Cars Reviews

Cars Review

Forward notes:

I picked this game up in a charity bundle that also came with Fuzion Frenzy 2 and Sonic if I remember correctly. I’m a bit of a fan of simpler, more family style games, as long as they try to not be more than they need to be. Let’s get to the review!

Single Player:

The game picks up a bit where the movie left off – you’re hanging out in that sleepy town that is becoming more of a tourist location as people find out that the Piston Cup Champ is there. At least that’s what I think the game wanted to convey, but it’s not really that clear. Regardless, the hub of the game is that location, and all of your missions will be able to be accessed from that area. Most of the game is simplistic races against computers, but there are some collection (postcards) mini-games as well. Probably the most interesting and different part of the game is the tractor tipping mission which requires you to honk your horn at sleeping tractors to tip them over. This must be done within the time limit while avoiding the large protecting harvest vehicle that was seen in the movie.
Although my description above is, admittedly, less than stellar, it’s direct and to the point.

There are only fifteen achievements in the game, which I’ll go into more detail with later, which correlates to each of the missions in the game. Therefore the game is relatively short and to the point, but you can replay any race or mission that you would like if you’re so inclined. Each of the races is around three laps or so against some computer AI. Although you shouldn’t have a problem winning, I actually very much liked the computer difficulty – they stayed close when you were doing well, but they slowed down when you were falling behind to allow you to catch up. Therefore it never really felt like you were way out of the race or lapping everyone.

The races include shortcuts, which are for the most part obvious to see, which can be fun to plow through. You’ll play mostly as Lightning McQueen, but the other characters do come into play, including the little Italian tire changer that you can choose to play mini-games with. The game has a very small learning curve (one button is go, one button is brake, the control sticks allow you to turn) and is perfect for younger audiences out there. You have to know your personality as to whether the game will hold your personal attention.

Single Player Score: 8/10

Multiplayer:

Two player multiplayer, not included in the story, but as a quick play option. It's solid but not even worth mentioning more than this, and I wont bother giving it a score for simplicity's sake. It's just split-screen race ability (local only).

Multiplayer Score: N/a

Sound/Graphics/DLC/Intangibles:

Keeping in mind that it is a relatively cheap family game, you can’t go in expecting much from the graphics and sound here. That being said, you will notice a couple catchphrases and cutscenes where Lightning McQueen’s voice comes through very nicely, and the other character’s voices sound genuine as well. When racing or driving around the hub you will be given some nice background music, along with the generic car race noises, which is pleasant. The graphics are nothing to get excited about, but you can’t fault them that much. The cars look like they are supposed to look like and the cutscenes are capable of conveying the story appropriately. No, it isn’t going to shock and amaze you, but it is more than adequate for what the game requires.

The game is also excellent at promoting the laidback atmosphere. Everyone loves the simplistic driving family games (Diddy Kong Racing, Mario Kart, Madagascar Kartz), and this one is no exception. With simplistic controls and a small learning curve, the younger audience is capable of picking up and playing this game with little fuss. No, this game isn’t a blockbuster, but when you need to relax with something simple this might be the game for you.

Sound/Graphics/DLC/Intangibles Score: 7/10

Achievements:

The achievements are logical and to the point. They, for the most part, simply require that you win each of the races and collect all of the postcards in the game. This basically just requires natural progression throughout the game and a little exploration of your hub, which isn’t a big deal. If you are so inclined I would bet that you are capable of beating this game in less than six hours, though rushing through the game kind of ruins its purpose in my opinion. It also means that there is limited replay value for the game, which, if you’re truly enjoying the game, is a bit of a disappointment. But, if you want the “easy 1000”, this is the game for you.

Achievements Score: 5/10

Total Score: 20/30 = 6.67/10 = 3.34/5

Final Thoughts:
I think you need to take the game for what it attempts to be. It’s a family game that is intended for the younger audiences, and if you know that going in, you’re going to have an enjoyable time. For those achievement junkies out there the game can be considered a relatively easy 1000, especially if you check out some video guides across the world wide web for the postcard hunt. I hope you enjoyed my review. If you feel I omitted something or represented something inaccurately, please leave a comment below and I will gladly take it into consideration.
Thanks!

Cars, based on the wildly popular Disney Pixar film of the same name, places you (mostly) in the the tires of the star's protagonist, the famous race car Lightning McQueen. As expected, the game follows his exploits as he, well, races around in various races.

