Post by Brian-RN on Mar 27, 2005 18:36:20 GMT -5
At a first look, Cel Damage looks like your average racing/shooter game. Although at the same time it looks like zany Saturday morning cartoon. Cel Damage is one of the most eccentric games to come around in a long time, but that’s about it. It lacks a story, and it’s just strait gameplay, which lasts about 10 hours if you are determined to unlock everything. But, behind the cartoony shell that is Cel Damage, there’s lots of multiplayer fun to be found.
When you first pop in the Cel Damage disc, you are given an intro that provides somewhat of a back-story. Cel Damage is a destruction derby type show where the objective is to simply blow up your enemies, and anything around them. You are then given seven characters to choose from, and four levels of a death match type event called Smack attack. The goal of Smack Attack is simple; blow up as many of your enemies as you can. But Cel Damage ditches the cliché lives and kills, and gives you a smack count in the upper left hand of the screen. Certain weapons give you a certain amount of smacks. The Ax for example, will give you more smacks than hitting someone with a machine gun bullet. Whoever gains the set amount of smacks first, wins. This is a very quirky and fast-paced process, which is what Cel Damage relies on.
After you win your first Smack Attack, you’ll unlock Flag Rally, which is Cel Damages version of capture the flag. You must capture a set amount of flags scattered around the level, and get them back to the circle. Of course, this is no easy task, as you’re pitted against those crazy opponents that will do anything to get those flags. Most of the time, you’ll be headhunting other drivers for their flags, getting them in any way you can. But catching these flags isn’t as easy as it sounds, as the flags have a mind of their own and will run away from you and make them hard to catch. Collecting the set amount of flags can be a rather difficult and lengthy ordeal, as there are traps all around each level that will smash, run over, burn or just pretty much kill your driver. You’ll then lose all of your flags and start the whole process all over again.
The least fun of the modes Cel Damage has to offer is Gate Relay. Gate Relay is basically a race with weapons. A very simple mode that’s not that hard to master. But if you like Gran Turismo games, but you think they could use a little more something, this would be your mode of play. Gate Relay consists of a series of gates that you must race through. They’re not designed on a race track, so you have to follow the arrow at the top of your screen. Someone in front of you? Blow them to bits. Someone constantly challenging your spot? Show them what’s what with a good cannon ball to the side.
Of course, that’s the underlying point of Cel Damage. Blow things up! All the modes rely on this to some point. Flag Rally? Blow up your enemies to get their flags. Gate Relay? Race while blowing things up. Smack Attack? Just plain blow things up! Now, not to say blowing things up isn’t fun, but it gets boring after a while. Although, Cel Damage offers a lot of side objects to interact with. For example, in the first level of the Desert stages, there are sheep that are in a little pen off to the side of the train tracks. If you want to, you can run into these sheep or, if you and you’re perverted self prefer, you can cut that sheep in half and see its cel shaded guts. This is a big part of Cel Damages fun; it’s interactivity. You can run into fences and destroy them. Run into a bolder and make it roll into an oncoming opponent. Along with interactive gameplay, the levels in Cel Damage all have numerous traps in which to kill your opponents. You can drop out a bridge, or drop a 100 ton weight on a group of your opponents. The whole concept of the game is fun, which is also one of the best parts of Cel Damage.
Although while Cel Damage isn’t one of the best games for the Gamecube (or any system for that matter) there is a lot of fun to be had. Four way Smack Attacks with your friends can eat up hours at a time, and if you work the players taunting into it, there’s lots of laughs to be had. While driving around, you can press the Y button to hear one of the many rather funny taunts each character has. The game’s look fits in nicely as well. The cartoon cel-shaded look really captures the games spirit, and twists and bends with your characters movements. Everything is done beautifully, and fits perfectly. In fact, this is probably the only way Cel Damage could look.
Of course, with the Saturday morning cartoon look, comes that Saturday morning cartoon sounds. While these aren’t the best seen on the Gamecube, they work with the look and feel of the game. In fact, the majority of the game, there’s so much going on around you, that it’s hard to concentrate on anything but keeping alive. The only thing that the sound in Cel Damage is good for is laughs. The taunts and sound effects are funny, and sound really good. It doesn’t fit as good as the graphics, but it’s still worth a laugh or two.
One of the higher points of Cel Damage is its controls. They just don’t feel like a regular racing game, although they do fit nicely. They’re rather simple, and are good for kids that are looking for a good game to pick up and play. The drivers bend and curve as you give them multiple commands, which also adds to the fun factor of the game.
