DESTRUCTION DERBY: RETROPERSPECTIVE
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Destruction Derby was a game that made nearly as much of a crash bang and wallop as the PlayStation machine it launched with. Published by a Sony owned Psygnosis at the time, and even though some may class as a Sony game it was made by the UK Reflections team lead by Martin Edmonson and shipped over 4 platforms and 2 generations.
The N64 release by Looking Glass studios is worse visually compared to the much older original and epitomises the consoles blur-o-vision textures that it was infamous for. It is not the same game at all, a common trait of the CD to Cartridge ports of the time. Leaving that version behind for now and continuing my Retroperspective series, we journey back to a time when Oasis was enjoying a Wonder wall, Pierce Brosnan brought Bond back to our screens in Goldeneye and we went to the Derby. We relive the last of that list with a retro Head 2 Head between old rivals in Sega’s penultimate console the Saturn facing off with Sony’s very first PlayStation,
Let battle commence!
Before we get into the differences it makes sense to cover the game, engine and some of the challenges and achievements the reflections crew made with this physics fuelled funfair. Incorporating a real-time physics model was a bold move back then and even with the “for the time” power of PlayStation it was still a big ask of the hardware. Some of this was mitigated by the use of single wireframe models cloaked in textures for all vehicles with each car using unique textures to separate them. With a damage model running based on direction and speed of impact cars could degrade in control, speed and power throughout play. With on-screen icons showing the damage to each area as you headed for the blown radiator that spelled the end of your race.
This could be thrashed out across 6 tracks covering straight ovals, figures of 8, twisty sea-side locations. But many jumped into the large bowl derby races the game stole its title from, where going round in circles is replaced with, well smashing cars into a spin. This allowed a multi-player race, championship or practise on both with the PS1 supporting linked play of consoles also.
Later games allowed the option to repair damage with pit ins but this was big boy hardcore mode, go hard or go home!. It also had some other pedigree with 20 cars on screen at once a very rare occurrence then and a long time after. These duelled it out in small arena’s or tight tracks that had been designed as such so that action was more exciting, frantic and you got regular contact and crashes like this happening all the time.
Being a launch game outside of Japan at least as this was still in the day when consoles could launch a year or more before a western release and created the huge import scene of the time, a video for another time perhaps. It was a real head turning title for the PS1 showing off the ability of 3D games to better ramp up action and visuals. But it was a game that targeted more function than form with success.