Game Review: Carmageddon (Mobile – Free to Play)

Playing Carmageddon 20 years after its initial controversial release on PC in 1997 it’s hard to see just how it ever caused the furore it did. A game that caused much panic amongst parental groups, it was held up as a 90’s video game nasty being banned or censored in many countries.

Well, the times…they have changed.

Carmageddon is back, ported onto mobile devices in all its vehicular gory glory & it is free to play!

What was once shocking & controversial is now incredibly tame but not lacking in the fun department. There are three ways to complete a race:

1. Destroy all opponents.
2. Lap the checkpoints.
3. Kill all pedestrians.

Running over innocent bystanders or destroying other racers will give you more time. Something that is needed if you’re to finish most races. The track does not follow a linear path so it can get quite wild out there especially as the AI constantly tries to ram you off the road.

Profit earned is used to repair your vehicle & buy upgrades making you an unstoppable beast!

Of the three options, killing all the pedestrians is the hardest with a large number of them dotted around the race track. It’s far easier to concentrate on racing, destroying opponents while running over the occasional bystander for extra time.

The controls are touch screen based taking up the lower half of the screen. They work really well but the directional buttons are a little small. This means sometimes your thumb will just miss them when needing to do some quick turns. The upper part of the screen has your stats & car damage leaving the centre area free to concentrate on the race. It’s not too busy & the basic but sharp looking graphics makes racing a joy.

You can change the controls to other methods that include tilt mode but it is very difficult to play in this style.

There are two choices of racers to begin with, Max Damage & Die Anna with 30 different-looking & fun cars to unlock. Being a free mobile game the automatic presumption is that these unlockable cars would be hidden behind some form of in-app purchase but they’re not. All cars can be unlocked in-game! (Even if there is an option to spend 99p to unlock all but the secret ones).

Career mode has 36 levels, a huge number & testament to the amount of content in Carmageddon for being free. Finally, the game comes with a record facility where you’re able to playback & ‘movie’ up your action replay. It’s a nice additional touch in a port that has plenty of care & time put into it.