List of vehicular combat games
Vehicular combat games (also known as just vehicular combat or car combat) are typically video or computer games where the primary objectives of gameplay includes vehicles, armed with weapons such as machine guns, lasers, missiles, rocket launchers, chainsaws, flamethrowers, molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, hand grenades, and other improvised weapons, attempting to destroy vehicles controlled by the CPU or by opposing players. The genre normally features a variety of different vehicles available for play, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and special attack abilities. Players may also unlock hidden vehicles by completing certain in-game tasks. Traditionally, vehicular combat games focus on fast-paced action inside the vehicle, rarely, if ever, concerning themselves with role-playing or other elements, Metal Max series being an exception. Games may include racing themes, but they are generally secondary to the action.[1]
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Gameplay
Vehicular combat games normally follow a simple play pattern; the player must defeat increasing numbers of not very skilled enemies, often in increasingly micro-trans action, before facing off against a final, super-powerful, boss character. Vehicular combat games differ from traditional racing games both in the combat aspect and in the general lack of any set path for players to follow, instead allowing them to explore each level at their leisure. The complexity and strategy required to complete games vary, from the careful resource maintenance and intense story-driven plotlines of the Interstate '76 series to straightforward smashups like WWE Crush Hour. Often the primary plot will involve a contest or competition of some sort, encouraging the various characters to fight and destroy one another to obtain a reward. The Twisted Metal has been attributed as the first "true" vehicular combat game, without cartoony graphics as seen in kart racing games.[2]
Subgenres
Car
Year | Name | Platforms | Style |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | Roadwar Europa | Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS | Roguelike, Strategy video game |
2005 | 187 Ride or Die | PS2, Xbox | |
2006 | Auto Assault | Windows | 3rd person view, MMO |
2011 | Armageddon Riders | Windows, PS3 | |
2018 | Asphalt 9: Legends | iOS, Android | Action Car Game |
2011 | Post Apocalyptic Mayhem | Windows | |
2008 | Death Track: Resurrection | Windows, PlayStation 3 | |
1985 | Autoduel | ||
2016 | Auto Warriors[3] | iOS | Turn-based |
2002 | Bandits: Phoenix Rising | Post-apocalyptic | |
2015 | Batman Arkham Knight | Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 | Action-Adventure |
2017 | Battle Riders | Windows, iOS | |
2010 | Blood Drive | PS3, XB360 | |
1999 | Beetle Adventure Racing | N64 | |
2010 | Blur[4] | Windows, PS3, XB360 | |
2001 | Burnout (series)[4][5] | Arcade Racing | |
1997, 1998, 2000, 2014 | Carmageddon series[6] | DOS, Windows, Mac, PS1, N64, GBA, iOS, Android | Open world, graphic violence |
1988 | Chase H.Q.[4] | Arcade | |
2005 | Crash Tag Team Racing[5] | ||
2001, 2002 | Cel Damage[7] | GameCube, Xbox, PS2 | cartoon |
2014, 2016, 2019 | Cel Damage HD | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch | cartoon |
2002 | Command & Conquer: Renegade | ||
1993 | Crash 'n Burn | 3DO | |
2006 | Crashday | ||
2016 | Crossout | Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 | |
2007 | Darkwind: War on Wheels | ||
1976, 1990 | Death Race | Arcade | |
1996, 2009, 2012 | Death Rally | DOS, iOS, Android | Top-down view, arcade |
1989 | Deathtrack | ||
1995, 1996 | Destruction Derby series | DOS, PS1, Sega Saturn, N64 | |
2012 | DiRT: Showdown | Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
