"I still remember exactly how we started out back then. Basically, it was all there: Cars, a workshop, garages, gas, ramps ... everything you needed to get into the racing business big... We just had one problem; we needed some hot drivers. Drivers who were prepared to risk their necks for us. So we did it the right way and organized a kind of qualifying test. We wanted the best... and we weren’t going to settle for less."
The narrator, opening of Career mode
Crashday is a Driving Game developed by Replay Studios and Moonbyte Games and released in 2006 by Atari for Microsoft Windows and later released in Steam.
The game focuses on destruction derbies, stunt matches, regular looped races and A-to-B checkpoint races, putting the accent on air stunts, crashes that result in explosions, and Vehicular Combat with bullets and rockets. Vehicles in the game receive damage while racing, resulting in losing parts, smashed headlights and windows. As for the stunts, certain tracks have loops and broken sections that allow the cars to do impressive feats. The available gamemodes are Stunt Show, Wrecking Match, Race, Hold the Flag, Bomb Run, Pass the Bomb, Test Drive, Team Stunt Show, Team Wrecking Match and Team Hold the Flag.
In 2016, the game was put on Steam's Greenlight service, and received enough votes, prompting it to be re-released as Crashday: Redline Edition on 2017, with a redesigned GUI, improved graphics, extra maps, and other improvements.
The game shows examples of:
- A.I. Breaker: Whenever there's a lapped race and weapons are involved, the AI will prioritize shooting people over getting to the next checkpoint. Two examples can be grinded for money:
- "Welcome to the Underground", in the Professionals League, is a Race Point-to-Point with weapons which takes place inside of a series of tunnels, with the occasional outdoors racing. In this race, you can exploit the AI tendency to shoot you if you shoot them to get into the first place to get them to stop, usually with them facing the walls of the tunnels, and then use nitro to get as far as possible. With the right car and the right customisations, you can rack up a lot of money via easy wins, as this race also pays a decent replay amount ($11.500).
- "Get Ready to Rumble" is an Elimination race over a closed circuit, and yes, weapons are present. It pays even more than "Welcome to the Underground" per replay. And there are plenty of narrow sections.
- Ascended Fanfic: In-Universe, a group of hardcore fans are credited with the creation of the "Mountain Circuit" track."We owe the creation of the Mountain Circuit to a couple of crazy fans. Somehow those freaks managed to find out my number, and they called me incessantly. They had this fantastic idea, blah, blah, blah... Anyway, they got on my nerves so much, in the end I sent Tony over to deal with them. But instead of putting them through the mill, Tony came back with some blueprints under his arm. They'd planned out the Mountain Circuit down to the last detail. Racing meets Crashday... That was the basic concept. All that was left for us to do was to build the track."
- Badass Driver: As mentioned in the intro to "Better Don't Stop Me", anyone who wished to participate in the Professionals League had to complete a Bomb Run in a fully tanked Ironhorze.
- Batman Gambit: The opening narration for "Knocked Out!" invokes the trope when it comes to find troublemakers to dispose of:"So we thought we'd dealt with two of the black sheep, but evidently we hadn’t gotten the message across. There were still a couple of no-goods out there who just didn’t want to get it. The solution was a Knock Out race. Nobody liked driving with a bomb in his car that exploded if he was placed last in a lap. Especially if he had a skeleton in the closet and knew that Tony’s crew could rig his car or its protective armor-plate any time they liked. Drivers who hesitated made themselves suspicious from the onset, and those who did take part could never be sure just how much we knew. We reckoned on the drivers getting nervous and making mistakes."
- Capture the Flag: The game features an unique approach to it: both teams battle for the control of a smiling balloon and pass it through a certain amount of checkpoints in order to win.
- Car Fu: Encouraged in the game itself, especially in gamemodes that implement Vehicular Combat. Ramming a vehicle at the sides of the opponent's vehicles will damage them more than from the front or the back.
- Crazy Enough to Work: According to the narration of "Team Spirit", Tony (the owner of the garage) came up with an idea that involved a big yellow Smiley face that had to be taken through checkpoints. The idea materialized as the "Hold the Flag" event/gamemode, which turned out to be "an unexpected gold mine, and [a way to get] back in the bosses favor".
- Disposing of a Body: Several of the Amateurs League's introductions refer to Flat Shoals (the location of "The Offroad Stage"), a disposal place in the middle of nowhere for double-crossing punks. The narrator mentions the incidents with double-crossers as "solving problems", even mentioning that "pigs don't ask questions about what they're being fed, but farmers do, and if farmers ask questions, you can be sure that you're gonna have to spend the whole damn night solving even more problems".
- Early Game Hell: The Amateurs league has a pair of missions that will definitely put the player's patience to test:
- "Mansfield Speedway" has several curves that can throw off your car and make you lose time. The track itself being two laps long doesn't help as well.