The game is cute, and has much to offer to both adults, kids, and gamerscore aficionados. The game presents missions that must be completed in order to advance to the next race or task. The races are varied, from speedway courses to off-road racing to chasing down speeders as the town sheriff, and of course the unique Tractor Tipping missions. (Tractors is SO stupid!)

As far as score goes, it's pretty much possible to 1k the game in about 5 hours. Complete all the races, and there's not much more to it. Unlike the later Cars: Mater-National game, it isn't necessary to complete absolutely every event in the game, although most of them are necessary.

Of course there's the obligatory collectibles mission (worth a whopping 100G), but with the right online guide this can be finished in 30 minutes start to finish.

The lack of decent fast-travel and adequate maps can be very frustrating, since it's so difficult at times to know exactly where to go. The world isn't terribly small (not terribly big either), and navigating it can be confusing at times. In addition, I found the lack of gravity annoying at times, since I'll be in the middle of a race with an opponent, hit a wall, and fly miles into the air and flip around, costing me valuable time. Grrr!

All in all, though, Cars is an enjoyable game that can be completed VERy quickly. While the game is only really worth 2 stars due to its short storyline and questionable replayability, it's a definite 5-star game for those gamerwhores out there.

It's a Disney kids game!

What you think of it will probably depend largely on whether you are or have kids. FYI - I do, so I have Disney coming out of my ears at home.

The graphics are very much like the movie, the sounds has also the cheesey stuff you would expect and is occasionally amusing. The gameplay is a bit repetitive, but my kids like that as they don't have to learn too many different things.

It's a bit of a laugh to play with the kids (although it gets old quite fast) but I am aware that many of those that will play this will do so as an easy addition of 1,000 to the GS heap.

I finished it off after my kids had decided they were bored of it and there are a lot more tiresome and annoying games you could have played for GS alone. It doesn't take long either.

The only slightly annoying achievement is that there is one postcard that is quite difficult to get, as you have to time it just right. Took me about 3 attempts, so probably only about 10 minutes.

There is a video on youtube (search under Disney Cars game), that shows you exactly where.

Introduction
I love Pixar Movies because its not only for children but its also meant for adults. While this game is meant for a younger crowd, I was able to enjoy this game.

Story and Content:
The setup is fairly simple; you have the town of Radiator Springs and its surrounding areas. There are plenty of things besides racing to do. Finding postcards, finding coins and even changing paint jobs on your main character Lightning Mcqueen.

Game play:
Setups like a sandbox game, you can drive around to find all the extras or drive to certain areas to start an event. While most of the times you get to play Lightning, you get to play the other characters also. There are races in oval tracks, races around town and other fun events with most of the based on the movie.

Graphics:
Terrible especially that this game came out way later than other platforms, THQ did not even bother to take advantage of the Xbox 360. You can recognize a lot of the characters but the most surroundings are 2D.

Sound and Music:
There is some full tracks of songs but they get repetitive after about thirty minutes of playing. There is some dialogue in cut scenes and they are short. You do hear the sounds of the engines, skidding of the tires occasionally you hear some of the characters say some lines from the movie.

Difficulty:
You can't change the setting and its set to easy. The difficulty is meant for younger gamers and more experienced gamers will find this game very easy and might be bored after a few races.

Final Thoughts:
If you like the movie you like this game. If you want a quick game you can finish this game in about four to five hours depending on what achievements you want to accomplish. You can find this game at very low prices new or used, Microsoft even added it to their greatest hits collection.

Easy achievements have led me to play many more licensed games than I normally would, but surprisingly, I have not been disappointed. The same goes for this game, Cars, a game based on the 2006 Pixar film of the same name. Let me go on record and say I love Pixar, it seems at this point that everything they touch is gold. But anyway back to the game itself.

Rainbow Studios took a rather unique approach to the story when they made this game. Rather than follow the film, they created a new story that takes place directly after the movie ends, with the beginning of a new Piston Cup season. The story isn't too memorable, but each race and mini-game features cut-scenes before and after, and while they don't look as good as the actual movie they are still enjoyable to watch. I'm not sure if the original voice actors from the movie are present but if they aren't they sound very close to the real thing.

The music features some music from the movie mixed in with a few licensed tracks, my personal favorite being Edgar Winter's "Free Ride" The soundtrack is overall forgettable so this is another one of my "Audiobook" games, where I mute the TV and listen to an audiobook instead.

