There is a saying, "Free is for me". There is also a saying, "You get
what you pay for". So with that in mind "Dash of Destruction" was
certainly going to be a game I downloaded, after all you don't pass up
free games even if you are swimming in money Scrooge McDuck style but
it was also a game I didn't expect a lot out of, after all I downloaded
the Yaris title and well we all know how that pile of poo turned out.
For those that might have been living under a rock for the last two
months, "Dash of Destruction" is the free game that came from the
winning design of the 2007 "Doritos: Unlock Your XBOX" promotion. The
game. Obviously, by the title of the contest, the game is Doritos
branded. Uh-oh, another sign that this game is going to be utter
garbage, right? After all when was the last good corporate branded game?
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that my expectations
for "Dash of Destruction" were insanely low. I'm happy to report that
the game not only exceeded those expectations but exceeded them by a
large margin. That's not to say that "Dash of Destruction" is a great
game, let's not be crazy, but it is a fun, if somewhat quick, journey
back to when you played games in an arcade, you know the days when you
could still pay a quarter to get a credit on a machine.
Anyone who was around during the 1980s and early 1990s, can appreciate
"Dash of Destruction" for what it is, that being an arcade game with a
simple premise that is fun to play. For everyone else there is 200 free
Gamerscore points to be had, 190 of which will probably take you about
30 minutes to get.
By now you are probably asking what the
hell the game is about, so let's get to it. "Dash of Destruction" is a
mix of a top down arcade racer and the classic title "Rampage". There
are two modes of play, both of which are relatively similar. In the
T-Rex mode, players are tasked with traversing a city map (of which
there are six total) and eating a set number of Doritos delivery
trucks. Reversing the roles in Truck mode, players are tasked with
traversing a city map (the same set from the T-Rex mode) and making a
set number of deliveries while avoiding the Doritos starved T-Rex. Each
mode gets progressively harder by adding more obstacles, like an
additional T-Rex or driver to compete with.
The game isn't
particularly hard. Both modes can be completed quite easily in about 30
minutes total. For achievement junkies, this will net you 190 points,
with the additional 10 points coming from the multiplayer mode, which
unfortunately I was unable to try out, do to the lack of someone to
play with. Completionists can probably get those final 10 points by
bribing a friend with a small bag of Doritos.
"Dash of
Destruction" is not going to win any best of awards, unless of course
there are awards for best free game or easiest game to snag
achievements in but the game has it where it counts. It's fun and
sometimes, in this day of deeper and more mature gaming, that is all
that a game needs to be.
