What do you get if you mix Motorstorm and Micro Machines with radio controlled cars?  The answer, according to PSN, seems to be Smash Cars.

Smash Cars was originally a PS2 game which got fairly good reviews, but it’s not just appeared with a lick of HD paint, the game is actually much bigger and better than it’s PS2 brother.

Controlwise, the cars are pretty straightforward.  Trigger button R2 accelerates and the opposite button brakes or goes backward.  Hold down the square button on a jump and you’ll be able to pull off some cool tricks.  The tricks work a bit like a mix of SSX Tricky and the Wii Excitetruck game.  Just like the Wii game, the tricks can earn you all important points via a star rating system.  It adds a bit more strategy to proceedings as you’ll have to balance tricking out with getting ahead of the pack.  The stars unlock both boost and items in the shop to upgrade your buggy.

Graphically, Smash Cars shines.  There are some really great interactive objects which range from breaking fruit to cars and even people who will jump out of the way (I even managed to drive over someone’s foot!).  Glare from the sun is a little too obvious, as seems to be the case in a lot of racing games now, but then this is based on a sunny island around a beach, so I guess it can be excused.

The game modes offer nothing new though, you’ll get a standard race, time trials and a knockout style mode where one car is eliminated each lap.  With only a few races per section and 4 sections it won’t be too long before you’ve unlocked and played through it all in single player.

Multiplayer is sadly just a straight forward race.  While it’s still fun to race your friends online, it would have been nice to have the option to race locally against someone in the same room or have different race styles like in single player.  But it’s still better than having no multiplayer at all.

For £11,99 Smash Cars just about makes the cut of value for money.  The lack of tracks and modes does seem a bit stingy, even for the money and there is already talk of the developer creating DLC for the game, presumably to be paid for later on. 

If racing RC cars around a beach, dodging dogs, weeds, cars and people, seems like fun to you it may well be worth downloading this game, but be prepared to finish it pretty quickly.

7/10