Crumple Zone

the game is surprisingly good indie clone of the legendary Destruction Derby

This isn't a bad game. But it's not a good one either. It's just here. The handling isn't great. The physics aren't good. There is a severe lack of tracks. All the cars are identical except for aesthetics. In the derbies, I want to have to drive backwards to save my engine from being damaged. I want that if I ram someone in the side, there is a chance I knock a tire off or damage it so they're slow. This game? Your car seems fine til the damage bar is gone, just drives the same from 100-1% damage then black smoke/race over at 1%. Destruction Derby series on the PS1 had a better, well, literally everything. I WANT to love this game. But everything about it, it just seems like the dev thought "I bet people would buy a Destruction Derby type game" and did the bare minimum needed to get there. I don't see any labor of love here. Just an average game. For achievement hunters, the achievements suck. Just grindy or outright bad, other than "complete the campaign/arcade mode" ones. All in all, just a mid-tier game. AND on top of all that, it's a headache to even start the game. Every time I try to open it, it usually hangs or gets a black screen at the Out of Tune screen. Usually takes 3…

Dear diary. Today is a good day, because I found Crumple Zone. It's a vibe. It doesn't look like much at first glance, but it is made with love. The handling is nice, the tracks are fun, the ai is fun to race against and the music selection is really good. Graphics are simple, but in a pretty and consistent art style. Very clean and readable, retro in a good way. With a bit of janky dad humor thrown into the mix. Runs flawlessly on Linux via Proton. Performance is good and the game has lots of personality. Charming little indie pearl and a tribute to a wonderful era of computer gaming. 9.5/10 Would crumple again.

This is close to being great but ultimately it stays at mediocre. For a start it looks like a remake of Destruction Derby 1 but it plays nothing like it, points are only awarded for hitting opponents and not for spinning them. Damage is also not specific to each part of the car, just an overall health bar which further removes any tactics from the racing. The driving physics are also quite weird, particularly when landing a jump (a lot of which gets added later in the campaign) but also when hitting other cars, you just don't know where you will end up. The difficulty of the campaign is increased with the addition of jumps and then chicanes but ironically these make the game easier because the AI can't really deal with either of these and it gives you more chances to crash into them. A bit more polish on the physics, some work on the AI and this could be really good. I bought this on sale and don't feel ripped off, but it's hard to recommend at full price when this offers a similar but more limited experience to Flatout or Wreckfest and I've seen it all after 8 hours. Excited to see what is in store for Crumple Zone 2!

Game is destructive and very fun but, has a lot of compatablity problems

not bad, would be far far far better with visual crumple zones!