These are the best car combat games you can play today

6 days ago 1

The best car combat games to play today.

I just got off playing Interstate '76 and the 2012 Twisted Metal on the RPCS3, and I can't help but wish we got more car combat games today. The genre itself is from a bygone era, and the games we do get are few and far between, trying hard to balance modernity with old-school fun. Sure, the golden age of car combat is gone, but that doesn't mean we can't relive it today.

There are still plenty of fantastic car-combat titles we can jump into today, without having to jump through emulation hoops. These games were ridiculous, unhinged, and unapologetically fun, which is what car combat is all about.

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7 Carmageddon Max Damage is quintessential '90s car combat

It retains the spirit of the original, sometimes to a fault

I grew up playing the original Carmageddon, always wondering, through my nostalgia-tinted glasses, how they managed to have Forza Horizon-like graphics all the way back in 1997. Of course, it was after revisiting the game sometime in the 2010s that I saw the visuals for what they were. Still, Stainless Games did give us a sequel in 2016, and Carmageddon: Max Damage lived up to its name.

Now, let me be perfectly clear — objectively speaking, Max Damage is a bad game. It's janky, the controls are terrible, and the cars handle horribly. However, I love it with all I have, because it does these things to retain the spirit of the original in the most bizarre way, and succeeds. The open levels back when I played the first game felt game-changing, and sure, Max Damage has them too, but they're a bit bland.

Of course, I don't care, because the carnage, the ability to mow down pedestrians and spring attack any car that comes near you, and the fact that your car can explode if you touch a cow at the wrong time are all there. If it's utter mayhem with a splash of "so-bad-it's-good" humor you want, few others do it as well as Carmageddon: Max Damage.

Carmageddon: Max Damage

Released July 8, 2016

ESRB rp

Developer(s) Stainless Games

Publisher(s) Stainless Games, THQ Nordic

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6 Smashkarts.io is an excellent kart-combat game

And you can play it all in your browser itself

Now, before you roll your eyes, you must hear me out, please. I discovered Smashkarts.io sometime in 2021, while casually looking to play some sort of racing game with friends online that also required minimal effort from our side. Little did I know I'd be playing the game regularly for the next four years, and even make #3 globally through tournaments and championships.

Smashkarts is a free in-browser game for kart combat, where you spawn into one of many levels with eleven other competitors. Over three-minute rounds, you pick up different weapons lying around the map, taking down other karts and respawning after you're eliminated until the timer runs out.

The game has evolved impressively over the years, with an extremely active community on Discord you can become a part of to remain abreast of all upcoming tournaments or if you're just looking for people to play with. Or you can simply hit the big 'Play' button on the website and instantly load into a map to get a-killin'. Between the extremely unique and satisfying weapons, the tightly-designed maps, multiple game modes including team battles and capture the flag, and the excellent sound design on top of it all, Smashkarts is one game that truly deserves a place in the hall of fame of car combat games.

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5 12 years later, NFS Rivals' car combat remains incredible

It remains one of the best entries in the franchise, and the cops v/s racers combat is unforgettable

Now, I know that NFS Rivals isn't an honest-to-goodness car combat game, but it remains my favorite game in the franchise after, of course, Underground 2 and 2005's Most Wanted. Twelve years after release, it remains one of the most polished and enjoyable NFS experiences out there, and the weaponry you can arm your cars with is immensely satisfying as you take down racers or eliminate the cops hunting you.

With ESF weapons that disable those who hit you or protect you from EMP bursts from cops, shockwaves that push everyone away, and turbo systems that can have your car practically flying on the roads, it feels great to be part of the racer faction in Rivals. Alternately, the police faction is no slouch, either, with EMP weapons, spike strips, and a plethora of other weapons that will have you going on power trips as you take down an entire fleet of racers before a single one of them can reach the finish line.

Rivals is beautiful and slick, but, above all, it delivers an incredible amount of satisfaction in its car combat. Rivals is also free on Game Pass with EA Play, which makes the deal even sweeter. Oh, and it features what is, hands down, my favorite NFS playlist ever made.

Need for Speed Rivals

Released November 15, 2013

ESRB e

Developer(s) EA

Publisher(s) EA

Engine Frostbite

Multiplayer Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer

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4 Crossout is about building, fighting, exploding, and repeating

It's Mad Max crossing over with Legos, and it's brilliant

Crossout is a game that gives you a garage full of broken parts and tells you to build a war machine with it, and you do exactly that. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Crossout makes you build your vehicle from scratch, from the chassis to the wheels, and from the spikes to the cannons.

