If you ask us, there are few things in life more boring than something like Formula One. As Mrs. Doyle might say, it's just a load of men in some cars, driving round and round and round a track for hours on end. At some point in time, way back when, someone else realised that the endless procession was a bit boring, and so banger racing, and destruction derbies were invented - two concepts that made racing a lot more interesting for people with short attention spans, and luckily for us, gave birth to a game like Scrap Metal.
That's a 4 x 4, with attached rocket launchers, chasing a pink monster truck. That sums up Scrap Metal pretty well.
Scrap Metal is a fender bending, rough and ready destruct-a-thon of a driving game. Rather than just leaving you to endlessly race around clinical circuits, you're encouraged to smash into your competitors, and basically destroy anyone who gets in your way, as you throw your car around the various grubby looking tracks. Somewhat brilliantly, each car even has its own built-in weapon, which makes it a whole lot easier to pummel your opponents into the "Scrap Metal" of the title.
In a deviation from other racing games, Scrap Metal sports a rather unique control system, and one that makes it incredibly easy to pick up and play. As the game has a top down camera, you may imagine that with a "traditional" steering system, it may get more than a little bit difficult to try and remember which way's right, and which way's left, especially when your car effectively ends up driving down the screen towards you.
To get around the potential confusion, things have been greatly simplified instead - if you push your analogue stick to the left, your car will drive to the left of the screen; push it right, and it'll go right, etc. Helping make the game a whole lot easier for new players to get into, all you have to do is push your stick where you want your car to go, and it'll follow.
Every now and then, you'll have to go up against a "track boss" - such as Mr. Big here.
Not content with simply offering races, Scrap Metal also features destruction derbies (naturally), a king of the hill mode, where you have to race to gather the most points by either destroying other cars, racing round the circuit the fastest, or, in reality, a mixture of both, along with several other unique variants, which see you doing things as varied as protecting a truck by firing health pick-ups at it, to destroying as many cars as you can within a certain time limit, by driving a flamethrower wielding, chainsaw slicing 18 wheeler!
When you finish each level, you'll be awarded with a number of upgrade points depending on how well you did, which you can then spend on upgrading the various vehicles you've collected throughout the duration of the campaign. From their armour, to their speed, handling, and firepower, you can increase the stats of pretty much every aspect of your car, turning your rusty old banger into a solid war machine.
The brilliant thing here is, even if you're just replaying a level you've already completed, you'll still be earning new stars. This means that if you're ever stuck on a level, and you think upgrading your car might help, but you're just short of a few points, you can easily re-sit the levels you can do, in order to gain new upgrade points - meaning you'll rarely hit a brick wall that you really can't cross.
Customising your car is a lot of fun.
Thankfully, it's not just the car's stats you can change either, as there's a whole host of more cosmetic features you can tweak that let you create the car of your dreams (or nightmares). Whether you're giving your car pink and purple polka dot spots, or strapping a giant doughnut to the top of it, you're bound to find something to make your car stand out - which is handy, as you'll want something to make yourself an individual in the game's amazing multiplayer mode.
Whether you want to play online or offline, Scrap Metal's multiplayer caters for all comers. Allowing for up to four players on the same console in split-screen - and even letting you take your split-screen game online, and challenge players from all corners of the globe, there's a huge variety of modes on offer here, that give you different objectives to complete, as opposed to the standard "race around a track" that you find in other games. Thanks to the game's immensely simple controls, you'll find that regardless of experience, the games are usually pretty close too, which makes every game all the more nail biting.
All in all, Scrap Metal is an adrenaline packed, yet surprisingly accessible racer, that makes a great game for a party night, or for a family to play together, thanks to its four player split-screen multiplayer, intuitive controls, and addictive, one-more-go gameplay. While 1200 points may seem a bit on the high side, this is one of the few occasions where we'd say it's probably worth it.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