If you’re looking for a good game for the Gamecube, skip this one. But, if you’re looking for a good time, especially with friends, this is your game. The entire game is like a violent Saturday morning cartoon, and will be enjoyed by all ages (although the game has a T rating, and a lot of the humor is aimed towards the older crowd.) This isn’t one of the better launch titles for the Gamecube, but at a $19.99 price tag, it’s good for a few hours of good, old fashioned fun.
Overall: 6
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When you first pop in the Cel Damage disc, you are given an intro that provides somewhat of a back-story. Cel Damage is a destruction derby type show where the objective is to simply blow up your enemies, and anything around them. You are then given seven characters to choose from, and four levels of a death match type event called Smack attack. The goal of Smack Attack is simple; blow up as many of your enemies as you can. But Cel Damage ditches the cliché lives and kills, and gives you a smack count in the upper left hand of the screen. Certain weapons give you a certain amount of smacks. The Ax for example, will give you more smacks than hitting someone with a machine gun bullet. Whoever gains the set amount of smacks first, wins. This is a very quirky and fast-paced process, which is what Cel Damage relies on.
After you win your first Smack Attack, you’ll unlock Flag Rally, which is Cel Damages version of capture the flag. You must capture a set amount of flags scattered around the level, and get them back to the circle. Of course, this is no easy task, as you’re pitted against those crazy opponents that will do anything to get those flags. Most of the time, you’ll be headhunting other drivers for their flags, getting them in any way you can. But catching these flags isn’t as easy as it sounds, as the flags have a mind of their own and will run away from you and make them hard to catch. Collecting the set amount of flags can be a rather difficult and lengthy ordeal, as there are traps all around each level that will smash, run over, burn or just pretty much kill your driver. You’ll then lose all of your flags and start the whole process all over again.
The least fun of the modes Cel Damage has to offer is Gate Relay. Gate Relay is basically a race with weapons. A very simple mode that’s not that hard to master. But if you like Gran Turismo games, but you think they could use a little more something, this would be your mode of play. Gate Relay consists of a series of gates that you must race through. They’re not designed on a race track, so you have to follow the arrow at the top of your screen. Someone in front of you? Blow them to bits. Someone constantly challenging your spot? Show them what’s what with a good cannon ball to the side.
Of course, that’s the underlying point of Cel Damage. Blow things up! All the modes rely on this to some point. Flag Rally? Blow up your enemies to get their flags. Gate Relay? Race while blowing things up. Smack Attack? Just plain blow things up! Now, not to say blowing things up isn’t fun, but it gets boring after a while. Although, Cel Damage offers a lot of side objects to interact with. For example, in the first level of the Desert stages, there are sheep that are in a little pen off to the side of the train tracks. If you want to, you can run into these sheep or, if you and you’re perverted self prefer, you can cut that sheep in half and see its cel shaded guts. This is a big part of Cel Damages fun; it’s interactivity. You can run into fences and destroy them. Run into a bolder and make it roll into an oncoming opponent. Along with interactive gameplay, the levels in Cel Damage all have numerous traps in which to kill your opponents. You can drop out a bridge, or drop a 100 ton weight on a group of your opponents. The whole concept of the game is fun, which is also one of the best parts of Cel Damage.
Although while Cel Damage isn’t one of the best games for the Gamecube (or any system for that matter) there is a lot of fun to be had. Four way Smack Attacks with your friends can eat up hours at a time, and if you work the players taunting into it, there’s lots of laughs to be had. While driving around, you can press the Y button to hear one of the many rather funny taunts each character has. The game’s look fits in nicely as well. The cartoon cel-shaded look really captures the games spirit, and twists and bends with your characters movements. Everything is done beautifully, and fits perfectly. In fact, this is probably the only way Cel Damage could look.
Of course, with the Saturday morning cartoon look, comes that Saturday morning cartoon sounds. While these aren’t the best seen on the Gamecube, they work with the look and feel of the game. In fact, the majority of the game, there’s so much going on around you, that it’s hard to concentrate on anything but keeping alive. The only thing that the sound in Cel Damage is good for is laughs. The taunts and sound effects are funny, and sound really good. It doesn’t fit as good as the graphics, but it’s still worth a laugh or two.
One of the higher points of Cel Damage is its controls. They just don’t feel like a regular racing game, although they do fit nicely. They’re rather simple, and are good for kids that are looking for a good game to pick up and play. The drivers bend and curve as you give them multiple commands, which also adds to the fun factor of the game.
If you’re looking for a good game for the Gamecube, skip this one. But, if you’re looking for a good time, especially with friends, this is your game. The entire game is like a violent Saturday morning cartoon, and will be enjoyed by all ages (although the game has a T rating, and a lot of the humor is aimed towards the older crowd.) This isn’t one of the better launch titles for the Gamecube, but at a $19.99 price tag, it’s good for a few hours of good, old fashioned fun.
Overall: 6
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