In single player mode, you'll have to compete in events to unlock more cars, tracks and challenge levels. There are a total of 12 cars waiting for you, with several paint jobs each. The detail and overall appearance of each is very good, and the different paint jobs add a nice touch of flavor. In the end, you'll end up with eight tracks and four challenge levels once you've won demolition events and challenges, like jumping over buses.

While the single player mode offers unlockable features, it's the multiplayer that brings out the fun factor. It's a lot more interesting to compete in a destructive free-for-all against live people. Multiplayer games with a competitive edge, particularly those that are easy to pick up and play, are becoming more popular than ever. It's easy to see why, and in many ways Totaled! fits the bill. But there are a few things that keep it from being a must-have.

The whole key to winning a demolition derby is to drive backwards while hitting other cars. If you only smash up your trunk your car will last a lot longer than if you consistently use the front (that's where the engine usually is). Don't ask how I know this, because frankly I don't know where that little bit of knowledge comes from. But if I was making a demolition derby video game I would most assuredly have done a little checking around to see if there are, in fact, strategies involved. Even this little bit of strategy didn't make it into Totaled!, seemingly in favor of having every car blow up as soon as possible.

And that would be ok, if the destruction was something to behold. But it turns out to be pretty average and gets repetitive quickly. The cars take damage: doors fly off, the whole thing crumples and it eventually catches fire. But the effects are mediocre. The fire doesn't look like it's coming from the car, it just dances around on top of it.

From the moment you start the game the first time you'll get an appreciation for Totaled!'s biggest flaw: load times. Pick a game, a track, a few cars and we're under way. Five minutes later the event is over. Wanna play again? Well, we'll have to load that up. You say it's the same event you just played? Doesn't matter, get comfy. I've baked cakes (ok, eaten cakes) in the amount of time it takes Totaled! to load up an event. Even "retry event" requires an ungodly time to load, and any fun you just had is snuffed out by the long, tortuous minutes between games. To make things worse, the events are almost always timed, so they don't last long. Most of your time spent playing Totaled! won't be spent playing at all.

Smashing up cars is fun, there's no doubt about it. So smashing up cars with up to four of your closest friends must be more fun, right? Not necessarily. At a retail price of only $30, Totaled! would have been worth it for the multiplayer alone. The graphics and play are good enough to entertain and create a reasonably competitive atmosphere. But they aren't good enough to wait around for, and the load times literally suck all the fun out of the game. Unless you plan on playing a round scrabble between each game, stay away from Totaled!