how much fun it is. Pshaw!

Ahem. In any case, to this reviewer, УoriginalФ does not always equal УgreatФ. If it did, Seaman for the Dreamcast would've been a smash hit, right? Right. There is something to be said for taking the venerable car combat genre and implementing it well, and the specific thing to be said is, УThank you, Pseudo. We needed a car combat game for the Xbox launch.Ф

All kidding aside, Cel Damage looks to have a lot of good things going for it. People love to drive cars, and many love blowing things up, and other acts of violence. Combining the two is thus usually a good idea. Pseudo did themselves a double favor when they decided to make this game as cartoon-like as possible. For one thing- it just looks fun. I haven't had my fill of cel-shaded games, like Jet Grind Radio, yet, and this seems like a great application for the style. I look at this game, and immediately I want to know more, based on graphics alone.

Furthermore, by going cel-shaded and cartoon-like, reality becomes optional and secondary to more important factors like: Is it fun? A small example of this can be seen in any of the trailers for this game. As the cars zip around the arenas, the vehicle bodies flex and bounce in ways that only happen in a cartoon universe. The weapons are ludicrous, and most look to be bigger than the cars that they are mounted too.

So the cel shading is a big plus, and looks extremely well done. Watching the footage available, it would not be impossible to mistake what you see of the game for an actual cartoon. Pseudo really hit the mark here in creating the atmosphere.

The game comes with 10 playable characters, 6 initially, and 4 to be unlocked. Each character has a default main weapon, and there are 26 other weapon power-ups to be had. Including such wonders as giant boxing gloves (mounted on the hood of your car), a giant chainsaw, freeze ray, and the wood chipper. Under the heading of Уnice touchФ, when you grind someone up in the chipper, the confetti sized chunks of your opponent that are left spray out the side just like a real wood chipper. Heh.

Three gameplay modes are available; Smack Attack, Flag Rally, and Gate Relay. Smack attack is your basic death match scenario Ц up to 4 players (split screen) blasting the hell out of each other. Flag Rally is a capture the flag game, and Gate Relay is a combat race, meaning it is ultimately a race, but doing unto others before they do unto you is rewarded.

Believe it or not, despite this being a cartoon game, the developers have taken care to provide a coherent set of Уcar physicsФ. Things like the mass and traction of your vehicle influence your driving, meaning a slower, heavier car will win those head-on collisions, and incidentally be able to maintain a better race line where applicable.

One sad note here would be the lack of any kind of plan for online play. True, this is a launch title, and no connectivity is expected for any Xbox game for many months afterward, but it still would have been nice to have some plans in that direction. Alas, 4-player split screen will have to doЕ for now.