Developed by Slick Entertainment
Released for XBLA (3/2010)
Also on iOS
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One
Scrap Metal is a car-combat/racing game released as a digital-download for Xbox Live Arcade in 2010. The action is viewed from overhead at a sort of 3/4 angle. The game takes inspiration from several of the old-school racing classics. The camera view, car combat theme and racing is a bit of a throwback to old classics like RC Pro-Am, Carmageddon, Death Rally and Rock 'N Roll Racing. So this relatively obscure XBLA title takes inspiration from some great games.
The bulk of Scrap Metal consists of the single-player campaign. There are several types of events you'll encounter throughout the game, so don't expect this to be a straight racing title. In addition to standard and elimination races, there are derby events, boss battles, survival levels and even the occasional unique event like a time trial or monster truck challenge. There's a decent amount of variety though some events are definitely more enjoyable than others. Scrap Metal is at its best during the race and derby events. In the derby events your goal is to simply blow up as many opponents as possible. The game features eight tracks and each track contains several events you'll need to complete, with a boss battle towards the end. The boss battles are basically like your standard opponents but with more HP and bodyguards, with the exception of the final boss battle which is against a tank. The first couple of tracks are simple in design but as you progress the tracks continue to get more intricate and difficult to navigate.
In Scrap Metal you only get four garage slots and at any given point in the game you can select between these four vehicles. The events do have class restrictions so you can't go back and beast the earlier events with the better cars you'll unlock later. While you can access the junkyard at any point, replacing a vehicle in your garage will wipe out any upgrades you've purchased for that particular vehicle. While the vehicle will still be available to use in the junkyard, you'll have to re-purchase any previous upgrades. This seems like an unnecessary restriction and worked against me trying out all of the different vehicles, instead opting to use a handful of fully upgraded vehicles to tackle the events.
Though you can only upgrade four vehicles at once, there's a decent selection of vehicles you can unlock as you progress and they all have drastically different stats. There are bulky, tough and slow vehicles like semi-trucks, monster trucks and even a tank. There are also quick vehicles with weak armor like the station wagon, hotrod or race car. Each vehicle is equipped with a different weapon type and there's a decent amount of variety between them. Some vehicles have ranged weapons like machine guns or rocket launchers, while others are equipped for close combat with spiked rams or flamethrowers. The ranged weapons are obviously more effective most of the time, as using the close-quarter weaponry will often result in taking large amounts of damage.
Scrap Metal features two different control schemes. There's the novice layout which maps acceleration/braking/steering to the right analog stick and the advanced controller layout has the gas/braking mapped to the triggers while you steer with the analog stick. I wound up using the advanced scheme for the majority of my playthrough as I just felt like it granted a bit more precision, especially when cornering. Here we get to Scrap Metal's biggest problem: cornering is a bit of a pain. I managed to get three stars on all events in the game and even by the end I rarely felt confident in my ability to round corners. With most vehicles, turning feels a bit too sensitive forcing you to constantly readjust to stay on the track.
In addition to the single player action, Scrap Metal also supports online, local or system link multiplayer. Local multiplayer allows up to four players to compete in split-screen action. There's three different multiplayer events offered: king of the hill, race and derby. The multiplayer can be quite fun if you have three willing friends to play it with. With the age of the game and the fact that it's not a particularly popular title, you have a very small chance of finding an opponent for an online match when searching randomly. At the time of this writing (early 2019) the servers are still functioning, so it is possible to play online if you coordinate a session with others who have the game. If you're trying to play local with split-screen, you'll have to have four controllers and you'll need a large screen due to how small the view is.
Scrap Metal features a decent amount of content for an XBLA title released in 2010 and the concept is definitely cool. While the over-sensitive steering controls hold the game back from greatness, there's still some fun to be had and there aren't a ton of these derby-style car games out there nowadays. Scrap Metal is backwards-compatible on the Xbox One, so if I'd say give this one a shot if you're into car combat driving games and have either a 360 or One. I purchased it while on sale for a few bucks and don't regret my purchase. Scrap Metal was the second and final XBLA release from Slick Entertainment, with the first being N+ in 2008. In 2017 the team at Slick Entertainment was absorbed into independent developer Klei Entertainment (Shank, Mark of the Ninja).
Final Verdict: Scrap Metal is a decent car combat/racing game and while there is some fun to be had here, the cornering issues hold it back from being as good as it could have been. Still worth a look if you enjoy car combat style games.
Related Links:
Buy Scrap Metal - Microsoft Store
Buy Scrap Metal - Xbox Marketplace
Scrap Metal - GameFAQs
Scrap Metal Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Scrap Metal - True Achievements
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