Cel Damage

"Furious Cartoon Carnage! Campers Beware!!"

Don't let the lukewarm reviews from Gamespot and IGN fool you, this Cel Damage is a Top-notch!

Graphics: 9
Absolutley incredible cel-shaded Magic! The Cars blaze across the screen, twisting, bending, splitting-in-half, exploding, squishing with nary a hint of slowdown, jaggies or draw-in. That goes for the 2-4 Player split screen as well.

Control: 9 The control is spot on. If you've ever played Twisted Metal or Vigilante 8, you know what to expect. Except in Cel Damage (unlike TM or V8) the control and movement is lightning quick, especially the handbrake quick-turn, which is essential to success in this game. Most of the weapons have at least some semi-tracking capability, which simplifies the game and keeps the action going, and Man does this game Go!! Camp at Your Own Risk in Cel Damage!

Gameplay: 8 There are only 7 Vehicles at the start with 2 or 3 unlockable characters, which is probably the game's biggest fault. There are 3 Modes of play with the only serious omission being a lack of a 2-player cooperative mode. Two of the modes are basically Rally Races, which play a lot like Wacky Races for the Dreamcast, and a pretty fun in their own right. There are something like 30 different weapons ranging from a Giant Axe to a Portable Hole. The amount of one-hit Kills might discourage you at first, but once you start Giving as good as receive, you'll love it! Besides, all the Sudden Violent Deaths, like getting flattened or split-in-half, keep the excitement level and tension very high! My favorite weapon is the Harpoon Gun, which can actually send an impaled opponent flying clear across a stage and stick him into a wall, tree, or cliff! Once you have unlocked all of the weapons you can totally customize which ones appear in each stage, or even simply specify range or melee weapons. As I'm sure you've already read, the arenas are a bit on the small side. They are all basically bowl style arenas designed for keeping the combatants together and the action constant. While they are a tad small, they are all quite unique with totally interactive environments, like Alligators, Falling Boulders, Ghosts. etc.

Sound: 8 Great Sound Effects and Chatter between characters, but there could have been more cartoony sound music to enhance the whole living looney toons thing going on.

Summary 8: I would have given this game an 8.5, but you know how that goes. Anybody expecting the slower-paced action of Twisted Metal or Vigilante 8 will be in for a Shock when this game first fires up. You'll undoubtedly come in Last Place in your first few Smack Attacks. But don't let the Speed and One-hit kills fool you, there IS strategy and skill in this game. You just have to erase the whole camping, hiding, ducking, dodging mindset and just Move and Blast! If you do, I Guarantee you will enjoy this game, especially in Multi-player!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/01, Updated 11/18/01