Cel Damage HD Review

The videogame industry seems to be following the movie industry where less and less original ideas are being brought to the table and instead relying on remakes or sequels of popular titles. That is not always a bad thing as we’ve seen some great remakes and remastered titles come to the next generation of consoles over the years. Games like Final Fantasy IV, Resident Evil, Legend of Zelda, Bionic Commando and Beyond Good & Evil have shined with updated graphics, camera angles, and gameplay tweaks. Back in 2001, Pseudo Interactive released Cel Damage where players participated in all out vehicular warfare in a cartoon world. The initial release had above average reviews with poor sales, but can the HD version vault it above its initial success?

Publisher Finish Line Games was in charge of the remaster, which I was quite fond of on the GameCube. If you are unfamiliar with gist of the game, Cel Damage is a cartoon show where audiences watch the total annihilation of vehicles by any means necessary. All the cartoon-y weapons you’d expect are thrown into the mix; mallets, chainsaws, over-sized boxing gloves, freeze rays, chain guns, and vacuum (yep….a vacuum). These can be picked up by driving over colorful icons located throughout the levels. Each special weapon comes with a limited amount of ammo as indicated by a counter in the corner of the screen. Drive over power up at any time and that will be your current weapon. Each vehicle also comes equipped with infinite ammo for their close range and long range which aren’t quite as effective as whittling down the health meters of opponents as the power up weapons.

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Cel Damage allows you to choose from 6 different character with their own distinctive vehicle, unfortunately the only difference in the characters is purely cosmetic. This is quite a shame because after a while the game can get stale with the lack of gameplay options. Sure there is something like a story mode for each of the characters that has the player grinding through 12 rounds of objective based gameplay to be rewarded with small clips of their crazy antics. Just like the characters, the level design suffers from the same flaws. Although there are 12 different arenas to play in, they are all set in one of the four different themes: Space, Desert, Spooky or Jungle. Each level has its own gimmick to mix things up, but they are so generic it does little to spice up a barren layout.

There are 3 different game modes where players can test their skills and hone their technique: Gate Relay, Flag Relay, and Smack Attack. Gate Relay is essentially your Mario Kart game mode where players must complete so many laps around the course while also hitting each gate to proceed to the next gate. This can be wicked fun because there is no rearview option to check your six and you must rely on your skill and boost to win. The age old classic, capture the flag, in Cel Damage is called Flag Relay. Players must capture flags and return them to their base in order score, but there is a little twist because the flags have sprouted legs and can be found running about the arena. Finally, the archetypal death match is portrayed through Smack Attack. Nothing fancy here, just your typical fight to the finish and be the player with the highest score to win. All of these game modes can be played with the AI or up to 4 players via local multiplayer. The AI doesn’t present much of challenge and rapidly becomes wearisome playing against. Local multiplayer is a blast and the decision to not include any type of online multiplayer really bogs down a game that could have had a much larger following.

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Cell shaded graphics may be one of my all-time favorite visual styles, but there really isn’t much to make Cel Damage stand out from its earlier version. Backgrounds, character models, and the arenas themselves lack any real depth to give them an updated and fresh appeal. The sound track is even worse and I think players would rather listen to Barney the purple dinosaur sing I Love You for eternity than suffer through Cel Damage’s music. Sound effects aren’t anything special, but they do get the job done.

Overall, Cel Damage initially captured that nostalgic feel I long for as I reminisced about the days of old, but those feelings soon became fleeting as I drudged on through the monotony of the gameplay and level design. It is 2016 and gamers expect more out of remastered games than a half ass attempt that makes the game feel incomplete. Local multiplayer was the games saving grace, but as soon as company left the game was turned off and more than likely will be deleted from the hard drive.

Score – 3.5/10

Review code supplied by Team Xbox.

Written by: Jake Lyons

Jake is our long standing North American based writer and player of many video game genres. Jake is equally fair and critical in good proportion and tells it like it is.