"Good For A Few Chuckles, And Not Much Else"

'Cel Damage' is the latest entry in the car-combat genre; the fact that there IS a car-combat genre should speak volumes about how uncreative the game industry is these days. I mean, how many games of 'cars-killing-other-cars' does the world really need? 'Cel Damage' attempts to put its own cartoonish twist on the 'Twisted Metal' blueprint, but the game lacks the depth of Sweet Tooth's series. Instead, it delivers a manic, colorful party game that wears thin in an hour or so. Some gamers will enjoy the breezy button-mashing, but more discriminating folks will probably get bored rather quickly.
As you might expect from a game of this type, the storyline of 'Cel Damage' is bare-bones at best. But who cares? Crazy cartoon characters want to drive their wacky cars around and smash each other to bits, and that's good enough for me. The cartoon theme is the main hook of the game... everything is done in cel-shading animation, and the cars use weapons like giant axes, portable holes, and those big red rockets that ACME seemed to have an endless supply of. The drivers are equally zany, including the vampire Count Earl, and a gangster duck named Fowl Mouth. I should note that the presence of a gangster duck led me to give this game an extra point towards it's final score.
The game plays very quickly, with cars and weapons flying everywhere. The various arenas tend to be quite small, and since all of the cars move rather fast, there's really no way to escape the madness for a quick breather. It's kill or be killed, or 'smacked,' as the game puts it.
'Smack Attack' will probably be your most common play mode, and it's quite simple. The first person to get 500 'smacks' wins, where 'smacks' are any sort of attack on another car. Killing the other car seems to give the most points, which places a rather high premium on the instant-kill weapons like the axe and chainsaw. Here lies one of the game's main problems: why bother with the piddly chain gun or the spring, when the axe is super-powerful and so easy to use? Smart players will quickly learn to chase down the better hardware, rather than fussing around with inaccurate junk like the buzzsaws and harpoon. However, even the game's 'lesser' weapons kill pretty quickly, so the most skilled players will probably die quite a few times before all is said and done. Eventually, you and your pals will give up on any sort of strategy, since rushing around and banging on the 'attack' button is just as effective for the most part. The lack of shields or hit points pretty much eliminates any possible defensive strategies; if a guy comes up from behind you with a nasty weapon, there's little that you can do other than dying like a trooper and waiting to respawn.
The game also includes a racing mode, where the first driver to pass through 20 gates wins. Unfortunately, there are only two gates per level due to the small arenas, so you and your opponents end up racing the same little path back and forth between the two gates. Worse yet, all of the game's weapons are still in play, and with half of the drivers going one way through the loop and the other half driving against them, the race tends to break down into total carnage. I found myself wishing that everyone would stop destroying one another for a few minutes and get on with the race. 'Cheap' A.I. also rears its ugly head. The computer seemed to have the losing drivers gang up on me during the last lap or two, while the second and third-place racers took the opportunity to pass me for the victory. I once watched with incredulity as B.T. Bruno went out of his way to smash me with his hammer on the last lap, and then - literally - sit there and wait for me to recover, so he could smash me again. Someone then froze me and shattered me into bits, and I felt like performing a similar act on the game disc.
Lastly, 'Cel Damage' has a capture-the-flag mode, which tends to be quite frustrating. But I guess frustration is kind of the point with capture-the-flag, isn't it? Nothing signifies video game anguish quite like losing one's hard-earned flags due to a stray axe swipe.
Alas, no matter which mode you choose, repitition quickly sets in. The game's look is fantastic, and the characters and sound effects provide a couple of laughs. But 'Cel Damage' is simply a blur of empty violence. It's a whole lot of this: kill, die, respawn... kill, die, respawn... kill, die, respawn...
As I mentioned, though, the game DOES look pretty nifty. The cartoon motif is carried off splendidly with immaculate cel-shading. Of course, as a die-hard 'Jet Set Radio' fan, I have a fairly large bias towards all things cel-shaded. The game's bright colors and huge, exaggerated weapons are a load of fun.
I don't really remember the game's music much, even though I played it less than a day ago. I guess it wasn't especially good or terrifying. The sound effects in 'Cel Damage' can be a hoot, though. T. Wrecks and Fowl Mouth have some funny quips, and having Violet taunt her opponents by shouting 'poser!' was incredibly funny to me for some odd reason.
'Cel Damage' might be a decent rental for any of you car-combat or cel-shading fans, but most folks will probably get bored after a couple of hours. It's an okay party game, but on a system that already has some classic multiplayer games like 'Super Monkey Ball' and 'Super Smash Brothers Melee,' why mess around with a B-level title? If you enjoy light-hearted racing, stick to 'Mario Kart,' and if you love car-combat games, 'Twisted Metal: Black' is the way to go.

Note: If you insist on buying this game, and have to choose between the GameCube and X-Box versions, go with the GameCube version. The X-Box version is incredibly difficult, while the GameCube's edition is far more playable.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/02, Updated 01/18/02