Crasher



Crasher is a Vehicular Combat game by French developer Punchers Impact, published by Mindscape for the PC in January of 2011. It used to be found on Steam.

The premise is simple. Choose from one of fifteen different Weaponized Cars, each one belonging to one of six classes and each with its own set of four skills, and engage in Vehicular Combat with up to nine other players in last man standing and territorial control game types. You can choose your car's weapon, as well as up to three static stat buff items and two "situational skills", which are exactly what they sound like- effects that only occur when the listed requirements are met.

In practice the gameplay is bizarre yet entertaining fusion of traditional Vehicular Combat with elements of Defense of the Ancients. Your equipped weapon will automatically fire at targets within range, leaving you to focus on driving and using your abilities strategically and efficiently.

The game has only a few maps and not many players. Punchers promised more maps and features as time went on. However, Punchers has since been closed down, and the game has been removed from the Steam store.

Crasher provides examples of:

 * A Battlecar Is You: The fifteen cars are divided up into six classes: Tanks, Defenders, Melee Destructors, Ranged Destructors, Repairers and Constructors.
 * An Ice Person: The Titan's ultimate skill causes it to inflict icy waves of damage.
 * Another Dimension: The Omega's Phase Shifter skill causes the target to phase out of our reality, paralyzing it but preventing further damage for the duration.
 * Attack Drone: The Zero motorcycle, one of the two ranged destructors, is all about this trope. It's first skill summons the drone, the next two are improved by it's presence, and it's ultimate skill requires the drone to be active.
 * Frickin Laser Beams: The Zero again, with it's Ion Laser skill. The Zero's drone will also fire a laser when this skill is used.
 * Barrier Warrior: Various cars have shield abilities. The simplest is probably the Omega motorcycle, which can put up a simple personal shield that absorbs a set amount of damage before collapsing.
 * Beam Spam: The Zero's ultimate skill has it dispatch the Attack Drone to a targeted area, which it then bathes in Frickin Laser Beams.
 * Blown Across the Room: Several skills inflict knockback, mostly those of the heavy four-wheeler Avalanche. The Deluge's Blower skill is expressly this, projecting a cone of wind forward.
 * Bottomless Magazines
 * Cool Bike: Unusually for a Vehicular Combat game, a good half of the player-controlled vehicles are motorcycles. The Deluge looks like a bike but actually has four wheels.
 * Cool Car: Every other vehicle- save the Bulldozer, which is something else entirely.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: The PowerUps, as well as player names and health bars- even the one on your status bar! Surprisingly, Averted with the cars themselves.
 * Combat Medic: The two "Repairers", the Omega and the Pandemic, are quite able to hold their own in a fight.
 * Chain Lightning: The Pandemic has not one, but two chaining abilities. One is a chain heal that heals the Pandemic before bouncing to teammates, and the other is a chain laser that strikes the targeted enemy before bouncing off to others.
 * Chainsaw Tank: The Razor gets first prize for being the vehicle most obvious about it's battlefield role, with two car-sized chainsaws sticking out the front of the thing. If that wasn't enough, it can set the chains on fire. And then summon giant chainsaws out of the ground.
 * Crystal Prison: Of a sorts. The Deluge can imprison a targeted vehicle and any of his nearby allies in an energy field for a brief time.
 * Dishing Out Dirt: The Colossus can cause an earthen ramp to rise from the ground, surprising enemies by walling off routes or screwing up their escape, or providing the Colossus itself with a quick means to get airborne.
 * Ditto Fighter: As a curious addition to all the chainsawing, the Razor can also copy an enemy vehicle's skill. The copied skill can only be used once, and then Duplication must be used again.
 * Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: The low-profile, storm-themed Tempest can fire small tornadoes and transform into a large one to toss foes around.
 * Energy Absorption: A few cars can do this. The Firestorm's Heat Converter ability projects a fiery shield around the car for a few seconds, absorbing all damage. Some of this damage is dealt immediately to the Firestorm afterward, but the rest powers up it's Combustion Cone ability.
 * Energy Weapon: Many skills exhibit this, but there's also the plasma cannon weapon.
 * Empathic Healer: The Bulldozer has two skills about sharing damage. Chain Bonds binds the Bulldozer to a teammate, allowing them to share damage but also healing effects. Barbed Bonds inflicts this on an group of enemies, while also causing damage over time to each.
 * The Engineer: The Calamity motorcycle is all about this trope. It can summon Sentry Guns, generate a shield to protect nearby teammates and summon an emitter that replenishes the energy of friendly vehicles. On top of that, it can pull a Gravity Screw on enemies.
 * Flash Step: The Tempest can do this. Bonus points for appearing in front of the target, especially when pursuing a fleeing enemy.
 * Fragile Speedster: The Ranged Destructors, Repairers and Constructors are all fast have but low health and basic armor. They do have higher tech armor, which protects against skills.
 * Gatling Good: The Gatling cannon, of course. It deals less damage then other weapons but hits much more often.
