Cel Damage

10 psycho toon tear it up in a wild and wacky drive ’em up adventure.

• NA release: 7th January 2002
• EU release: 3rd May 2002
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Pseudo Interactive
• Publisher: EA
• NGC Magazine Score: 60%
• Mods Used: Widescreen Code

Cel Damage is a vehicular combat game with a cel-shaded view. It’s presented as a TV show where these cartoon contestants compete to smash each other to pieces. Screenshots of this game don’t do it justice as everything moves in a stunning way, from well animated characters to the vehicles themselves bending as they turn to capture the brilliant cartoon style. With mayhem flying, it’s quite wonderful.

The main mode is all about causing as much damage to your enemies. Dying doesn’t have much consequence other than wasting a bit of time, and respawns are very quick. Because of this, the weapons are immensely satisfying to use – especially one hit weapons like the axe, which causes car parts to bounce around. Because getting back into the action quick, these weapons aren’t even annoying to be on the receiving end of either. It’s pure chaos, in a good way.

Another fun mode is the relay race, where you go between two checkpoints multiple times, while still battling it out. Some levels have multiple potential routes, and there are traps dotted around that are very handy for this mode. The third mode has everyone figuring for flags, but that one isn’t very good. To unlock more stuff you have to win matches playing against the computer with more rules, but really the game is just more enjoyable if you unlock everything and just have fun – it is mainly designed for multiplayer, after all.

Hidden in the game are also a few different rendering types – I think the “plastic” mode also works really well, and having everyone’s weapons accessible in the game instead of their own special weapon really adds to the chaos and gives you a tun of fun weapons to use. It’s silly, but also a complete blast.

Fun

While Jet Set Radio was a triumph of design, there have been countless pale imitations. Cel Damage is the latest release to adopt the same graphical style, and despite not being outright offensive, it lacks personality and long-term appeal.

Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #66

Remake or remaster?

The game was altered for the PS2 with the name Cel Damage Overdrive. They tried to “balance” things by nerfing the one-hit-kill weapons and adding a health bar. Cel Damage HD is based on that version. I tried that version a few years ago and didn’t think much of it, but enjoyed the original.

Official Ways to get the game

The HD version of Cel Damage Overdrive is available on Steam, Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.

Europe

Japan

North America

GameCube Games by Date

2001: Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2007: Mar, Jun, Aug

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