The in-game car builder is the most fun I've had with such a tool in a very long while, and the fact that there are no rules to what you can do only makes the whole game even more of a joy to experience. As you jump into multiplayer battles in Crossout, the combat itself is chaotic and impossible not to love. I've had a grin plastered on my face the entire time, every time I've played this game, and that never changes.

You'll be in 8v8 matches, tearing through enemies with whatever heavy artillery you bolted onto your car — shotguns, plasma cannons, auto-turrets, and rocket boosters, what have you. The game manages to replicate the exact feeling of bashing all your toy cars and trucks together during playtime, making "whoosh" and "boom" sounds as you make everything crash into each other. Crossout rewards your creativity with explosions, and honestly, I couldn't want anything more from a car combat game.

Crossout

Released July 27, 2017

ESRB T For Teen // Violence

Developer(s) Targem Games

Publisher(s) Gaijin Network Ltd

Multiplayer Online Multiplayer

It might not have aged all that well, but Blur remains a fun time through-and-through

Blur comes from a bygone era of racers and games, both. It was unapologetically stylish, but today, its flair is what has ensured that it doesn't age all that well. Regardless, revisiting it today is as much fun as it used to be playing it on a four-player split-screen race after school, fifteen years ago. As you race at breakneck speeds through the well-crafted tracks in the game, picking up weapons, shields, and power-ups, Blur is at its very best.

The game allows you to use your weapons front and back, drop them if you don't want to use them, and spoils you for choice in the power-up department, all while challenging you to race through its 35 tracks in 14 real-world locations. It continues to baffle me that Blur, to this day, is yet to be remastered, while we've had a slew of terrible or lazy remasters to put up with.

The only way to play the game right now is through Abandonware, which, admittedly, is just a single hoop to jump through, but it's worth it, and then some.

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2 Wreckfest is a lightning-in-a-bottle car-combat game

There are very few games that do everything as right as Wreckfest did

The sequel to 2018's Wreckfest just came out earlier this year, but in my opinion, it'll be a while before it can hold a candle to the first game. Wreckfest, developed by Bugbear and published by THQ Nordic, is an honest-to-goodness contact racer, and it will always be surprising how the game managed to be so good in an era where old-school gaming formulae often fail to translate to the modern landscape.

In Wreckfest, you can either go racing, or enter the good ol' demolition derby, and each of these two game modes comes with its own variations. If you're racing, you've got to make sure your car's got the right parts, balancing strength with speed. It's the demolition derby where things are the most exciting, though. Here, you have to outfit your car with roll cages, reinforced bumpers, and all sorts of protection because damage is the only thing you'll be doling out and taking.

With accurate physics and destruction models, great tracks that never get old, and competent enemy AI that always keeps you on your toes, Wreckfest is never a dull moment. I've tried the sequel, and sure, the new tracks are a doozy, but there's just nothing quite like the 2018 original. It's even on Game Pass, making it easy to play right this instant, if you haven't.

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1 Split/Second is one of the best racing games ever made, period

We will never have a sequel, and that knowledge still hurts me

By far my favorite entry on this list, Split/Second is one game I would give anything to have back in a modern avatar. Made by Black Rock Studio, this 2010 game is set within a reality TV show, where you and your competitors will race through an entire city crafted for TV, rigged to blow during high-octane races.

In Split/Second, you can drift, draft, or overtake opponents to run up a power meter that allows you to set off minor and major collisions on the track, exploding those ahead of you, or surprising those behind you. See someone taking a shortcut through a gas station? Blow it up. What's that? You're at the back of the pack with 7 other opponents, all ahead of you? Sure, just drop the entire Space Needle building on them, and you'll automatically be first, won't you?

Split/Second really spoiled me as a kid who loved racing games — it did everything so well, from the environments, to the game mechanics, to the never-ending loop of satisfying explosions. It's a shame that Disney shut the studio down, even after the end of the first game teased a sequel, and one was already in development. In my restless dreams, I see that town — live on set, built to explode.

Split/Second

Released May 18, 2010

ESRB E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Violence

Developer(s) Black Rock Studio

Publisher(s) Disney Interactive

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Horsepower, attitude, and explosions never go out of style.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the golden age of car combat is gone. Twisted Metal is now a glorified TV show, and while it's great, it just makes me wish we got a new game instead. That said, car-combat games still have a lot left to offer, and all they ask is that you don't view them from the lens of today.

These games prove that three things never go out of style — horsepower, attitude, and explosions. Now, if someone could just find a way to get Split/Second 2 greenlit, I'd be set for life.

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