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Many times I find myself driving down the road safely and legally, giving people their space while continuing traffic flow. Then out of nowhere, a reckless driver cuts in front of me, or maybe they forget to turn their brights off. At that moment I'm thinking to myself, "I oughta" but because of the fear of damaging my vehicle or even death, nothing ever happens. So what do I do with all that pent-up anger? Play Infogrames' Demolition Racer--No Exit. Through this crash-and-bash game I can be King of the Road. I can smash every car in sight without the fear of my insurance skyrocketing or going six feet under. Think of a demolition derby and Cruis'n USA merging to make one game and you get the premise of what Demolition Racer--No Exit hopes to be.

Presentation/Graphics : 70
After playing exclusively on the PlayStation for the past four or five months, upon first impression I was taken off guard by the graphics of No Exit. The sixteen cars and the fourteen tracks were smooth and detailed. The cars were works of art and the tracks were expansive and had details on the side of the road as well as in the sky, via the form of airplanes and clouds. But when compared to other Dreamcast games No Exit doesn't raise the bar at all. It hits the median and just does enough to keep up with other racing games of today.

The graphics are not revolutionary, but they don't become repetitive or dull as you continue to play the game. For example, if you race as the same car over and over again, you could get sick of looking at it, but in this game you can customize the logos and the colors of any car available. Many times I took my favorite car, the Griffin, and gave it an exotic color for one race and then in a blink of an eye give it an earth tone for the next race. I'm not a fashion designer by any standards, but it was nice to mix it up.

The cars when you are racing are fantastic. When your car has been hit enough times your hood will pop up, so too will the back of your car. As your car keeps taking a beating you can visibly see the dents and the smashes in your car. It's very nice to see your car, smoking, on the verge of going up in flames, sputter across the finish line. Also, when you hit other cars, you can see them go up in flames also. If you hit them hard enough and often enough you can see their tires begin to wobble. On the back of the game case it states that it has, "incredible cumulative Real-Time Damage effects." Demolition Racer follows through on that. The animations are very nice. There is no choppiness at all. If a car gets hit, something will happen immediately, not seconds after.

The tracks are equally as detailed as the cars. Depending on which track you choose to race on, you will be treated to a tree-filled forest, an urban area decorated with a beautiful skyline, or a demolition derby-style bowl.

Presentation/Audio : 70
This part of the game isn't that great either. Like the graphics, the sounds are very average yet don't become repetitive. The soundtrack is respectable, but I didn't think it enhanced the gameplay. Some may disagree, but I think a game with a great soundtrack takes the game to another level. Maybe I was spoiled from all the Tony Hawk I had been playing (which has a great soundtrack), but Demolition Racer didn't do it for me.

The sounds of the cars hitting each other and the explosions are enjoyable. When you T-Bone (hit a car in the side and cause an explosion) another car and collect the ensuing 200 points, the explosion can really pump you up. What I don't like about the car sounds are the sounds of the engine. I thought Gran Turismo did a nice job of getting that authentic "engine" sound (if there is such a thing), but No Exit almost made me think I was playing Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo! You're sitting at the blocks revving your engine up to 7 RPM's and all you get is a little high-pitched clatter? Give me a break! If you're in a gargantuan vehicle, you should make a gargantuan noise.

Interface/Options : 90
The interface and options represent Demolition Racer's strongest attribute. First off, the interface is very simple and can be picked up right away. Without a mouse to guide you around, that is exactly what you want when dealing with a console game, quick and easy. The only problem I faced is not the interface itself, but the transition between interfaces, specifically the load times. I know non-cartridge games must have a load time, but when the load time exceeds twenty seconds, there is a problem. I played March Madness 2000 on the PlayStation and that was the worst load time I had ever experienced. Well DR gives March Madness a run for its money. The load time is especially upsetting when you have to finish a specific place in a race and you don't get it. You have to restart the race and since you've had the track loaded, you should be able to restart almost instantly. But in No Exit, you'll have to take the twenty seconds to get to the restart screen then another twenty seconds to load the track. The complaint is very miniscule, but when you play the game for an extended amount of time, those forty to sixty seconds add up and become a nuisance.

I love the gameplay options in this game. Not only do they come at you in numbers, they come at you in quality also. There are four basic modes of race in Demolition Racer: Single Race, Demolition League, Two Player, and Extras. Single Race is exactly how it sounds. You go up against 13 other CPU controlled cars in six different types of racing. You have to advance in the Demolition Leagues to unlock the additional modes of play. The default mode of race is demolition. Your goal is to complete the race with a working vehicle while collecting points by crashing into other vehicles. You could cross the finish line first, but not actually finish first. When you crash into other vehicles you get hit points. To finish first you want to have a high number of hit points AND be one of the first to cross the finish line. The two go hand in hand. The higher you finish the higher multiplier you get towards your hit points. If you cross the finish line first, you get a multiplier of 25 to your total number of hit points. Second place gets a multiplier of 22. For example, if you come in first place with 100 hit points, your score would be 2500 with the multiplier of 25 multiplied in. Let's say the second place finisher had 250 hit points and with the multiplier of 22 earned 5500. So the vehicle that crossed the finish line second actually would have a higher point total than the vehicle that crossed the line first. It sounds like rocket science, but when the game does all the math for you it's not that hard. The second type of race is chase. For this race you want to avoid being hit at all costs and be the one to cross the finish line first. This time you don't care if you get hit points or not, you just want to simply be the first person to cross the line first.

