Destruction Derby 64

• Title — Destruction Derby 64 • Developer — Looking Glass Studios • Publisher — THQ • Director — * Jeffery Hutt • David Socha • Phil Honeywell • Steven Riding • Producer — * Richard Biltcliffe • Kim Rogers • Tami Gabay • Jon Osborn • Edward J. Ramiro • Writer — Stephen Wong • Programmer — * Matt Grimshaw • Mike Nikkel • Magnus Danielsson • Miguel Gómez • David Gierok • Steve Aarnio • Steve Smith • Steve Smith • Jamie Millar • Artist — * Shelley Armstrong • Ole-Petter Rosenlund • Steve Lange • Lorian Kiesel Taylor • Les Betterly • Mike Prittie • Jeff Sturgeon • Nathan Herzog • Designer — * Jeffery Hutt • Jeffrey Betterley • Daniel Matanski • Mark Coates • Composer — Eric Brosius • Series — Destruction Derby • Platform — Nintendo 64 • Genre — Vehicular combat, racing • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

Destruction Derby 64, the game's Nintendo 64 version, features updated graphics and an increased number of cars and tracks; and it adds new modes such as capture the flag. The game contains twenty-four cars and more than twelve courses. It supports split-screen multiplayer for up to four players. There is a set of eight tracks and four bowls, all in various different environments. They are reasonably detailed, although the texture detail suffers due to the Nintendo 64's smaller texture memory. The game is set further apart with its very distinct racing system. Race events in Destruction Derby 64 have a particular focus on head-on collisions. Uniquely in this game, in a race, drivers are split into two or three groups, each starting at a different part of the track. The one or two group(s) opposing the player's race reversed, meaning they will drive towards the player's group which allows for head-on collisions to be executed. There are 12 drivers in any single player event (thus 11 opponents). There is no lapping system in race events, with races only finished when the all opponents have been wrecked or the player themselves have. An arcade-style checkpoint and timer has been introduced. There is much emphasis on gripping opponents, which is encouraged to the player by the commentator. It is the combination of these points that determine the winner in race events. One change is that the World Championship, which is the main career mode, does not use a 'division' system like the previous games. Instead it relies on four different difficulty levels: Novice, Amateur, Professional and Legend - each of which has a higher number of events to complete. The player initially starts out at the Novice level circuit, which then has to be completed before the Amateur circuit is unlocked. In addition, Destruction Derby 64 does not have a set of different competitor characters.

Destruction Derby 64 started development around April 1998 as reported by British magazine Computer and Video Games, claiming that Psygnosis (a division of Sony Computer Entertainment) was working on a Destruction Derby title for Nintendo 64 along with O.D.T. and Formula 1 98, and coming a week after the announcement of Wipeout 64. Although by the end of the year these games were released (N64 versions of O.D.T. and Formula 1 98 were cancelled), Destruction Derby 64 was still far from ready. It took time until Psygnosis managed to grant THQ the Nintendo exclusive to publish it under license. Looking Glass Studios took development duties, a developer that achieved popularity at the time for its critically acclaimed PC game Thief: The Dark Project. DD64 was developed at the Intermetrics (which owned Looking Glass Studio) studio in Redmond, Washington State, USA. The game finally arrived after some 18 months time in late 1999. At the time, Looking Glass head Paul Neurath said in a press release, "We are delighted to have teamed up with THQ for the launch of Destruction Derby 64". Aaron Boulding of IGN commented that the game "had a tough time just making it to the N64" during its 18 months in production, and noted that "development duties [...] passed from Psygnosis to Looking Glass Studios and publishing [was] picked up by THQ."