Publisher: Electronic Arts, www.eagames.com
Ages: six and up.
Parental Advisory:Frantic cartoon-style arcade race game where kids destroy each other's cars
Set a demolition derby in a cartoon world and you end up with something that looks and plays like Electronic Arts' Cel Damage. In execution, Cel Damage plays like demolition titles such as Twisted Metal. But while the game's cartoon look sets it apart, the title as a whole is rather repetitive and limited.
When you first see Cel Damage, you'll immediately notice the game's excellent cartoon-style visuals. The vehicles squash and stretch as they rip around on the screen, just as cars in frantic cartoons do, and the game offers a good supporting cast of comical characters and weapons to carry out its outlandish theme. In this regard, Cel Damage succeeds at making you feel as if you are playing a real-time, interactive cartoon.
The game offers six different characters and four landscapes that include a jungle, Transylvania, space, and desert. Some of the many weapons in the game include such cartoon standards as a chainsaw, ax, boxing gloves, grenades, and more. Since the weapons vary in their destructive capabilities, the levels mostly end-up being races to find the most powerful weapon on a level and wielding it.
Gameplay consists of simply racing and aiming your vehicle at others and using the weapon that you currently carry. It would be nice to be able to carry more than one weapon and switch between them, but you can't.
The game offers a deathmatch mode, as well as smack attack, gate relay, and flag rally modes. In Smack Attack, you try to be first to reach a designated number of "smacks" against your opponents. The Gate Relay mode asks you to race back and forth between two markers-a repetitive activity. And, as the name implies, Flag Rally is simply a version of Capture the Flag, but without teams.
The game features no story-you're simply out there mashing others. While single-play is shallow and rather repetitive. Multiplay, which supports up to four players in a 4-person split-screen, can be quite entertaining.
In all, Cel Damage looks great and plays well. I give the game points for serving a compelling new cartoon look. But the game could use more depth, particularly in its single play.