- The Race Point-to-Point levels are infuriating per se due to the gametype's rulesnote and the time limit not giving much space for errors, but the early missions of this type ("The Offroad Stage" and "Car Theft") take the cake, especially "Car Theft" where you not only have to complete the stage in under two minutes in a large map, but you're also chased off by police cars armed to the teeth with Miniguns and Rocket Launchers while you're forced to drive an un-upgraded Bornbad GT-90 (which you don't get to unlock until later in Career Mode) with its weird turning.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Discussed in the ending, after the player cleared up "The Final Battle":"If you believe you have the opportunity to realize a dream, you have to grab it with both hands. You might have to wait a long time and struggle through a lot of difficulties, but you should never, ever give up on your dream. Never. That's the secret. From starting with a couple of wooden ramps and a workshop, we created a professional and incredibly profitable racing league. The operation practically ran itself and everyone was happy. But like I said, it was my job to get the maximum out the business, and I was still a long way from being satisfied."
- A Father to His Men: The Crashday League may have no place for double-crossers, but those who didn't made problems for the organization were treated quite well, so long as they kept filling the higher-ups's pockets:
- The intro for "Offroad Madness" outright tells that most racers had the namesake track as a favorite event, and the Crashday League was too happy to oblige, the reasoning being that the Crashday League wouldn't became the success it did if the drivers weren't enjoying their job.
- They also gave small favors to their partners ("a couple of parties, a woman... little things just to make sure they owed you one"), such as the weapons lobby in "The Bomberman" who wanted a pair of laps in an Incubator, and whose contract was too important. Even if the car crashed after the first turn, the guy was so happy, he instantly signed the contract.
- Fauxrrari: All of the vehicles in the game are fictionalized though not completely unrecognizable from one or two of their real-life counterparts:
- The Buster GSt's bodyshape and profile are based on the Opel Astra F, while the stockbumpers are based on the GSi model's bumpers, and the front lights and bonnet resemble the Opel Astra G.
- The Cube RS's body and details resembles a Volkswagen Golf mk3, while the headlights are taken from the Opel Astra H and the taillight layout and position are similar to the Fiat Coupe.
- The Hunter XT-5 is based on the Gen 2 Honda CR-X, with the front resembling a Gen 5 Honda Civic.
- The Spectran TI is based on the second-generation Opel Vectra with the lights of the first-generation Mazda 6.
- The Firespitter is based on the 1989 Pontiac Firebird.
- The Bornbad GT90 resembles the Chevrolet Corvette C4 ZR1 with the front design of the Ferrari Enzo.
- The Ironhorze V8 resembles the 1967 Shelby GT500, with its tail lights being based on a 2005 Ford GT. Its "Extacy" front bumper kit is based on the GT500's "Eleanor" bumper.
- The Pick'em'up V8 is based on the Ford F150 SVT Lightning, with some hints from the Gen 3 Dodge Ram.
- The Judge 5000 SV is based on the Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV.
- The Wrecker is based on the AM General Humvee.
- The Apachee Super Turbo 220X is reminiscent of the Lamborghini Murciélago with the middle part of the Bugatti EB 110 GT and the short wheel base and front end of the Gen 1 Lamborghini Gallardo.
- The Incubator V12 is based on the Nissan Skyline GT-R R34.
- Final Boss: The player gets to fight THE INCUBATOR (formerly known by one of the default AI names, Waldo) at the end of the career. Beating it unlocks the Incubator V12, one of the strongest and fastest cars available in the game.
- Go Fast or Go Boom: The Bomb Run gamemode has all players start with a bomb strapped to their car. They must keep driving above a certain speed threshold; if there's an abrupt stop via crashing or a few seconds passed since the threshold line was crossed, the car explodes.
- Heist Episode: The Amateurs League's "Car Theft" mission, a Race Point-to-Point match about freeing the narrator's car from the Pound which must be completed under 2:10 minutes in the original version, and under 2:00 minutes in the Updated Re-release Redline Edition. The backstory of the mission involves the narrator being a Henpecked Husband and having his car towed away with a package that should have never been found. It's up to the driver to get away from the location with the narrator's car.
- It Will Never Catch On: The rejection of ideas that would have turned into successes is a recurring theme across Career Mode.
- "Mansfield Speedway" outright mentions the rejection of DVD sales and organizing races on the eponymous track before it was open to the public.
- Just You and Me and My GUARDS!: "What The Hell... The Police" has you drive-fighting against your opponent in a personal battle that involved a woman. The problem is that flanking him there are also two cops.
