For the most part, I stopped watching animated movies long ago, with the only notable (or at least relevant) exception being those done by Pixar. Pixar has remained exempt for two main reasons, really: first, I love to see how much their technical skill has improved from year to year and, second, their movies are generally appropriate and entertaining for almost every age group; they’re perfect family films. However, believing myself to be at least an amateur videogame connoisseur (if there is such a thing), I rarely insult my hardware by playing licensed games on it...but something was different this time. I mean, even if the game suffered from the low production value we generally see from the movie-to-game genre, this was a movie based on cars – including racecars – how could they possibly screw this up. Well, believe me, they found a way...
As I understand it, Cars – which, I should mention, I have never seen - is a bit like the Michael J. Fox movie Doc Hollywood - which I have seen. Put simply, it’s a fish-out-of-water story where the fish finds he likes dry land better. In the movie, rookie racecar Lightning McQueen is well on his way to becoming the Piston Cup Champion, but his arrogance gets in the way of that. On his way to a tie-breaker race, McQueen gets lost on Route 66 and ends up wreaking havoc in the small town of Radiator Springs. Ordered to repair the roads he destroyed, McQueen eventually learns the err of his ways and all that stuff that you usually find in these sort of games. However, you wouldn’t get any of that from this game, as it instead just plops you in the middle of a drive-in movie theater, playing mini-games based on characters and scenes ripped right out of the movie. And, while the games might be true to the story, a matter I’ve conferred about with experts (read: children who have seen the movie), you aren’t given any of that back story here, so don’t expect to play through the movie as you normally would, and instead just be prepared to have sporadic bits of fun while having no idea what in the hell is going on. At best, it is just a look back at the simple country life that Lightning came to know and love, and why not, everyone loves mini-games, right?
I have to admit, I was somewhat disappointed to find that the Nintendo DS version of Cars was not a straight racing game. Unlike the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable games, racing unfortunately takes a backseat to mini-games and, while there is still some racing to be had, this game is more seems a missing link between those other two portable versions and the console versions of Cars. From what I understand, in the console version players have an almost Grand Theft Auto-style free reign of Radiator Springs, just tooling around and completing the mini-games scattered throughout the town like odd jobs in GTA. In the DS version, though, which is distilled into its most compact and oh-so-portable form, you choose from the variety of character-themed games from within a drive-in movie theater. With the exception of the four Piston Cup races that unfortunately tie them all together (more on that in a moment), though, there are twelve mini-games in all, ranging from everything from a ring toss to pattern-matching games to something similar to an oasis puzzle. Some of them are rather humdrum, some of them are great fun, but almost all of them are inherently flawed is some way that makes them annoyingly difficult and sometimes impossible to play.
For example, let’s take the first three games you get (the other’s have to be unlocked): Gesundheit, Flo’s V8 Café, and That Blinkin’ Light. Unless you start out practicing for the Piston Cup, Gesundheit will probably be your first encounter with anything close to racing in Cars. In it, you take control of Snot Rod as he tries and makes his way back home, avoiding traffic and trying your best to control yourself despite the sudden burst of speed caused by his sneezing. The fact that the bursts are almost completely unpredictable (and by that, I mean he makes a sound just before he does it, but there is no gradual build-up or meter to keep an eye on) doesn’t bother me, nor does the fact that the mini-game is unnecessarily touch-based, but what does is the perspective. The game takes place on both screens, and while the top screen is a sort of over-the-shoul--er, I mean spoiler point of view, the bottom screen is top down and it also tends to waver side to side, making it very difficult to pay attention to all the action (with the cars in front of you on the top screen, and cars coming from behind indicated on the bottom screen) and change lanes correctly with the stylus, though simple D-pad controls could have improved it greatly. Likewise, in Flo’s V8 Café, in which you move back and forth through a gas station and rub the hoods of the cars to keep them happy (don’t ask me) while they fill up, a simple button (like the completely unused shoulder buttons) that could bring you to the other side of the station in a single click could have made this game that much better. And, finally (for the examples, at least), in That Blinkin’ Light, the game could have been perfect if the traffic signal didn’t bounce all over the place like it was having a frickin’ seizure every time you touch the damn thing.
To make matters worse, the flaws in the gameplay can make the game difficult, frustratingly so. In fact, with some of the games, I would be almost afraid to give Cars to a kid, as the frantic, often futile action could cause serious damage to the Nintendo DS. This is due in part, as I mentioned, to the fact that the game often forces you to use the touch screen when often the face buttons would work just as well, if not better! Apart from the example I gave with Gesundheit, where the D-pad could have done wonders, World’s Best Backwards Driver would have been more easily accomplished and less of a stress on my touch screen if I had to press A and B repeatedly instead tapping the left and right sides of the touch screen is succession (I found I had an easier time just tapping with two fingers on the screen, though it did leave some unsightly marks) and Ramone Style, where you must match the order of speakers by touch them on the second screen, though getting the timing and accuracy just right made me want to snap my DS in half more than once. To the game’s credit though, if you do happen to mess up (which, in my opinion, is very, very likely), the game usually lets try again at the beginning of the round you were on, which is does take some of the pressure off. And, perhaps the best piece of news in this whole review, when the games are fun, they are fun. Some of my favorite games include Fishin’ Mater, Luigi’s Casa Della Tires, and Tractor Tippin’, all of which use the touch screen in a non-annoying way to either fish garbage out of the river, stack tires or scare tractors, respectively.
Posted: 2006-08-04 02:26:21 PST