Destruction AllStars arrived on PS5 in 2021 as a spectacle built around destruction, and that spectacle is mostly what survives. The game asks players to drive, drift, and crash through arenas packed with breakable scenery, and it delivers on that promise with style and occasional chaos. What it doesn’t deliver is a reason to keep coming back beyond the thrill of the moment.
Trailer, via PlayStation.
The Crash
The core loop is simple. Players pick a driver, enter a race, and try to wreck everything in their path while staying alive themselves. Cars can be pushed, flipped, and smashed into walls, and the arenas are designed to collapse and shatter around the action. The physics hold up well enough that a solid hit feels satisfying, even if the controls sometimes feel loose and imprecise.
Multiplayer modes let friends race together and pile onto each other, and that’s where the game shows its best face. Watching a friend get launched off a ramp into a wall is far funnier than doing it yourself. The game also includes a mode where players build and destroy arenas together, letting them reshape the tracks mid-race.
The Wreck
The problem is that the novelty wears thin quickly. Once the initial excitement of smashing things fades, there’s little else here to anchor a return visit. Races tend to boil down to a few repeated tricks, and the variety of drivers and arenas isn’t enough to disguise the repetition underneath. Some modes feel like thin wrappers over the same basic mechanics, and the progression systems, which unlock new cars and arenas, don’t offer much in the way of depth.
The presentation helps carry the load. Destruction AllStars looks sharp on PS5, with arenas that react dynamically to crashes and debris scattered across the screen. The soundtrack is energetic, and the game leans into its own absurdity without taking itself too seriously. That light touch is welcome, since the content underneath is thin enough that it wouldn’t survive a more serious tone.
The Numbers
- Platform: PS5
- Release: 2021
- Mode: Multiplayer racing with destruction
- Score: 6.7 out of 10
The Verdict
Destruction AllStars is a game about spectacle first and gameplay second. It succeeds at being entertaining for short bursts, especially in multiplayer, but it fails to build a lasting foundation beneath that spectacle. The destruction is fun to watch and fun to perform, but the systems behind it are shallow enough that the experience rarely holds attention past a few sessions.
There’s a good idea at the center of Destruction AllStars, and it occasionally sparks into something genuinely enjoyable. But the game never quite figures out what it wants to be beyond a collection of arena-crushing moments strung together. Players looking for a deep racing experience will find little here to satisfy them, while those chasing a quick fix of destruction will find some value in the multiplayer chaos.
The score reflects that split. Destruction AllStars is a competent, occasionally brilliant game that never fully commits to being anything more than a novelty. It’s worth a look for a few hours with friends, but the memory of its arenas will fade faster than the debris left behind after a wreck.
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