Wrecked: Revenge Revisited Review

The spiritual successor to the cult racing game Drive to Survive (AKA Mashed) is finally out and while you may not have noticed its predecessor, you might want to give it some attention this time around. Entitled, Wrecked: Revenge Revisited, it has just been released on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for a cool 1200 Microsoft Points.

The game, at its core, is pretty straightforward. Its a fun top-down style arcade racer with a strong focus on four-player action on one screen. If you’ve ever played Ivan ‘Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off-Road, then you already have some idea what to expect.

This is mainly a race not to be last, as the car at the back of the pack will get eliminated until there is a solitary winner. It’s a big change from focusing on just being first. Instead, with players jockeying for position, it gets much more adversarial and competitive. You don’t need to try to win so long as you can make sure everyone else loses.

That goal is aided by the game’s many, many weapon load-out possibilities. While there are only six tracks to race on, the weapon load-outs make up for it, allowing for a great level of customization and variety race to race. That’s the real wildcard here. You might not be the best at taking corners, but with the right weapon set-up, you can make sure your enemies won’t be able to, even if they’re superior drivers.

You might be worried that if you’re eliminated first, the game will get boring as you watch your friends continue having fun. Don’t worry about that. You may be out of the race but eliminated players can control air strikes to leave a lasting impression on the remaining racers. Even there, you have a variety of weapon options.

Visually, this game is pretty simplistic and lacking in any distinct character. There isn’t much personality in the design that will stick in your memory. The graphics are merely serviceable and don’t stand out in any way. This makes the occasional frame-rate issues surprising since its hard to imagine what would be taxing the game engine so much on hardware capable of much more.

The game does have single player, and you can have multiplayer races with less than four people but you likely won’t want to bother. If you like cart-racers, blowing stuff up, or just beating your friends, it’s worth checking this game out. Wrecked: Revenge Revisited is simply fast and addictive four-player fun.

This review is based on the XBLA version of the game, which we received for review purposes.