Destruction Derby was developed by Reflections Interactive and released in North America on November 16, 1995, for the PlayStation.
Childhood Memories of Car Crash Chaos
Many moons ago, we rented Destruction Derby, and that game was pretty cool because all you did was crash your car—whether it was in a race or in an arena. At the time, I loved seeing the details of the damage on the vehicles because that wasn’t something you saw very often back then. Yeah, there was vehicle damage in games like F-Zero, but it was nowhere near this, and those were futuristic cars anyway. The vehicles in Destruction Derby are the kind of cars we saw every day.
The Intersecting Circuit and Real-Time Damage
There was a racetrack that was a circuit, but it looped around and intersected. Whenever you came across that intersection, you might crash into each other, which messed you up big time! Plus, there were like 50 cars on the track. The damage felt real.
Survival Strategy in the Arena
However, when it came to the arena, that was where the real fun began. I remember a specific tip my brother gave me: ram the cars in reverse. If you don’t, you damage your own front end, which destroys your engine, and then you can’t run anymore. So, I used that method.
I lost a lot but the 10 year old me still had a blast. You have an indicator on the bottom right thats the top view of your car and it tells you all the points that are getting damaged. It starts from green when its 100% health to orange and then red when its practically useless, then black when its toast.
Revisiting Destruction Derby as an Adult
Recently, I played this game as an adult and did just that—reversing and ramming into vehicles. It came down to me and just one more car in that arena, but I lost. By the end, I was barely able to steer, the handling was rough, and I was literally on my last legs.
It is not really a game that I’m interested in beating, though. It’s just one of those fun, mindless games where you can turn your brain off and just play. You just go crazy! It’s a perfect stress reliever; after a hard day’s work, you can get in there and just destroy stuff. We never rented it again, and I hadn’t played it since childhood until recently.
The Future of Vehicular Combat and thoughts
I can only imagine what a modern version looks like if they haven’t already made a similar game. The damage details with modern graphics today would be insane! It would be pretty cool to watch or play. Let me know in the comments if you played this game or not and if so what was your experience like?
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