Demolition Racer is a racing game with a twist. Rather than a game that just requires you to try and win the race, this game gives you points to destroy the other racers' cars. The game has many styles of game play so you don't have to play the same style each game.

There are 5 game styles in the Single Race section of the game. This section does not count towards unlocking cars or tracks. It is for practice and just plain fun. The main style is Demolition. In Demolition, you race against other cars around the track and get points for hitting them, spinning them in circles and knocking them into the wall. You also get a big bonus for landing on top of a car which will immediately destroy the car. When you finish the race, your final position is found by multiplying the points you got from hitting the other cars with the points that you got for the position you finished in. So if you finish first, but never hit anyone, you won't win the race.

The next style is The Chase. This style is your normal race game. You can still take damage and so can the other cars, but you are only trying to win the race. You don't get any points for hitting the other cars.

Chicken is another style. It is the same as The Chase except that you drive in the opposite direction as everyone else. This can slow you down when you run into the cars coming around from the other direction.

The next 2 game styles aren't done on race tracks. They are done in an arena. This is a circle area which may have hills in it where you just try to destroy cars. The first of these is Last Man Standing. In this style, you try to destroy every car without being destroyed yourself. You can still win if you aren't the last car by making a lot of points by hitting other cars. The scoring is calculated the same as the Demolition style.

The final Single Race style is Suicide. In this style, you try to destroy yourself before any others are destroyed. You don't get any points for hitting other cars in this style.

Besides the Single Race, there is also League Racing. In League racing, you are trying to beat a set of tracks. There are 4 leagues on tracks on one league in the arena. In order to beat a track (or arena), you must place in a certain position. The first league starts out easy; you can finish in 5th place and still beat the track and go on to the next one. However, as you go up in difficulty of leagues, you will eventually have to place 1st on every track in the league to beat it. A league will usually have 5-10 tracks to beat.

After you beat a league, you will unlock cars, tracks and other leagues. There are 11 tracks, 3 arenas and 8 cars that you can get. The cars can be customized with colors and logos. You can also have portraits of the racers on top of the cars, although that looks kind of bad.

The game's graphics are not that great. They are nothing compared to the Need for Speed series, or similar race games. However, the damage done to the cars looks really good - your hood will pop up or fall off, your fenders and trunk will be smashed up, your engine can catch fire and cause a lot of smoke which makes it hard for you to see, your roof can cave in and glass can shatter. You can see your car's damage both on your car itself and on a mini-car a the bottom of the screen. Next to the mini-car is a bar that shows your car's "hit points". As your car is damaged, it gets more difficult to control. You can, however, find boxes that repair your car, or that damage your car. And there is a decent replay feature that allows you to watch yourself race around the track from multiple angles. This is nice to allow you to see that spectacular hit you made on someone from a different angle than when you did it while racing. Also, there is rain, snow and fog that can impair your driving and cause some nice effects.

For replayability, the game is very good. The number of tracks, cars and racing styles give you a lot to choose from. Also, the tracks often have multiple ways to go which may end up being shortcuts, or may slow you down considerably. The downside is that whatever car you choose to race with, everyone else uses the same car. The cars all have different colors, but their stats (acceleration, speed, handling and armor) will all be the same as yours.

The sound is really good and supports EAX sound cards. You can hear the tires of your car and other cars squealing around you and if you hood is popped up, you can hear it as it bounces up and down. The sounds of running into others is fairly realistic and well done. There is also some music that you can have playing which is decent, although I normally leave that off.

If you get the demo, you can register it through an online registering program for only $15. It will then download a small update to the game so that it is the full version (no time limit on gameplay). It also has an update feature which will update your game whenever you want.

So, is the game a game for Christians? There are only a couple things to be concerned with in this game. First, there is the fact that you are trying to destroy other cars. This, however, is very mild violence when compared to games that you are shooting people and have blood everywhere. There is no blood in the game and no swearing. The only other concern is a few skulls with wings on them on some of the main screens. Considering these two things, I will still recommend the game to Christians. A demolition derby is a sport, just like football. So, the violence of running into other cars is nothing different than you would see in a football game. The few skulls are only in a couple spots and not in the game itself, so can be ignored mostly.