656th played so far
Genre: Racing
Platform: Playstation 2/Xbox/PC
Year of Release: 2004
Developer: Supersonic Software
Publisher: Empire Interactive
Mashed is another racing game. Third person, at what looks like an over the shoulder perspective – something that seem rarer, most games that I can think of in the genre are either from inside the car or in an almost “over the shoulder” near to the car perspective. Having the distance from your car should make for an interesting change, especially as the title implies and promises a lot more crashes than other games.
Our Thoughts
The basic concept of this game is pretty good, a racing game that isn’t really about finishing laps the fastest, but instead focuses on gaining the lead on your opponents, pulling ahead repeatedly, if necessary by throwing them off bridges and out of your way. The challenge certainly feels different and removes any excuse for rubberbanding.
Still, though, the game doesn’t feel entirely fair, and a lot of that comes from the camera. Zooming in and out, there are several times where I lost overview – I couldn’t see where I was, at times actually lost sight of my car. It meant I fell off ledges several times because of what felt like the camera being against me.
So you win by getting far enough ahead of your opponent, but it doesn’t seem to have been just distance – or if it is the distance differed, as I had wins and losses at different distances. The game doesn’t seem to communicate anything about this or another part of the rules surrounding winning, which just made the game feel unfair.
The driving itself wasn’t as great either. Maybe plaing the PC version is to blame, as it can mess with the controls, but I couldn’t get there with the game, unfortunately.
Final Thoughts
Mashed is an interesting concept that works well with the right players, controllers and setup, but it was a bit too inconsistent for me to constantly enjoy the game. I didn’t hate it, but there were a few places that were just too frustrating, even when the game didn’t force it by making it 3v1. There’s some decent weapon systems though – I guess that’s the nice touch, when applicable.