Scrap Metal

The Good
Scrap Metal is a fun car combat game. You will start the Single Player campaign with a rather dickey car. There are several stages from which only the first one is available at the beginning. Each stage holds different missions and your goal will be to finish each mission at least with a bronze medal. Some levels within a stage, however, are boss fights or motorcade missions where you will have to protect a target. Here there will be only death or victory.

As you manage to get a medal by completing a mission you will be given upgrade points depending on a race’s result, varying from 10 to 30 points. You will have to spend these points to upgrade your ride to stay competitive as the difficulty increases slightly. The overall speed, grip, armor and weapon of a car can be upgraded. In addition you can spend points on buying Nitro charges for your car. But these can be found on the track throughout a race as well.

Missions vary from usual races (with or without weapons) to demolition derbies where you will have to try to shoot as many cars as possible during a given time period. The mixture of mission design is nothing really new but it helps to refresh the experience as you progress through the game.

At least once in a stage, you will be challenged by an opponent. Win these kinds of races to add their car to your car pool. However, only four cars may be in your car pool at a time. You can switch cars that you have earned afterwards; all upgrade points will be lost however.

Each car comes with a fixed weapon. You are not able to change the weapon; your only way is to upgrade the existing one. Some cars come with ranged weapons like machine guns, shotguns and grenade launchers while other have melee weapons (chainsaw, hydraulic bumpers) attached to their chassis.

If you have completed enough missions in a stage, another stage will unlock. That is basically how to progress though the game. Net the missions and cars, upgrade them and move on. Some missions will require a certain car to be played. At times, you will have to come back later as you simply don’t have that kind of car yet. If you are up to complete the game at 100%, which includes a Gold medal for every mission of course, you will have to try several missions over and over again. I found it rewarding however. Not only because of the MS Gamerscore that awaits the 100% folks, but also because the game is very challenging when you are that ambitious. You might have to change your strategy or your choice of cars to get the Gold medal for a certain mission.

Scrap Metal has some solid looks for an Xbox Live Arcade game. There is a nice level of detail to be found around the cars. The nice track design, weapons effects and explosions underline the arcade action feel of the game and it keeps going smoothly no matter how many cars you are wrecking at the same time.

Lots of reviews out there complain about the controls of the game. It offers two ways of controlling a car, which is to point the analog stick in the direction you want the car to go to or a direct control as you will find it in every racing game out there. Obviously some are finding both options to be not precise enough. I have found a middle way for myself, and I can tell you that it works just great, given that this is an arcade car combat game. I chose the direct control for racing events so I can corner more precisely. The other option is way better when it comes to combat however. Especially when you are not driving a monster truck, you will get pushed be other cars, causing your car to spin or flip. The easiest way to get my car back on track after that is to simply push the analog controller in the directing I want to go to – it is as simple and effective as that.

The Bad
It is essential to upgrade your car in this game. And I think this is where Scrap Metal gives away most of its potential. Despite upgrading my car in the four given categories I would have rather been given the choice to choose from a list of parts to be packed into my car. While this might not be so important on the speed and grid stats it would have been great to choose a weapon mounted on top of my car. The limitation of only four cars within my motor pool is a pain if you are trying to complete earlier stages later in the game. This problem could have been avoided...

Another annoying thing is the price of 1200 Microsoft Points one has to spend to play the game. I think the game is worth it but I also think that it will keep a serious amount of gamers from buying the game.

The Bottom Line
This game is certainly one of my new favorites on Xbox Live Arcade. Simply because I loved to play games like Death Rally, Micro Machines or Twisted Metal. If you feel the same way, Scrap Metal will be your game. The combat part of the game is essential, so you better look someplace else if you are just looking for another arcade racer.