How does a relic like Carmageddon survive in the modern era? This game doesn’t answer that question because it does nothing whatsoever to advance beyond the retrograde sensibilities that made it “subversive” in 1997.

The crude humour and ultraviolence born in the early South Park era are retained untouched in this game that was Kickstarted in 2012, and through a combination of improved graphical fidelity and my own maturity I found them more off-putting than ever.

The trick is seeing past these juvenile trappings to what I loved about playing the earlier games in my youth. Exploring a large play area, getting silly powerups, vehicular platforming and exploration to find secrets and fun setpieces, or achieve different objectives. It’s not dissimilar to the enjoyment I get from Grand Theft Auto, and the destruction derby element is satisfying as well.

In that sense the experience was as good as I remembered, hindered only by the heavy and slippery car handling. But the aesthetic isn’t the only thing unchanged in this “reincarnation” of the franchise; much of the content is a redo of levels that featured in the first game. I played the iOS rerelease of the first game several years ago at this point, but it was still disappointing not to have more fresh areas to explore, given that’s the main draw for me. There are new modes in this iteration, so it’s not so repetitive, but I’m just so gosh darn tired of remakes at this point.

Ultimately the one feature that sticks with me the most from this series is not the blood-soaked rampages, the explosions, or the childish non-humour. It’s the repair button that causes damaged parts of your car to fly back on, and the bodywork to reform itself. It’s one of the more satisfying functions in a video game, in my view. Of course, the gameplay stuff I talked about a couple paragraphs back is what makes the game, and I suppose this feature in particular, work. Those objectionable elements of the presentation just make it hard to recommend.