Totaled! – XB – Review

Recently, the game Totaled!
for Xbox has created quite a stir … not due to coarse language, violence, and
sexual innuendos mind you … but in overall reviews and "good / bad" feelings.
Now, I’ve looked at various reviews, seen the messages that you loyal gamers
have gone out and posted to various websites, and have come up with my own
conclusion. While this game isn’t perfect, and a lot of reviewers out there
didn’t seem to care for it, I personally found it to be a fun, arcade style
smash – em – up title which deserves at least a try from anyone who enjoys
NASCAR, Figure 8, or Demolition Derbies (You know, the "hicks and slack – jaw
yokels" that watch these things, as those of us who enjoy vehicular chaos have
been labeled by a reviewer on one of the other sites).

Totaled! enters the gaming
world as a driving title more focused on destruction than racing. With no set
plot, no pit stops, no season trophies, and no sponsors, it puts the player
behind the wheel of one of 10 different vehicles set to mostly do what we have
all wanted to do at one time or another … smash other cars. If you’ve ever
been cut off by someone or got stuck behind the 15 MPH driver in the 45MPH zone,
you can probably agree with me on that statement. The controls were built to be
simple enough to revolve around that aspect as well, since you have standard
gas, e-brake, and brake buttons, and one for a nitro boost. The controls are
responsive and tight, and you won’t have a lot of problems swinging a vehicle
around to barrel down on an opposing CPU or player controlled opponent. While
racing around a track, the tight controls seem to over steer periodically
depending on speed … but nothing which will cause aggravation or detract from
the overall experience.

Starting off, the car and
track selection is limited in the arcade mode, but winning events in the Career
mode will unlock new arenas and cars to demolish. There are three basic cars
types to play with, ranging from the heavy Hot Rods, the mid weight Muscle cars,
and the lightweight Performance cars. Each type has it’s own varying speed and
toughness ability, which will play a part in the bowl or on the track.
Performance cars can’t take a whole lot of punishment when slammed at high
speeds, but the Hot Rods can’t accelerate fast enough to catch them on a
straight shot either. So, it helps to pick the car style that fits the event you
are partaking in, and for the most part you can feel the difference in each
style while you play.

Most of Totaled’s arenas and
events revolve around using your nice looking automobile as a 60 MPH battering
ram. This game has multiple "demolition derby" play modes available, like Last
Man Standing where you have to be the last car still running on the track, or
Hunter (My personal favorite) which is sort of a vehicular game of tag where
points are earned only by smashing into the vehicle which is designated as "it".
This all takes place in a various selection of arenas ranging from a simple
indoor or outdoor demolition derby bowl to such things as a football field, a
parking garage, or an oil rig platform out in the middle of the ocean. Even
though the main purpose to Totaled! is destruction, there are also some other
more racing style modes to partake in also like … well … a straight race.
Not exciting enough? Try Eliminator, where the last car across the finish line
at the end of a lap gets blown up. There are also stunt tracks to jump though
hoops or over buses and skill modes like "hit the crates but not the bowling
pins while beating the timer" as well, so there’s a little something for
whatever mood you may be in at the time.

Graphically, the cars look
really good. Starting out, each one has a nice waxy shine to it and a really
nifty paint job with a neat body style. The shine and paint stick around, but
that sleek body look of course doesn’t last too long since the name of the game
here is demolition. At the first solid hit, that nice looking automobile you’re
driving doesn’t look too hot anymore after the front crumples, the hood flies
off, and the front fender starts sparking from dragging the ground. Trunks,
doors, lights, windows … they are all fair game and won’t be around by the end
of the event. The damage modeling is really good and realistically done, and
replays show the metal bending, glass smashing fun in full detail including a
Matrix – style camera pan for REALLY violent hits. The backgrounds, for the most
part, were done pretty well also … but some don’t seem to have gotten as much
attention. Arenas range from decent lighting, crowds, and shadowing to some
flat, bland kind of areas, and overall there is a feeling that all of them could
have taken advantage of the XBox’s power a little better.