Gameplay wise, it's a pretty solid arcade racing game, there are a few unique features like the ability to hop up to shortcuts and drive backwards (which is pretty useless actually) There are several races taking place in various locations from the movie (Radiator Springs, various speedways, etc) as well as mini-games featuring tractor tipping, fetch questing, and speeder catching. There's even one where you have to play as the night riders and reenact the scene where lightning gets kidnapped from his truck, Mack, which I find ironic because up to this point, you have mainly played as lightning, so you are basically forced to screw yourself over to keep the story going. I have one major complaint, though, and that is one particular feature of the game advertised on the box: this game has an open-world section as well, allowing you to explore the region. While it is fun to go exploring in Radiator Springs, it becomes very annoying when you have to drive long distances to get to a race when all you want to do is start racing. It suffers from the same problem as Burnout Paradise, only more so because the controls aren't nearly as fluent, and there is no helpful map or compass while you're driving. Open-world driving games can work very well (example, Need for Speed: Most Wanted or Need for Speed: Undercover, where you can go exploring or just warp to the next event) but in this case, expect to get lost, and when you do, you will be very frustrated.

Overall, the game is very easy, there is a difficulty setting you can choose at the beginning of the story, easy or normal, and trust me, you want normal, cause normal is already very easy and you will only unlock achievements in this difficulty. There's only 15 achievements for the full 1000, and the only difficult one really is the postcard hunt, which you can do after the game and with the right guide can be conquered without much trouble. Aside from the game, there's a vs mode, an arcade mode which allows you to play events from the story with different characters, and some bonus content you can buy with points collected throughout the game (through pickups, drifting, catching air, etc) and get new paint jobs, new characters, short clips from the movie, deleted scenes from the game, and concept art. It's a nice little extra feature.

Overall, this game was short, but fun and good for an easy enjoyable 1000 gamerscore. This gets four stars from me because despite its flaws, it was everything I was expecting and wanting to get from this game.

Very rarely does a video game adaptation of a film made for children hit its mark so well. But Cars: The Video Game doesn't just hit the mark, it races across it at high speeds.

As the player you're given control of Lightning McQueen, the famous race car and Radiator Springs' newest resident. The story picks up not long after the events of the first film. Challenged to a new series of races by Chick Hicks, you'll have to win as much as you can to beat him and win the Piston Cup.

Outside of the game's races and main story, you'll also get to partake in other events, some of which even allow you to play as other characters. You can chase down stray post cards with Lightning, go tractor tipping as Mater, and enforce the law by going after some speedsters as Sherriff (did they not give him a name?). Each mini-game adds a little extra something and gives you a nice break from the races the main game has to offer.

I would be completely out of my mind if I didn't mention this game's strongest point; the world-building. Most games that adapted movies to a console experience usually went the cheap route. Design a few small levels for players to explore, some generic enemy to beat up, fin. Cars doesn't do that. When I say you get to explore Radiator Springs, I mean you actually get to drive around in it. The layout and design of the area is top notch, the developers really went out of their way to put everything in a place that makes sense. You can drive to the Wheel Well, Willie's Butte (haha, butts), and several other places from the film. This is exactly the kind of design I like to see in adaptations, actual perfection.

I do have a few nitpicks with Cars. First of all, the voicelines are a little repetitive. You'll hear Lightning say "one for the ladies" about 20-30 times. That of course is not as big a deal as the stadium races. Stadium races are sort of like chapter closers for the main story. In other races, you only have at most 4 opponents, but here the game tries to sell the illusion that you're in a NASCAR level race. Now I know it's just a kid's game, but the difficulty ranges in these races was a little bizarre. Sometimes you'd speed past everyone no problem. Other times the game's AI would box you in so you literally couldn't pass anyone, or even slow down to find a better path. Not to mention you'd occasionally have someone ram into you and knock you off the track. I don't think the game was meant to be this difficult in these races, mostly because rather than difficult it's more so just tedious.

The achievements are pretty straightforward and nothing to be scared of. The worst thing you'll have to do is track down Lizzie's postcards, as some of them are in very obscure or difficult to reach spots. But there aren't many of them and it really only took me about an hour to get them all.

At the end of the track, Cars is a shining example of what game adaptions had the potential to be. In a day where we don't really see movies spawn in game knock-offs anymore, I can wholeheartedly say that Cars is proof they weren't all bad. Developers just needed to slow down, and enjoy the world they were building. I think that's what happened here.


Overall Score: 95/100