No matter how you keep score, though, you have to crash more cars than everyone else. There's also a King of the Hill-style 'last car standing' game and a second team-based game called Stockpile, where you have to get out of your car to stash points at three bank locations. In Carnado, an eight-on-eight team-based game, hitting them earns you gears, which only turn to points when you drive your car into a swirling purple vortex that tears it to shreds. In Mayhem, the 16-player free-for-all and de facto standard, you earn points depending on how much damage you can do to another player's car and/or character. There are four multiplayer modes, but they all boil down to doing one thing. Even the little flourishes, like how a character jumps into an empty white car which instantaneously takes on their color scheme, look cool every time.

The characters, from Fuego the masked-metal head to Ratu, a teal-haired boxer in an orange jumpsuit, are all drawn in a familiar Overwatch-esque style but have very specific looks that pop and draw you to them all the same. Destruction AllStars' large arenas are incredibly well-detailed and drenched in bright, colorful lights are a visual feast. Whether you crash or get crashed into, at least you're going to look good doing it. You can eject from a vehicle at any time to trade for a new model or because the car's health is low and you don't want to wipe out. Unlike in most car games, though, you are not tied to your car forever. At the start of each match, 16 players start out on foot and race to grab one of a handful of empty cars, which come in many recognizable shapes like slick sports cars, burly SUVs, and tough trucks. You have one job to do in Destruction AllStars: Get into a car and crash it into other players. Every multiplayer game has highs and lows, but Destruction AllStars' best bits are few and fleeting. Despite its striking visuals and solid driving fundamentals, Destruction AllStars' demolition derby-style car smashing is inconsistent and unpredictable.

When your own car inevitably gets busted up beyond recognition, you can hop out of your car and climb into another: A novel idea, but one that keeps you out of the action. Speeding around beautifully detailed and cartoonishly articulated demolition derby courses, looking for your chance to rev your engine and hit another player so hard their ride explodes. With its bright energy, colorful characters, and wacky-powered cars, Destruction AllStars takes many of the aesthetic and mechanical trends from the last five years of multiplayer-focused live games and applies them to the long-dormant car combat genre.

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