2006 | Earache: Extreme Metal Racing | PlayStation 2, Wii, PC | |
2012 | Final Run | iOS | |
2005 | Fired Up | ||
2004, 2006, 2007, 2017 | FlatOut series | Windows, Xbox, XB360, PS2, PSP, Wii | |
2006 | Full Auto[7] | XB360 | |
2006, 2007 | Full Auto 2: Battlelines[7] | PS3, PSP | |
2012 | Gas Guzzlers Extreme | Windows | |
2015 | Grip: Combat Racing | Windows | Inspired by Rollcage series |
2006 | Hard Truck: Apocalypse | post-apocalyptic | |
2016 | Hardware: Rivals | PS4 | |
1997 | Have a N.I.C.E. Day! | Windows | |
2009 | Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 | Wii, NDS | |
1997 | Interstate '76[2] | ||
1999 | Interstate '82 | ||
2005 | Jak X: Combat Racing[8] | PS2,PS4 | |
1989, 1990 | Knight Rider | NES | |
1999 | Lego Racers | ||
2001, 2002 | Lego Racers 2 | ||
2012 | LittleBigPlanet Karting | PS3 | |
1992 | Lucky & Wild | ||
2015 | Mad Max | Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 | post-apocalyptic |
1999 | Mad Trax | Microsoft Windows | |
1992, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019 | Mario Kart[5] | SNES, N64, GBA, NGC, DS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, Arcade,[8] Switch, iOS/Android | Go-kart, 3rd person view (All games), 1st person view (Mario Kart 7) |
2004 | Mashed series | ||
1994 | MegaRace | ||
1996 | MegaRace 2 | ||
2002 | MegaRace 3 | ||
2010 | ModNation Racers | PS3, PSP | cartoon |
2001 | Motor Mayhem | ||
2011 | MotorStorm: Apocalypse | PS3 | Apocalyptic racing |
2000 | NASCAR Heat[4] | PS | |
1996 | Necrodome | ||
2010 | Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit | Windows, PS3, Wii, XB360, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Phone, Java ME | |
2013 | Need for Speed: Rivals | Windows, PS3, XB360, Xbox One, PS4 | |
2006 | Novadrome | ||
1992, 1993 | Outlander | Sega Genesis, SNES | |
2017 | PAKO 2 | Windows, MacOS | overhead view, arcade |
2005, 2006 | Pursuit Force | PSP | |
2007, 2008 | Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice | PSP | |
1994 | Quarantine | 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, MS-DOS, DOS, IBM PC compatible | dystopian armed cab-driving |
2011 | Rage | Windows, PS3, XB360, MacOS | FPS game |
1999, 2000 | Red Dog | Dreamcast | |
1999 | Redline | ||
1999 | Re-Volt | RC cars | |
2012 | Ridge Racer Unbounded | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC | |
1998 | Red Asphalt | ||
1999 | Rollcage | Windows, PlayStation | |
2000 | Rollcage Stage II | Windows, PlayStation | |
1987 | RoadBlasters[4] | Arcade | |
2003 | RoadKill | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube | |
1993 | Rock n' Roll Racing[4] | Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Mega Drive, Game Boy Advance, Windows | |
1998 | Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 | ||
1998 | S.C.A.R.S | ||
2015 | Scraps: Modular Vehicle Combat[9] | Windows, MacOS, Linux | Buildable vehicles |
1999, 2000 | San Francisco Rush 2049 | Arcade, N64, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast | |
2008 | Speed Racer the Video Game | PS2, Wii | |
2010 | Split Second: Velocity | Windows, PS3, XB360, iOS, Java ME, PSP | |
1983 | Spy Hunter series[2][4] | Arcade | |
2003 | Starsky & Hutch | ||
2016 | Switchcars | ||
2007 | Swypeout | ||
1997 | Streets of SimCity | ||
1986 | Turbo Esprit | ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 | |
1999 | Toy Commander | ||
1995–2012 | Twisted Metal[2][5] | PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable | |
1999 | Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense | PlayStation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 | |
1998 | Vigilante 8 | PlayStation, Nintendo 64 | |
2007 | Vigilante 8 Arcade | ||
2000 | Grudge Warriors | PS1 | |
2003 | WWE Crush Hour | ||
2009 | Wheelman | Windows, PS3, XB360 | |
