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As a fan of vehicular combat, I’m always on the lookout for games in the genre I haven’t played. I discovered Cel Damage years ago and shortly after I nabbed a copy, I discovered it was re-released as Cel Damage HD. It appealed to me for two reasons. One; I like vehicular combat games and two; I like cartoons and Cel Damage showcases a cartoony presentation thanks to its cel shading art style. Developed by Pseudo Interactive and published by Electronic Arts, Cel Damage was released for Xbox in November, 2001 and GameCube in January, 2002, and Europe received an exclusive PlayStation 2 version titled Cel Damage Overdrive in December, 2002. A remaster titled Cel Damage HD was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Vita in 2014, and ports for Xbox One and Switch were released in 2016 and 2019 respectively. For this review, I played Cel Damage HD for Xbox One on a Series X.
What constitutes any form of plot is that Cel Damage is a popular series on Toon T.V. where toons battle it out for fame and glory. The narrative isn’t deep but each toon is distinct and has their own unique vehicle and finale cut scene. The game can be played solo or with others and comes with multiple game modes. And in each one, you can find and use a variety of weapons to damage and destroy opponents. It’s all cartoony and wacky, of course, from the characters to the dialogue to the weapons, any fans of cartoons should enjoy the presentation and style.
I have yet to play the original game but from what I understand, the HD release contains all of the content and only some minor differences. There are three game modes; Gate Relay, Flag Rally, and Smack Attack. Gate Relay is basically the combat racing mode, Flag Rally has the toons capturing flags for points, and Smack Attack has them attacking each other for points. Now maybe it’s just me but on the Normal difficulty, I would say Smack Attack proves to be the most challenging mode, with Flag Rally right behind it, and Gate Relay being the easiest. That was just my experience but, overall, I found every mode to be enjoyable.
Unfortunately, the cel shading is all the game really has going for it. Outside of the cartoon concept, there’s nothing here that we haven’t seen before in the genre and if you strip away the cartoony presentation, it’s a pretty standard vehicular combat game. You can accelerate, brake, powerslide, and dodge in different directions. The vehicles control well enough and I like the cartoony physics but sometimes I felt they were a little too floaty for my liking. Each toon comes with their own weapon but a variety of others will spawn in the arenas ranging from melee weapons like bats and axes to projectile weapons like guns and lasers. You can lob grenades, lay down bombs, swing around a chainsaw, and even turn your vehicle into a gunship. Overall, the weapons are cool but some are definitely better than others and in the modes other than Gate Relay, I sometimes found that I was spending more time driving around simply trying to find and collect the best weapons for the job. Once unlocked, weapons can be toggled on or off before jumping into a match.
The multiple game modes and multiplayer definitely give Cel Damage replay value as does the unlockable stuff. There are numerous stages or arenas with their own environmental weapons and hazards. All three game modes feature the same arenas but they need to be unlocked for each and as far as I can tell, they don’t feature too many differences between the modes. They’re not too big but that ensures there’s always opponents to attack nearby and the action can be fast-paced and become hectic. The opponent AI is actually pretty decent in my opinion, especially in Flag Rally and Smack Attack. Opponents can be aggressive and will not only come after you but also each other.
Cel Damage showcases a very colorful and cartoony presentation complete with cartoon physics. For example, when a vehicle turns it also flexes into the turning direction. Furthermore, vehicles can be flattened, frozen, and impaled with the proper animations and cartoony effects to match. In my opinion, the developer really nailed the cartoon aesthetic. The action is accompanied by silly dialogue shouted by the characters and backed by a soundtrack consisting of a variety of funky and rocking tunes. On the technical side, the game ran smooth for me and I encountered no major issues. I want to state again that I played this on a Series X.
I had fun with Cel Damage but I feel like it could have been better. It’s definitely charming and has character but sometimes I felt like it’s a one-trick pony. Without the cartoon aesthetic, it’s pretty standard vehicular combat fare. It comes with a nice variety of weapons, neat physics, and looks cool, but I feel there should be more to it. More depth, features, and maybe a more fleshed out single player. It’s not like Twisted Metal with a small storyline for each character. Sure, every toon has a finale cut scene but the character’s aren’t really fleshed out all that well. Also, I would have appreciated more match customization options. You can configure some parameters and toggle on and off certain weapons but you can’t select the opponents or change the conditions like a time limit instead of a point limit, for example. But in the end, I enjoyed my time with the game and feel it’s a solid entry in the genre.
I do recommend Cel Damage if you enjoy the vehicular combat genre and cartoons. Granted, it’s not the greatest game of its kind but the cartoon aesthetic does give it a charm and makes it feel unique. But, unfortunately, that’s the only real highlight here. Nevertheless, the gameplay is fun and may be even better if you have others to play with. While I feel there are better vehicular combat games out there, Cel Damage is definitely worth checking out.