Smash Up Derby - PC

In most areas of the entertainment industry, lack of innovation and originality generally come in for heavy criticism. The games industry is no different. Sequels, clones and the various forms of cash-ins never go down well with serious gamers just like S Club 7, Westlife and most other pop chart drivel tend to offend anyone who knows even the slightest thing about music. At the end of the day though, these types of games are not always that bad and can often be quite a bit of fun. And who can honestly say that they don't secretly quite like 'Reach for the Stars'?

Smash Up Derby, as the title suggests, is your typical Destruction Derby clone. Granted, it offers little new to the already over-populated racing genre but that is not to say that that makes it a bad game. On the contrary, the game is a simple and easy to pick up arcade game that offers high-speed racing and a whole heap of metal-ripping vehicle destruction. There's a choice of 20 powerful supercars, top speeds of up to 180 MPH and a fairly simple premise involving battling for survival, no matter who or what gets in your way.

There are 28 different tracks to race across, set in a variety of different environments, from rally and cross country, to race track and even parking lot. Each race emphasises full contact, seeing you take advantage of your ability to smash, shunt and, ultimately, destroy your opponents. As such, the cars feature realistic damage, resulting in dented and scraped vehicles and body parts littering the courses. Also emphasising this is a range of dynamic effects that give us skid marks, sparks, dust, flares and the now commonplace 'bullet time'.

With the inclusion of LAN and Internet-based multiplayer gaming, Smash Up Derby is, at the end of the day, a good all round racing romp. Its lack of original gaming concept doesn't hinder its entertainment value. After all, Radiohead's Kid A is undoubtedly an original concept, but is it actually any good?
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