The third type of race is chicken. You can race the course going with the vehicles, or you can race the track in reverse. You're not stuck driving in reverse, but rather driving the opposite way than normal. The fourth type of race is Last Man Standing. This is one of the types of race where you compete in the Demoltion-Derby style bowl. You want to smash your opponents while trying to stay alive. The game is as it sounds: you want to stay alive the longest. The fifth type of suicide, another bowl competition, is where you try to inflict the most damage on yourself. You want to have your car be the first one to blow up. The final mode of race (finally!) is No Exit. Again, you compete in the bowl and it's similar to the Demolition mode. You want to inflict a lot of damage, but also stay alive the longest. The multipliers are also used in the No Exit mode.

As mentioned above, the way you get those game modes is through the Demolition League. There is a country, arena, city, industrial, and endurance league. In each league you must place in a certain position in each race to get the league championship. After winning a league, you unlock more tracks/stadiums, cars, and extras. Extras are little side games that you can play and are either one or two player. My favorite extra is DR Football. Infogrames is from San Jose, California, but their football is European football or as us Americans call, soccer. Basically, you have two human opponents get two cars and try to knock a crate into a goal. I never found out if there was a limit to the amount of goals you could score, but I found that if you T-Bone your human opponent, they are dead and can't move. I was able to score uncontested goal after goal against the defenseless human opponent.

Gameplay : 87
I found the gameplay to be very responsive and accurate. In my opinion, I believe a game must have great gameplay to be considered a great game. It doesn't matter how pretty a game may look if the game doesn't have great gameplay. When you want to scurry around that tight corner, you can, without delay or glitch. Turning and changing directions are also extremely responsive. Particularly in a racing game, you want tight control over your vehicle.

This game really feels like Cruis'n USA. You have the same camera angle as Cruis'n and the entire atmosphere just feels comparable. That is where the comparisons end. DR has great car physics. What I mean by car physics is when you hit or get hit by a car. You can hit a car and you will bounce off one way and the other car will go the other. When you hit another car, it feels and looks like the cars would actually go in that direction if it happened in real life. If you hit a car on an elevated surface, your car will turn spins like a ballerina. If you try to take a curve while traveling at too high of a speed, the car will tip over and in some cases, turn upside down. The game at times looks like one of those "World's Craziest Car Chases" television shows. After each race there are various awards given out and one of those is most aerobatic. Some races you really earn that award. Other awards given out at the ends of races are: most suicidal, most kills, fastest hit, most boring, and most vicious.

During the race you want to stay in the lower end of the middle of the pack for the first two laps. You always want to be surrounded by other cars so you can pick up hit points. You don't want to venture too far from the lead so you have a chance of gaining first place. If you jet out to a lead too quickly, don't be afraid to slow down and let other cars pass. With the damage you inflict on other vehicles, which also gives your car some damage, and damage inflicted on you, you need to watch your damage indicator. If the bar is green your car is in good shape, but if your bar is red and almost gone, you need to avoid contact at all costs. If you don't finish, you don't get points. You can counteract your damages by collecting little Green Boxes on the side of the road. They repair a portion of the damage your vehicle has taken. There are other small boxes on the side of the road, which can either help or hurt you. Blue boxes will give your car a temporary shield, red boxes will let you gain back health by hitting other cars, and orange boxes will give you a turbo boost. What you do not want to hit are the gray boxes. They are TNT boxes and will inflict a serious amount of damage to your car. White boxes are an enigma. They can either add points to your score or take them away. Boxes with a + sign will increase your points and boxes with a - sign will decrease them. I only have a 21 inch television and I couldn't make out the +'s or the -'s on the boxes. I played it safe and avoided them. There are also Pitbull Medallions scattered across the tracks. If you collect three of these, at the end of a race you will be able to enhance your car in one of four categories: Engine, Handling, Armor, or Points.

My method on how to smash opposing vehicles was similar to how I would try to tackle an opposing running back in a football game. The cars aren't standing still so it is absolutely imperative you take the necessary angle. If you take too short of an angle, the car will pass you by. If you take too long of an angle, you'll hit the wall before the car ever gets there.

Furthermore, try and follow the crowd of cars throughout the race. If you see a few cars peeling out in front of you, attempt to line up with those cars so you can run into them. If you can hit a car at full speed while they are at a complete stop you will get huge hit points.

Replay Value : 82
It took me about 15 hours to get through all the leagues and obtain the hidden tracks, cars, and extras. With everything unlocked I think I could spend another 15 just enjoying it all. I didn't get sick of ramming into other cars and racking up kills. Even if you get sick of bashing you can always play chicken or chase and race for time. If you can stand the laborious load times you'll get many hours of fun.

Overall : 85
This game is pure fun. Fast cars and fast hitting. Does life get any better? Unlike other racing games that offer the same type of race mode over and over again, Demolition Racer offers a collection of modes that will keep you interested and busy. I had plenty of fun playing this game by myself in the single player games, but also enjoyed bashing and crashing with my buddies. I suggest this game to the casual, arcade-loving, racing fan. If you want to let off some steam, you too can be King of the Road and knock cars off into oblivion.