Concept Destruction Review (Switch)

Game: Concept Destruction
Genre: 3D, Driving, Action, Arcade
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PC, PS4 and Xbox One)
Developer|Publisher: Thinice Games | Ratalaika Games
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: UK £4.99 | EU 4,99 | AU $7.99 | CA $6.29 | US $4.99
Release Date: 22th May 2020

Review code provided with many thanks to Ratalaika Games

The Cardboard Days

When I was young there was nothing more fun than building cars out of Lego and then smashing them into each other, then getting into trouble as my Dad would probably step on a Lego piece later. Kids and destruction just seem to go hand in hand. Then I got older and played a game on the Sony Playstation called Destruction Derby which had a mode in it where you simply drove cars into each other causing all sorts of carnage. I actually still enjoy this game and mode on my Playstation mini today. I’m old after all so it’s much easier than building cars just to destroy them, that would be an awful lot of mess to clean up. Well the developers of Concept Destruction may have been spying at me through a telescope somewhere as they decided to take this idea and make a neat little budget game out of it.

Time for destruction

Design School

Concept Destruction starts off with a small cutscene describing how cars are designed. Basically cars are made into models, they are then smashed into each other and the winning car will be made into a full blown vehicle. Who would have thought making cars would be so much fun, maybe I went into the wrong career. But none of this is really important as there are cars that need smashing together!

So this is what car design is really like

Crash and Smash

On the main menu you can go to school to get to grips with the games mechanics, all three of them. Which translates to drive, boost and smash. You’re a car made out of cardboard and a battery, with one goal – smash into other cars and try be the last car standing if possible. Hitting rivals in the side or the battery is the best strategy, but often I just had tons of fun smashing like crazy into cars in a glorious cardboard explosion. After you finish school you can choose to play championship mode which basically sees you go through each level one after another until you win. Or alternatively you can play single events alone or with a friend in split screen.

In a single event you can choose to play every car for itself or have every car target you if you like that sort of insanity. Alternatively you can play tourism mode which sorta removes all the games pressures and lets you have a casual drive without taking any damage. There are some generous options with regards to gameplay here, you can tweak various elements to try to suit the game to your liking. Options include number of opponents, your cars resistance to damage, battery consumption and many more. This makes the game more accessible to a variety of gamers. This is particularly helpful if you’re  playing with someone in split screen who’s struggling to get the grips with the game. Or the cardboard throttle.

Smash and crash together

Cardboard Graphics

The cars are made entirely of cardboard, even the wheels, and come in a variety of makes and colours if you don’t fancy plain old brown cardboard. I’ll take cardboard brown any day over typical video game greys and browns we’re used to seeing. You get to choose from a variety of vehicles each with their own stats. You can can also unlock more vehicles by simply playing through the game and gaining more points.

choose your vehicle then proceed to break it

Each level is set up on a design table and in the far background you can see a real car being designed. You drive on a cutting mat and all the hazards in the level are made of cardboard like trees and buildings. There are also pens, scissors, books and rulers set up to double as ramps. It all looks like something you could possibly make yourself. The pen art on your car looks notably crude as if it was something quickly made up in a lab.

The best design by far is the destructibility of your car. Just like in real life cardboard is pretty fragile. Your car can take damage in all sorts of areas as well as lose parts like doors and wheels. Car parts from you and your opponents literally litter the level until it’s over. Keeping your car in pristine condition is practically impossible as you collide with others. While all this carnage is going on rock music plays in the background of each level.

By some miracle my car is still functioning

Floaty Driving

The driving controls are a bit floaty, not a deal breaker but I didn’t feel I had full control of the vehicle. I’m not the biggest racing game fan. I often spend more time crashing than actually doing well. That’s probably why I ended up having a lot of fun with this game. Despite not feeling I had full control of my vehicle it was great fun smashing my fragile cardboard car into another cardboard car causing all sorts of destruction. This floaty feeling appears to increase in split screen where the games general performance seems to drop. Despite this my split screen pal and I still enjoyed smashing cars or just the scenery which unfortunately isn’t destructible.

Car pile ups are rather satisfying

Quick Coffee and Smash

Championship mode will only take you an hour or two but the game is very repayable. It’s ideal for those short sessions where you just want to smash into something. I wasn’t particularity skilled at the game I often wrecked my car more than succeeding but I sure did have a great time doing it. I also thoroughly enjoyed making my car last as long as possible when various parts of it like the doors and maybe even wheels had gone missing. A gamer looking for more depth than you’d expect from a racing game may leave wanting more. But this works very well as a dip in and out experience. There’s also a photo mode if you fancy capturing some of your favourite screens on the fly.

My poor attempt at photo mode

A Good Concept

Concept Destruction is a crash and fun title at a nice price to boot. It’s a decent little coffee game which you’re able to share with a friend. With some extra tweaking of the controls and gameplay I could see this game easily competing with some of the big guns like Rocket League. Maybe that will come later. For now I had a lot of fun smashing cars into each other. Let the cardboard fly I say.

Final Verdict: I like it a lot

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