- Level Editor: The game includes a tile-based in-game editor with several texture sets that aren't really textures: each tile design represents an obstacle that's going to appear in the game, and can vastly influence the race itself.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The intro of "Car Theft" has a subversion: while there was indeed a minor crime (the narrator, being a Henpecked Husband stopping in a grocery to buy tomatoes, parking his car in a no-parking zone), the major plot (double-crosser disposal in Flat Shoals) was barely avoided (as the car was just sent to the pound). The mission is to retrieve said car in a Race Point-to-Point match.
- Money Grinding:
- "Beating - Anyone?", the fourth mission from the Finals League. It's a 2-on-4 Team Wrecking Match where both you and your partner use a fully-upgraded Wrecker, complete with dual missiles, and the opposing team uses lower level cars such as Spectrans and Busters. And it pays $23.500 per replay. While it's possible to lose here, you have to try hard to lose intentionally.
- In the same tier as "Beating - Anyone?" is "Get Ready to Rumble", a 5-way Knockout race. Everyone also uses weapons, including you, so the racers are subjected to A.I. Breaker, as shooting them makes them stop. And it pays handsomely per replay, so long as you don't hit obstacles on your way.
- If you haven't reached the Finals, your next best bet, also by way of A.I. Breaker, is "Welcome to the Underground", from the Professionals League. It's a 6-way Race Point-to-Point with weapons. Firing at opponents make them stop, allowing you to pass them without many problems. Just be sure to not hit any obstacles, including the other cars, and you'll be safe, even using a low-tier car.
- Nitro Boost: As a racing game, it implements this. There's even a powerup on certain tracks (mostly on the acrobatics modes) that enhances the nitro.
- No OSHA Compliance:
- One of the earliest tracks takes place in a still-under-construction Mansfield Speedway, which features a mix of proper racing tracks with ground roads.
- Several of the maps take place in abandoned factories where the cars can crash the windows in order to find shortcuts or cover from enemy fire.
- Playlist Soundtrack: The game has a in-game music player that alternates between two pools (Rock and Electronic) of 9 and 7 tracks each, which play during any match.
- Shout-Out:
- The Bomb Run gamemode is clearly inspired by Speed, down to the bomb being armed at a certain speed and blowing up if the car goes below that.
- One of the drivers in the Amateurs League is Emmett Brown, while another is John Williams.
- The "Blue/White Stripes" vinyl of the Incubator V12 are taken from the Nissan Skyline used in 2 Fast 2 Furious, while the "Thunderbolt" vinyl is based on the vinyl of the Nissan itself, "Blitz".
- Shows Damage:
- Vehicles display quite a lot of damage during the game itself, and only during matches.
- In Redline Edition, whenever a car's HP is below 50%, engine smoke begins to be rendered.
- A Taste of Power:
- The Amateurs League has two matches that let you drive late-game cars: "Car Theft" is a Race Point-to-Point where you drive an unupgraded Bornbad GT-90, while "Better Don't Stop Me" is a solo Bomb Run where you drive an Ironhorze V8.
- At the end of the Professionals League, you get the chance to go wild with a fully-upgraded Bornbad GT-90 in "Annoying Competitors". And yes, it's a 3-on-3 Wrecking Match.
- "Beating - Anyone?" lets you drive the Wrecker, selling it as a monstruous thing, in a 2-on-4 match. You and your partner use the Wrecker, while your four opponents use lower tier cars such as Spectrans and Busters. If you win the Wrecking Match, you unlock the vehicle for your shop, and replays allow you to rack up a nice amount of cash.
- Timed Mission: The Race Point-to-Point gamemode, where players must pass through all the checkpoints and reach the ending line before time ends.
- Updated Re Release: Crashday: Redline Edition, released in 2017, features an improved GUI, improved graphics, extra "tribute" maps, and other improvements.
- Vehicular Combat:
- Vehicle Deathmatch is available in the game as "Wrecking Match".
- One of the missions, "Car Theft", has you getting the narrator's car out of the Probe before the cops find out what's in the trunk. The mission is a 5-on-1 Race Point-to-Point derby, your car has no weapons, and the cop cars have Miniguns and Rocket Launchers.
- We Have Reserves: The mission "You Got Something I Need" required a driver (the player) that was "trustworthy... and expendable" in order to teach a lesson to some bribers who wanted to get their own part of the cash. The problem was less with them taking cash on their own and more that them bribing the drivers were affecting the quality of the races and the income of the Crashday league.
- Weaponized Car: Cars have up to two weapons each: a Minigun and a Missile Launcher which can be upgraded to launch two missiles per shot. In the early stages of Career mode, however, you cannot access to them until after you completed the Amateurs' League, with the lore explanation being that the narrator allowed a weapons lab owner to drive in an Incubator. Despite crashing the car before the first turn, the guy was so happy, he signed the contract.
