London Racer Destruction Madness

"Ultimate destruction! Opposition, you'll be eliminated!"

Boy, we'll love games in which you can destroy each other. It's great fun and it's satsifying when your opponents explodes in a fiery fireball, totally blasted apart and you the see the wreckage, burnt and looking like it was hit by a comet. London Racer: Destruction Madness (LRDM for short) is exactly like that. The idea is to attack your opponents until they explode. Awesome.

Four types of racing are in LRDM: Wrecking Racing, Survival, Smash Crash and Deathmatch. In Wrecking Racing, the goal is to complete a number of laps and finish first- in anyway you can! You can smash your opponents, destroy objects on the course and drive your fellow racers into the enviroment.

In Survival mode, the goal is to be the last guy standing. Do this by eliminating your opponents but the last thing you wan't do is hide. The health bar ticks down constantly, making hiding useless. The only ways to refill it are destroying other racers or collecting health pick-ups. These get rare when all the CPU contestants are scavenging and fighting at each other.

In Smash Crash, you have to earn as many points as possible by destroying the enviroment within the time limit. Take out other racers to take their points, extremely handy if you destroy first place. However, if you're first place, you better watch out- the most likely thing at higher difficulty levels is that your fellow racers will target you primarily.

Finally, the Deathmatch. Within the time limit, the goal is to take out as many racers as possible. However, if anyone gets destroyed, they are subsequently placed back on the course. This means you can eliminate more than the total of racers on track at anytime.

Of course, it would take ages for cars to destroy each other without power-ups, so thankfully they are included. These range from the Combine Harvester (Allowing you to shred enemies to bits), the Supercharger (Adds more speed), the After Burner (Adds speed of a jet engine but the steering of a shopping trolley) and the Shark Cage (Adds some extra lining round your car). Predictably, they don't last long.

The main Career mode sees you play the four types of gameplay on different courses, unlocking new cars and courses to play in Quick Race mode. In Quick Race you can play any course, car or mode, but only after you unlocked it in Career Mode. Also in this mode you can play with three friends.

VERDICT: 8/10

+ Great fun in multiplayer
+ Nice selection of cars
+ Great sound
+ Addictive gameplay
- Really short

Despite being a bit short, this game still provides a lot of enjoyment. Mustbuy if you like a smash 'n' crash.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/02/08

Game Release: London Racer Destruction Madness (EU, 10/14/05)