Scrap Metal (XBLA) – Review – Xbox 360

Continuing with Microsoft’s XBLA Block Party is Scrap Metal from Slick Entertainment; best known for the unique ninja platformer N+. Scrap Metal of course is quite different from N+; instead of a platformer, Scrap Metal is an intense top down racing game.

Gameplay: Scrap Metal consists of you, a rookie in a sense, traveling to 8 tracks competing against the top racers in that area. Each track has a total of 8 races to complete, making a total of at least 60 races. Each race consists of you literally battling your way to the finish line by any means necessary. You will compete in action packed races, demolition derbies, elimination races, and boss battles to name a few. Most races let you use your weapon, but some such as the elimination races disable them. At the end of each race, you will receive a gold, silver, or bronze star depending on your performance. Each will grant you upgrade points for your vehicle. You start with a basic buggy with a machine gun, and as you progress through the tracks, you earn new vehicles. Each vehicle has a different weapon attached to the front. Weapons can be machine guns, flamethrowers, rams, chain saws, shotguns, grenade launchers, lasers, a scoop, and rocket launchers. Each weapon, however, is linked to the vehicle and cannot be swapped between vehicles. As you earn a new vehicle, it immediately goes to your junkyard. From here, you can select up to four stock vehicles to be placed in your garage. Each of these four cars can be customized and upgraded. Customization options are limited; there are preset paint colours, decals, and accessories to be added to your vehicle. Upgrades are also limited by the vehicle and class. You can upgrade the speed, grip, armor, and firepower. Each upgrade is limited to a minimum of 2-3 upgrade stars. This requires you to frequently switch vehicles from the junkyard and you can never use just one vehicle from start to finish. The vehicles that you can unlock range from small buggies and muscle cars, to pickup trucks, semi trucks, monster trucks, and bulldozers. Learning the controls can be one of the trickiest parts. Eventually you will get used to it, but until you do, keep at it, don’t get frustrated. Driving the vehicle with the default controls somewhat resembles that of a dual stick shooter, except only using the left stick; you just point in the direction you want to go. Advance controls are available and require you to hold the right trigger to drive, while the steering is relevant to the perspective of the car, similar to other driving games. Weapons can be used by pressing the A button, or the right stick. The overall objective is to race and use your weapons to get ahead of your opponents, similar to other racing games like Full Auto or Vigilante 8.

Graphics: Graphics are consistent with today’s XBLA games. Beautifully lit and rendered tracks. Occasionally there are some night and rain tracks that may affect how you play the race. From the top down perspective, you won’t notice the detail each car has, but when you visit the garage, vehicles have quite a bit of detail. Destruction of vehicles is well done; when shot, pieces of the vehicle slowly fall off. Vehicles catch fire, and eventually explode in a rewarding fashion, well, aside from your own vehicle exploding.

Multiplayer: Multiplayer consists of up to four players locally, system link, or xbox live battling it out against other computer or player controlled vehicles. As you’d expect, gameplay from single player carries over. However, custom vehicles from single player do not. Depending on the game type and track, certain stock vehicles are available. As far as customizations on the vehicles go, you may choose a different paint colour from the preset options. There are numerous game types available such as race, derby, king of the hill, elimination, gasoline, airboat, tank battle, and grand prix. Most of them rely on points. For instance, in a race, your position only gives you bonus points. Keep destroying other vehicles and you win. Along the track, in both single player and multiplayer, random power-ups will appear. Shooting or driving through a power up will give you an advantage. These power-ups include nitro boost, shield, extreme firepower, and extra speed. Eliminating a target usually grants you special weapons as well – mines, oil, thumper, and missiles.

Overall: I had a lot of fun with the single player. I only enjoyed a few of the game types in multiplayer. Races, derbies, and tank battles were fun. The overall feel of the game and races is reminiscent of old school games like the NES and Sega games R.C. Pro-AM, Super Off-Road, or Rock N’ Roll Racing. I had a sense excitement while racing similar to the Burnout or Full Auto games. The controls do take some time to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be drifting around corners with ease. Although occasionally, the game will think you are going in a different direction resulting in spinning out, or driving into walls. I also found I was constantly checking the leaderboards to see my ranking among others. I noticed it also features a somewhat hidden 3D mode available in the options menu. I didn’t get to try it, but seems like it could be a crazy experience. I look forward to any downloadable content in the future such as extra tracks in singleplayer.

Pros: -Plenty of races on 8 unique tracks totaling 60+ races

-Some fun game types

-Weapons on vehicles and elimination of opponents is rewarding

-Avatar Awards

- There are no loadng screens, instant start when selecting a race.

Cons: -Game sometimes gets confused on the direction you want to go. Will end up having to stop the vehicle and re-adjust the direction resulting in destruction of your vehicle or loss of race.

-Compared to the amount of levels in N+, Scrap Metal falls short. You can only have so many variations of a track though.

Score: 7.5/10

A copy of this game was provided to the reviewer from the publisher.

Written By Ben Lehman

Popularity: 7% [?]