So, ultimately Totaled! has
some really good points and reasons to look into getting it. Good car selection,
good car graphics and damage, lots of arenas, decent control, and multiple game
styles are a big plus in just about anyone’s book … well, 99% of gamers out
there anyway. There are some issues which of course tend to push it back towards
the red again to be found in here as well. The first one we’ve already discussed
… bland and sometimes boring backgrounds. The second, which can ultimately be
an "I like it or don’t like it" issue for many is the painfully slow load times.
Regardless of whether you are just starting a game, restarting a track,
switching arenas, or wanting to watch a replay … be prepared to sit through a
good 30 – 45 seconds of a screen showing the word "TOTALED!" and the dreaded
word that most gamers don’t like to see underneath it … "LOADING". Since some
events run short time periods, like 45 seconds, sitting through a load screen to
re-do the event which takes just as long can get tedious and eventually cause
disinterest.

Another potential killer to
this title is the car handling itself. Yes it has good and tight control, but
acceleration and speed can be a real chore with some vehicles. Performance
models accelerate and hit top speed faster, and aren’t too bad, but some others
(More in the Hot Rod category) can take 2 – 3 seconds to really get going at a
somewhat decent speed. This tends to raise an eyebrow from me since the car’s
tires will screech and smoke while waiting for the "GO" signal, but then slow to
a crawl when the event begins. Fortunately for the CPU vehicles, this slow
acceleration issue doesn’t seem to affect them at all, and you will see your
opponents go from a dead stop to zipping away at a decent pace while you putter
along, trying to build up momentum to get up and running. Each car has 9 nitros
to use which can get you back up to speed quickly, but those should be used to
get high point hits rather than just to get going again, which is what they tend
to get used for sometimes. Lastly, the sound leaves something to be desired,
since each car kind of gives a slowly accelerating growl of the car engine and
ramming vehicles all make that screeching metal, crunching glass sound regarless
of where the hit took place. The background music is a various assortment of
punk / alternative tracks which seem REALLY out of place for this kind of game,
but fortunately the Xbox hard drive can be used to implement your own vehicular
mayhem music.  

So overall, Totaled! may or
may not appeal to you, regardless of where you stand in the world of racing.
Personally, I enjoy racing, figure 8 races, and games which revolve around them.
I loved the Demolition Racer and Destruction Derby series on PSX and Dreamcast,
and this game may be worth your while if you did also. This game can definitely
prove to be a fun afternoon romp through flying glass and car parts for an
individual or group of friends, and can be a good time killer on a rainy
afternoon. Even if you are a racing or demolition fan, I would still run down to
your local video store and try this one out first … even before spending the
low, low price of $29.99. I personally enjoyed Totaled! on the Xbox, and would
recommend that you demolition derby and figure 8 fans out there at least give it
a shot before just passing it off due to some bad press.

Gameplay: 6.7
Totaled! has a
lot of strong points to be found. Good car selection, lots of tracks, lots of
game modes, and decent control make for an entertaining game. Unfortunately,
slow acceleration and speeds with some cars, as well as really slow load times,
can override the good points for a lot of people and eventually cause it to be
put up for a different, more fast paced racer. 

Graphics: 7.2
The cars and
damage to them look really good, despite the fact that it’s not up to the same
standards as Wreckless or Rallysport … and is definitely not pushing the
limits of the XBox. Most backgrounds look pretty decent, but some also tend to
look a little flat or sparsely populated.

Sound: 6.2
The cars in the
game all tend to make a similar growling, accelerating noise and top speed
sound. The screeching tires, shattering glass, and smashing metal sound good,
but also happen regardless of where the cars are hit. The soundtrack is composed
of actual punk / alternative bands, but dosen’t fit into the whole demolition
derby theme. After loading in my selection of Slipknot, (hed)PE, and Rob Zombie
… I found that it made the experience better.

Difficulty: Medium
Easy to pick up
and get into, but events which happen after the first few are cleared can get a
little challenging. The arcade mode has adjustable difficulty, but none during
the career mode.

Concept: 8.8
Yes it’s
demolition derby … and yes, it’s been done before. This one has enough varying
gameplay modes and arenas to set it apart as it’s own entry into the world of
four wheeled metal carnage.

Multiplayer: 7.5
Up to four
players can compete to see who’s the king of the chaos mountain. There is also
an option to separate into teams as more of a coop style. Multiplayer tends to
be more fun, but also contains the same issues found in the single player game.

Overall: 6.9
As much as I like
this game, again despite it’s shortcomings, I know that this isn’t going to be
for everyone. I would recommend that you racing and demolition fans out there
owe it to yourself to at least rent it and give it a try. If you are more of a
straight "racing only" person, you may not like what you find here … but you
never know. Even at $29.99, rent before buying.