Destruction AllStars review: Amazing PS5 car combat, in spite of speedbumps

byMd Shuvo •February 03, 2021

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Cars blow up real good in Destruction AllStars, now out on PlayStation 5. [credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment ]

One of the oldest video game subgenres, right beneath "shooting aliens" and "eating yellow pellets," is "destroying stuff while driving a car." Yet, while Mad Max's '80s heyday pushed the needle as the games industry first exploded, we've rarely seen the genre explode on a mainstream level.

Mario Kart may seem like an exception, but when I say "car combat," that's less about green shells and banana peels and more about direct collisions and destruction derbies. The biggest series under that banner, Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8, are minuscule compared to Mario Kart—and don't have many peers.

The genre gets a major jumpstart this week with Destruction AllStars, Sony's first entirely new game for PlayStation 5. (Last year's Demon's Souls doesn't quite count, since it's a remake of a PS3 title.) For a certain class of driving-game savant, this one's a biggie, as it sees Lucid Games finally return to automotive gaming after blazing the genre's trail with Project Gotham Racing. But can they succeed with car combat where so many others have stalled out?