 * Healing Factor: All cars regenerate at various rates, but not fast enough to keep you alive. Find those health pickups!
 * Invisibility Cloak: The trademark skill of the three-wheeled Vicious buggy.
 * Jack of All Stats: The Melee Destructors are this.
 * Life Drain: Several vehicles can do this. The Bulldozer can do so with ordinary weapon attacks via a skill, the Omega can fire a grenade that transfers health to teammates, and the Titan can fire a special projectile at a target.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: The Avalanche's Explosive Madness skill is exactly this.
 * Make Me Wanna Shout: The Avalanche can let out a sonic shockwave, knocking enemy vehicles away.
 * Make My Monster Grow: The Avalanche's "Big Boss" skill causes the vehicle to increase in size dramatically, causing it to bash aside enemy cars on contact. As a bonus, the Sound Wave skill is more effective while huge.
 * Mana Meter: Keep an eye on your Energy Meter while you're firing off those skills. It doesn't regenerate very quickly, so you'll need to pick up yellow-colored energy powerups to quickly refill it.
 * The Medic: The Omega and Pandemic, of course. The Omega's heal only targets a single teammate and it is incapable of repairing itself, but it's a larger heal then the Pandemic's Chain Repair skill.
 * Military Mashup Machine: The Bulldozer is a tank-like vehicle whose front wheel is a massive studded ball. Compared to the other Tank-class vehicles, it has an odd array of skills- it can drain enemy health to heal itself, bond itself or enemy vehicles to their respective allies to distribute damage, or call down a projectile rain.
 * Mighty Glacier: The Tanks and Defenders all feature slow speeds but heavy basic armor.
 * Nanomachines: The Deluge can fire a swarm of them, which damage enemy vehicles they come into contact with.
 * Ninja: The Ghost motorcycle is a Ninja on two wheels. Not only is it fast and nimble, it fires up-sized Shuriken and can Smoke Out to escape!
 * Nitro Boost: Every car comes equipped with a fast-recharging, free to use boost ability. It can be replaced by one of two powerups found in the arenas- one grants a faster boost that ignores gravity while in use, allowing the player to clear large gaps. The other replaces the speed boost entirely with a jet boost that enables a Double Jump.
 * Nuke Em: True to it's name, the beefy Apocalypse motorcycle can let loose a nuclear blast- but it has to charge it up by using the Impact skill first.
 * The Paralyzer: The Colossus' Seismic Shock ability sends out a shockwave that paralyzes nearby enemies briefly. The Firestorm's Meteor ability also inflicts this on impact, with the added plus of dealing damage. The Apocalypse can do this simply by ramming.
 * Playing With Fire: The Firestorm buggy's skills are all themed around fire or explosive effects. For bonus points, equip it with the flamethrower in keeping with it's short-range skills. The Ghost also dabbles in this with it's Incendiary Grenade skill.
 * Power Up: Pickups found in the arenas appear as big friendly spheres Color Coded for Your Convenience. These include Health (Green), Energy (Yellow), temporary shields (Blue) boost upgrades (Blue) and damage buffs (Red)
 * Shock and Awe: The Tempest can fire a blast of electricity at a target, with a chance for damage over time.
 * Shout Out: One of the Firestorm's skills is called Punchers Impact. It transforms the car into a molten meteor (which looks like the developer's logo) that slams down, inflicting paralysis and damage on nearby enemies.
 * Smoke Out: The Ghost motorcycle can do this. The smoke is effective enough that it prevents enemies from targeting the Ghost, giving it time to get away.
 * Status Buff Dispel: The Pandemic's handy Dispel skill removes debuffs from friendlies, buffs from enemies and even damages said enemies slightly! All this with added area of effect functionality!
 * Standard Status Effects: Many vehicles have a debuff ability, most commonly loss of speed or damage over time. Fancier debuffs often come from the "situational skills", such as armor penalties. How the slowing effect is delivered varies. The Titan can project a field around itself that slows enemies that get too close, while the Pandemic can coat an area in goo that both slows and damages foes.
 * Status Buff: Besides the healing from the Omega and Pandemic and the Calamity's energy restoration, the Apocalypse's Catalyzer skill increases movement and attack speeds for itself and nearby teammates.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: All over the place. Special mention goes to the Apocalypse, whose ultimate skill summons a god damn SCUD.
 * Special Attack: Each vehicle has four, with wildly varying effects and energy costs. Some of them aren't "attacks" of course, such as the Zero summoning it's drone and healing skills.
 * Spin Attack: The Firestorm's ultimate attack sends it into a whirlwind of flame, damaging anything it contacts, while the Tempest's ultimate transforms it into a tornado.
 * Squishy Wizard: The Vicious has no direct-damage skills, instead relying on tricks and traps. It can cloak itself and nearby teammates, lay mines and snare traps, and disable enemy skills.
 * Vehicular Combat
 * Weak Turret Gun: Your car's auto-firing turret weapon deals only superficial damage to enemies. If you want to win, you better use those skills.
 * Weaponized Car
 * Whip It Good: The Razor's Whiplash skill strikes in a line in front of the vehicle with glowing energy chains.
 * You Will Not Evade Me: The Colossus' Lasso skill.