Cel Damage

"An excellent car combat game."

Cel Damage is a car combat game much like the Twisted Metal series and Vigilante 8. Like the title says, it uses the fairly new cel-shading technique to make the game look like a fast moving cartoon. It succeeds on most levels, but is it worth a purchase overall? Read on to find out.

Graphics: 9
The cel-shading is explained in the title, and uses the technique the best seen. The environments aren't overly detailed, but run smoothly and are well animated. You can damage the environment, causing changes in the objects and textures. The cars are well animated and run smoothly. The game runs at a solid 60 frames per second, but that comes at a cost. The environments are fairly small, but a lot of action goes on in the space. It's great all around.

Sound: 8
It sounds just like a Saturday morning cartoon, and that's not a bad thing at all. The sound effects are spot on, and are humorous at times. The characters can taunt each other, and the speech each character has is often humorous. A couple of Fowl Mouth's yells are funny every time, such as (bleep) you, mother(bleep)(bleep). Yes, it actually has bleeps. The music I find to be rather great, although it stops in the middle of the game sometimes. The music fits the levels well. If you play in a graveyard, you'll hear music out of a cheesy horror film, or if you play in a desert, you'll hear something out of a Western movie.

Control: 10
The game controls very well. It's very easy to pick up and play, not hard to learn at all. I'd even say it's easier to learn that Jet Grind Radio's control scheme. You use the R Trigger for the throttle, L Trigger for brakes and quick turning, A to use your weapon, and the Analogue Control Stick to move your car (although you can use the Directional Pad to move your car if you prefer), and that's the primary controls. You can also press B to fire your primary weapon when you have a different weapon selected. Y will have your character yell out different phrases, such as what's mentioned in the sound area, and X will let sound your vehicles horn. Very easy to learn.

Gameplay: 9
The game is a lot of fun, a lot more than what you expect. It's the fastest car combat game on the market. The difficulty has been toned down from the Xbox version, and it's better because of it. You have three different play options to choose from, Smack Attack, Capture the Flag, and a Racing/Battle mode. The Smack Attack puts you in the arena, where you must get 500 Smacks to win the game. Smacks are hitting the opponent with your weapons. One hit gets you one Smack. Killing an opponent gets you 15 Smacks. The Capture the Flag is what it sounds, but has a bit of a twist. You must gather four flags from the amount that is running around the level and bring them back to your base. The flags actually move around the level, they don't stay in one spot, and if they ''see'' you or anyone else, they'll start to run. You have to kill other opponents that have flags to get some if there's no more around the levels. Racing/Battle lets you go around the level, trying to come in first in the racing. You can go anywhere in the level, but you must go through the gates to progress on. You can pick up items and kill your opponents to move into a higher position. The game is a lot of fun with friends, and can be a lot more fun with them yelling next to you.

Overall: 9
This is an excellent on the GameCube, and somewhat better than the Xbox version because of the toned down difficulty. This game comes highly recommended, both as a single player title and a multiplayer title, but moreover as a multiplayer title. Worthy addition to your library.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/02, Updated 02/11/02