2004 | Test Drive: Eve of Destruction | Xbox, PS2 | |
2018 | Wreckfest | PC | |
2009 | Zombie Driver | Windows, PS3, XB360, Android | |
1998 | DethKarz | Windows | |
2002 | Hot Wheels Velocity X | GameCube, PlayStation 2, PC, Game Boy Advance |
Futuristic race
- Battle Cars
- DethKarz
- F-Zero series
- Wipeout series
- Fatal Inertia
- Hi-Octane
Aircraft
Boat, ship and submarine
- AquaNox series
- Blood Wake
- Critical Depth
- Dead In The Water
- Silent Hunter series
- Tiger Shark
- Silent Service and Silent Service II
- War Thunder
- Wave Race series
- World of Warships
- Akella's PT Boats series
Tank
- Alien Front Online, the primary good forces are tanks and the secondary alien forces are played as mechs
- Arcticfox
- Armored Warfare
- BattleTanx series
- Battlezone, original arcade game and home conversions
- Battlezone and Battlezone II: Combat Commander, although most of the tanks have anti-gravity engines instead of tracks
- BZFlag, a FOSS Battlezone-like game
- Combat, the original 1977 founder of the genre
- Cyber Sled
- Gunmetal
- Hovertank 3D
- Iron Warriors: T-72 Tank Commander
- iPanzer '44
- M1 Tank Platoon
- M1 Tank Platoon II
- Metal Drift
- Metal Max series, a tank combat and role-playing video game combination
- Nova 9
- Panzer Front
- Panzer Elite
- Pop'n Tanks!
- Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45
- Recoil
- Spearhead (video game)
- Spectre VR
- Steel Armor: Blaze of War
- Steel Beasts
- Steel Fury
- Stellar 7
- Tanarus
- Tank Universal
- Tank! Tank! Tank!
- Team Yankee
- Tiny Tank: Up Your Arsenal
- Tread Marks
- War Rock
- War Thunder
- Wild Metal
- World of Tanks
- World War II Online tank, gun, infantry, plane, ship, simulation, MMO, FPS and real-time strategy combination
Motorcycle
- Cycle Warriors[10]
- DeathDrome
- Extreme-G series
- Final Fantasy VII (G Bike)
- Final Fantasy VII G-Bike
- Mach Rider
- Mad Crasher
- Road Rage
- Road Rash series[4]
- Road Redemption[11]
- Seicross
- Grand Theft Auto series
Space vehicle
- Astron Belt
- Colony Wars series
- Descent (series)
- EVE Online
- Freespace series
- Freelancer
- Lunar Rescue
- Moon Patrol
- Project Sylpheed
- Space Encounters
- Space Seeker
- Star Citizen
- Star Trek
- Star Wars: Demolition
- Star Wars: X-Wing
- Star Wars: Rebel Assault series
- Star Wars: Starfighter series
- Tac/Scan
- X
- Starlancer
- Star Trek: Bridge Commander
- Wing Commander (franchise)
Multi-vehicular
(List of games in which players use more than one vehicle type during gameplay)
- Armed Assault series
- Battlefield series
- Body Harvest (1998)
- Borderlands series
- Battlestations: Pacific (2009)
- Command & Conquer: Renegade (2002)
- Darkwind: War on Wheels (2007)
- Deadly Dozen series
- Delta Force: Xtreme 2 (2009)
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (2007)
- Extreme Assault (1997)
- Frontlines: Fuel of War (2008)
- Grand Theft Auto series
- Halo series
- Hidden & Dangerous series
- Homefront (2011)
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008)
- Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds (1999)
- Just Cause series
- Mercenaries series
- Onrush
- Operation Flashpoint series
- Planetside series
- Stealth Combat: Ultimate War (2002)
- Red Faction series
- Saints Row series
- Star Wars: Battlefront series
- Switchcars (2016)
- The Saboteur (2009)
- Tribes series
- Unreal Tournament 2004 (2004)
- Unreal Tournament 3 (2007)
- Scarface (2006)
- War Thunder (2013)
Mecha
This subgenre of vehicular combat involves mech robots, or mecha, as the vehicle for combat. For most mech games, they are played in either first-person or third-person view style. Other games are based on popular Anime television shows such as the various Gundam series, Robotech, and Evangelion. Also, games with a mech theme are featured in RPG games such as Xenosaga and the Front Mission series.
