Cel Damage (2001 Video Game) User Reviews

A deliciously great game with few flaws

[scary_dream · 9/10 · 17 July 2002]

At first this game might seem a little silly and monotonous, but that's just BEFORE you play it. There are only three levels for all four themes, but that gives one MORE than enough to do when they are smashing each other like crazy and trying not to get smashed at the same time. There are also three types of game play, which gives a gamer even more to do. It's not all just one big free-for-all like in some games.

The humor in this game is pretty good, with interesting throw-ins at every turn. Each character has plenty of things to say, which fits them beautifully, and the voices match the characters just as well.

The weapons in this game are very well chosen. Some are normal, like a chainsaw or a baseball bat, but some are really original, like Sinder's wood chipper and Fowl Mouth's tommy gun.

The characters in Cel Damage have to be some of the most complete characters I've seen in a demolition derby game like this. They aren't just "Character number one with no story, but a cool name" and "Character number two who is pretty, but without a story or interesting name." They all have names, stories, mini-movies about how they got onto the show, and their own unique look that is like no other character on the game. Each character is NOTHING like the last.

The gameplay is well done. It's not very jumpy, and the camera angles aren't annoying. The only downfall of this is that too much can sometimes happen on the screen, leaving you wondering just where in the heck your character is among all of the others. One would think "Well, that just means they did a good job at blending everything and it doesn't get slow or jumpy when a lot happens on the screen", but usually, when you can't see where you are going in this game, a quick smashing follows. On a very rare occasion can you escape from one of these situations without being smashed.

Overall, this game is pretty amazing with the cel-shading, making it look like an extremely elaborate yet violent cartoon. Temporarily losing your character is the only flaw I can detect in this game, and I give it nine out of ten stars.

It's like Wacky Racers, only somehow even more demented and all the better for it

[tryzon · 28 April 2010]

After getting a pleasant semi-surprise with Motorsiege: Warriors of Primetime in my last review, I decided that I should hunt down some more budget games to see if there are any others worth having, unlike the good majority of them, which are most certainly not. It then occurred to me that I had sampled such a title in the moderately distant past. Not only that, but it was another vehicular combat game published by the same folks who both published and developed Motorsiege. "Well hot dog!" I thought, eagerly clicking through Amazon and ordering a dozen or so other things while I was there, "I can't wait for my latest acquisitions to arrive!"

Within the week, all had turned up, and among them was my very own copy of Cel Damage Overdrive (sic).

As I mentioned, there are some rather harrowing parallels between the two games: vehicle combat; produced on a tight budget; sold at the lofty price of £10.00; published by Play It!, a cheapy game company who I am beginning to develop a mild affection for after two pleasant experiences (and one less happy, but let's not spoil the mood, eh?).

In a plot setup that sounds intriguingly similar, a selection of oddballs end up working as what amounts to modern gladiators, tearing apart each other's fossil fuelled chariots for the entertainment of the masses sitting at home watching the escapades on their tellies. I very much approve of a pure filler plot such as this in the case of a game that's really just about mindless destruction. It keeps the focus where it's most needed.

Of the ten characters available (although some must be unlocked), I went for Fowl Mouth, a 1930s New York gangster. His car and even his body are inexplicably coloured black and white, and he lives up to both sides of the pun in his name, being not only a farm bird but also a speaker of nasty words that are bleeped in-game to protect the wee ones from what they will inevitably learn by the age of nine anyway.

Whoever you end up choosing, you must then pick a game mode, of which there are exactly three. I checked the manual: there are no more to unlock or find or even any codes for them. What you see is what you get. A little lacking, but what can be done?

You have the omnipresent Deathmatch, which is slightly different to the norm because you are rewarded not only for killing enemies but also merely wounding them. Not a massive change, but a significant one nonetheless.

Then there's your bog-standard Racing. This is easily the most tedious of the bunch, because the cars were primarily made for fighting, not speed. This means that as you loop around an arena through the designated goals, you move at a slow walk unless you utilise the boost, but that still fails to make affairs interesting. What could have been literally Wacky Races 2 is tragically an utter bore.

At last comes Capture The Flag. Nip around the track collecting flags and then deposit them where required, all while fending off your ravenous opponents. A couple of niceties are thrown in though, because the flags have legs and attempt to evade capture, and you can pick up numerous flags at once to get a multiplier when you cash them in, resulting in a higher score than dropping them off individually. Also a heavy jolt will dislodge one part of your cargo, leaving it easy prey for others to cannibalise. I have yet to test the 4-player version of CTF, but it might well be the multiplayer highlight.

The best thing about Cel Damage is the weapon selection and the horrible acts of carnage that can be performed against adversaries. A frankly staggering total of 36 guns, launchers, melee beaters and other dangerous implements are at your disposal, although most of them need unlocking. Probably my favourite is the circular saw flinger, which simply sends massive saws the size of Minis hurtling forwards, tearing through the ground in a straight line and chipping away at anything which approaches. At their best, the weapons are bags of fun to use, since each hit on a target can send them reeling if you're talking about the big guns. Everything responds to being struck in a delightfully idiotic way. Supposedly a highly complex physics system is involved, but all you have to know is that when you pound a truck with a pair of mechanical boxing gloves, it will bounce away in a crumpled mess.

The only real issue with the weapons is that some are grossly overpowered. This might be workable if they required extra effort to obtain, but all arms come from randomly generated power-ups that can spawn anything from the weakest to strongest tools. This luck-reliant factor means that if someone just happens across one of the über-guns early on, they might gain an advantage which is practically undefeatable. You can limit the damage by turning off any of the weapons you choose, but that feels like caving in. Never give up. Never surrender.

Just playing the game to unlock places, boomsticks, characters and videos for the characters is rewarding enough to warrant finding Cel Damage for yourself. It's got some big wrong bits, the longevity is limited and it falls a bit short of Motorsiege, but when you consider that I bought both of these games for a penny each, you should nab the pair of 'em. Now if someone can just make a Mr. T kart racer we'll have a potential Mashed beater. Someday...