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Cel Damage

Developer: Pseudo Interactive

Publisher: EA Games / Pseudo Interactive

Console: GameCube

Genre: Vehicular Combat

Number of Players: 4

Released: January 9, 2002

Memory Card Blocks: 2

Introduction

Once thought as a X-Box exclusive title, Cel Damage was ported to the GameCube 2 months later. This isn’t your ordinary vehicular combat game. It’s in glorious cel-shaded goodness looking just like a cartoon you see on T.V. Will it’s 1-player mode match it great multi-player mode?

Graphics: 8.5/10

The graphics are without a doubt the best part of this game. The cel-shaded graphics are put to good use here. It’s the closet to a cartoon as you can get. The levels and vehicles are interactive. Pseudo Interactive calls this: state-of-the-art "stretch and squish" physics engine. I couldn’t agree more. The vehicles stretch, bend, and are flattened. They can even be cut in half with a well placed swipe of the chain saw! The levels themselves are also interactive. The desert level features a little gated area that has a lot of sheep in there. You can bust through the gate and eliminate all those innocent little sheep.

On the jungle level you can go off a jump and swing from the vines like Donkey Kong does. Very cool. All the objects in the levels can be altered one way or the other. You can even run into a target and it will set off a big explosion eliminating all the vehicles that were there. Each character has there own story and select weapons to use. When your vehicle explodes, your character will appear and run away from the crash site. Even with all the things going on at once, the frame rate remains steady. Even in 4-player spilt screen action there are no frame rate slowdown.

Sound: 7/10

The sound is pretty average. Each character has a bunch of different taunts and comments. They are quite comical at first, but as usual they tend to get a little repetitive. The sound effects are pretty good. All the weapons feature different sound effects and you got to love the sheep going "baaaaaaaa" as you run over them. The music is decent. There is 1 song for each of the 12 levels. The music is up-tempo and fits the game well.

Gameplay: 6/10

There are 3 game play modes present. Smack Attack is basically a death match type mode. The goal is to be the first to 500 smacks. You have to finish first place if you want to get to the next level or unlock the other 2 modes. There are 12 levels spread across 4 different themes (desert, jungle, transylvania, and space). In order to help you out there are crate-like structures that you must break through to pick up a weapon. The bad thing is that you can only carry one weapon at a time. There is a pretty big arsenal of 36 weapons though. There are six different characters to choose from at the beginning. Then, you can unlock four more boss character’s if you can beat them.

Gate Relay has two checkpoints on opposite sides of the level. The first character to drive through 20 gates wins the match. You also have to watch out for the characters who are out to destroy you. Flag Rally is the final mode. There are 4 flags that have feet and are running away from you. You have to gather up all 4 flags and take them to the destination. This mode is pretty hard, as another character will smack you and you lose all the flags you were carrying. It’s not a very fun mode.

Controls: 8/10

The controls are pretty simple. R-button is accelerate and L-button is the brake and for going in reverse. You can turn the radar on or off using the Z-button. The A-button is for firing weapons and the B-button is used to eject from vines. X-button is the ever popular horn and Y-button is for a well placed taunt. Since the computer controlled players like to follow behind you, you will be able to make a 180 degree turn by holding down the L-button while turning. Without using that you stand no chance.

Replay: 6/10

This is what makes the game barely worth more then a rental. You only have four different level themes and only 12 levels total. The game is pretty hard though, so it might take 4-5 hours to beat it. This is definitely for multi-player fans only. 4-player action always turns out to be one hell of a good time. They really needed to add some sort of career mode for single player action to justify a purchase.

Conclusion

Cel Damage could have turned out better. There’s just not enough single player depth for a purchase. I do recommend however you give this game a rent if you are craving a new game to play. The interactive levels and vehicles are worth checking out. As is the pretty good 4-player action this game features. It is one of the better multi-player games available for the GameCube currently. Lets hope that if they do decide to create a sequel the add much needed career mode of some sort.

Pros Cons

Excellent Graphics Not enough levels

Interactive levels & vehicles Repetitive game play

Great multi-player action 1-player is too short

Final Score: 7.25/10, 73%, C

Reviewed by: Eric Brown on June 6, 2002

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