Destruction Derby Arenas - PlayStation 2

• Choose from more than 20 unique muscle cars -- all fully destructible to reflect the damage through races.
• Collect nitro boosts, spoilers and more upgrades as you finish near the top.
• Two offline and six online game modes, for hours of fun on 18 fully-destructible tracks.
• Arcade-style physics for great racing action - powerslides, skids, insane jumps and eye-popping ces.
• Broadband capability for up to 20-player online action.

Product Description ------------------- Get behind the wheel of a supercharged wrecking ball of American muscle. Race through insane tracks while maneuvering daring obstacles, including hydraulic lifts, speeding trains and huge ramps. Review ------ At first glance, Destruction Derby Arenas seems like it's got all the makings of a great game. Tons of unlockable cars and drivers, plenty of over-the-top arenas, and a weird mix of smashing and racing sounds pretty awesome. Unfortunately, once you start digging into this title, you bottom out pretty quickly. Scoring is done in such a fashion that your skill as a driver means less than the rtunities you're presented with on the asphalt, which results in the feeling that the outcome is out of your hands. The idea behind the single-player mode is sound, but it's structured really poorly – if you don't qualify for the next tier, you have to make the entire run through the circuit again. Ideally a robust online experience makes up for this – it's too bad that playing with other humans simply exacerbates the inherent flaws in the scoring system. All of its weaknesses aside, DDA is still a good time for a little while. The graphics are crisp and the physics are solid once you get used to how loose they are, but there's nothing to keep you coming back after the initial fun of t-boning someone and watching them explode wears off. Concept: Win the Derby by a combination of racing and wrecking your nents' rides Graphics: Nice detail on the cars and stadiums, and a cool blur effect for nitro use make it the high point of the title Sound: You'd be hard-pressed to find a more irritating announcer Playability: Except for the idiotic camera pans that break up your flow, it's fine Entertainment: There are some good thrills to be had, but success tends to depend a bit too much on luck Replay: Moderately High Rated: 6.75 out of 10 Editor: Adam Biessener Issue: May 2004 2nd Opinion: This game feels like tipping cows on a Saturday night: A small part of me thinks it's fun, but the overwhelming majority knows I've got better things to do. If this was a Hot Wheels game, I could see young kids liking it, but nobody will find joy in the sluggish online portion. You might get a few laughs from it with your friends, but then so would pestering farm animals. Rated: 6.5 out of 10 Editor: Matthew Kato Subscribe to Game Informer ( http://www..com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AN45D/ ) -- Game Informer Review