Cel Damage

GameCube

Well, I'll be damned.

Cel Damage was one of the few (read: not only) XBox games I thoroughly enjoyed at E3. Now it's coming to my system of choice. Please, allow me to repeat myself.

Well I'll be damned.

Cel Damage is not your average car combat game, no siree Bob. It takes its cue away from the dark and gritty world of fast cars and big guns omnipresent in the genre and sets itself squarely in what can only be described as a classic Warner Bros. toon fan's wet dream. Now, the team at Pseudo Interactive could have just stopped right there and they would have had a good premise for a different car combat game. Of course, they didn't. Smart boys aren't they?

It seems they (along with many of us long time fans of the genre) got a bit tired of the stale "Last Man Standing" style of play their prospective competitors had used. What to do? Take a look over the horizon, peer into the ever-popular world of FPS deathmatch games and see the light. Allow everyone to play through the entire match until one player attains enough points to win the match.

Enter the Smacks system.

Working much like its FPS counterparts, once a certain number of "smacks" are reached in the match by one player, the match ends and that player is the victor. Simple, elegant, fun. Let's stop here and wrap it up everyone!

Oh wait, there's more.

Sure, anyone can grab the biggest, baddest weapon. Dump a ton of heat-seeking, world-destroying weapons on your opponent, and they are toast. You got a smack! Good going, mate! Oh, but wait, here he comes, freshly respawned, carrying a mean baseball bat! He swings, and your windshield shatters and your pretty car is ruined. Not only that, but he got three smacks for that one hit. Whussat?

Yeah, that's right. It takes a whole lot more skill to score a hit on your opponent with some weapons than it does to do so with others. Taking that into consideration, the developers decided that different weapons will give you a different amount of smacks per hit.

Neat-o keen huh?

On top of all that, if you get bored of the standard deathmatch (Smack Attack) style. You've got Flag Rally, a Capture the Flag style game, where your goal is to grab that flag before anyone else does, and a standard racing game simply called Gate Relay.

So with 6 initially selectable vehicles, 4 hidden ones, 36 different weapons (including a chainsaw, a baseball bat, boxing gloves and a nuclear oilcan), 10 distinct arenas to romp around in, a 4-player split screen mode, and gorgeous graphics that run at a blazing 60 frames per second without a hint of slowdown...

Are you beginning to understand why I'm happy Cel Damage is coming to GameCube? Good, my job is done.