- Another Century's Episode series
- Armored Core series
- Assault Suits series
- Battle Engine Aquila
- Nintendo's Battle Clash/Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge
- Border Break
- Nintendo's Custom Robo series
- Chromehounds
- Cruise Chaser Blassty
- Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness
- Cybernator
- Daemon X Machina
- Earthsiege
- Eureka 7 video games
- Exteel
- Front Mission series, a tactical RPG mecha series
- Ghen War
- Ghost in the Shell
- G-Nome
- Gungriffon series
- Gun Metal
- Hawken
- Heavy Gear
- Nintendo and Levels-5's Little Battlers Experience
- Hover Attack
- IGPX Immortal Grand Prix video games
- Kagirinaki Tatakai
- The Super Dimension Fortress Macross video games
- MechAssault
- MechWarrior series
- MechCommander
- Metal Fatigue
- Metal Head
- Metal Marines
- Metal Storm
- Metal Warriors
- Mobile Suit Gundam video games
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Last Shooting, a first-person perspective shooter
- Mobile Suit Z-Gundam: Hot Scramble, a first-person shooter
- Neon Genesis Evangelion video games
- One Must Fall 2097
- Patlabor
- Perpetuum
- Phantom Crash
- Robocraft
- Robot Alchemic Drive
- Robotech video games
- Senko no Ronde
- Slave Zero
- Shattered Steel
- Shogo: Mobile Armor Division
- Star Cruiser, a first-person shooter action RPG
- Starsiege
- Steambot Chronicles
- Steel Battalion
- Steel Battalion: Line of Contact
- Super Robot Wars series
- Tail Concerto
- Titanfall
- Thexder series
- Transformers video games
- Vanguard Bandits
- Vastar
- Virtual On
- WiBArm, a third-person action RPG shooter
- Xenogears
- Zone of the Enders series
Kart racers with battle modes
Battle modes for kart racing games are deathmatch battles influenced by the characters, go-karts and weapons used in the mode. The Mario Kart series demonstrates this kind of mode in its previous installments.[8]
Mario Kart series
- Super Mario Kart
- Mario Kart 64
- Mario Kart: Super Circuit
- Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
- Mario Kart DS
- Mario Kart Wii
- Mario Kart 7
- Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Crash kart series
Other kart racers with battle modes
- Cel Damage
- Charinko Hero
- Cocoto Kart Racer
- Diddy Kong Racing
- Diddy Kong Racing DS
- Freaky Flyers
- Jak X: Combat Racing
- LittleBigPlanet Karting
- Looney Tunes: Space Race
- Muppet RaceMania
- Pac-Man World Rally
- R.C. Pro-Am
- Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
- Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
- Speed Punks
- Team Sonic Racing
- Wacky Races
- Wacky Wheels
Notes and references
- "Vehicular Combat". Giant Bombs. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
- Schwab, Brian (2009). AI Game Engine Programming. Cengage Learning. p. 192. ISBN 1584506288.
- "Auto Warrior revs its way out of soft launch and crashes into the App Store". Retrieved August 3, 2016.
- Lambie, Ryan (June 10, 2010). "The 10 best combat racing games". Den of Geek.
- Adam (May 18, 2012). "5 Awesome Vehicular Combat Games". egmr.
- Hudak, Chris (August 8, 1997). "Carmageddon Review". GameSpot.
- Schilling, Chris (April 2017). "Drinkbox Studios". Edge Magazine. No. 304.
...developer Pseudo Interactive, best known for vehicular combat games Cel Damage and Full Auto and their sequels.
- Masser, Jeff (2012). "A Brief History Of Kart Racing Games". Modojo.
- "Scraps: Modular Vehicle Combat". Scraps: Modular Vehicle Combat. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
- "40 Years of Arcade Games - Part 2(1990-2012)". Arcade Heroes. June 28, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
- "Road Redemption". road-redemption. Retrieved June 27, 2020.