And now we come to the Piston Cup. When you first start the game, you are only given three games, but once you beat those you unlock your first true Piston Cup race, which you must beat in order to unlock three more mini-games (a pattern that will repeat until you’ve unlocked ‘em all). Unfortunately, where as racing should have been the sole focus of this game, it is only handled on rare occasions (that’s these races, Willy’s Butte and, as I mentioned before, Gesundheit) and generally not done very well at all. In the Piston Cup, you are pit against your rival Chick Hicks on a closed track where your goal seems to be to get behind other cars, build-up a boost, jump and pass them to win the race. Sadly things don’t work out quite like that. When you get behind a car, your boost (which I suppose is from drafting) comes to soon that you will likely crash if you don’t jump, which drains your meter. Also, even if you do manage to get the right amount of speed, Chick will be behind you every step of the way and he is impossible to lose: there have been scenarios where I’ve managed to successfully get a bit ahead of him (usually because he gets hit by another car that has spun out of control), but when that happens he gets a sudden and unnatural burst of speed that usually places him in front of lightning, where he will then attempt to block you for the rest of the race. Also, the races are broken-up with pit stops, which you must take at sometime during the race, though Chick takes his when you take yours. These, put simply, are annoying. Whereas the rest of the race is controlled with the face buttons, when you make a pit stop you must switch to the touch screen and tap the screws as they light up in order to change your tires and then, once you’ve finished, you are thrust back out into the race (Chick right behind you) using regular controls once again, making the whole experience rather annoying. Also, with the exception of the pit stop mini-game, the whole course is the one area of the game that appears generic, with small, pixilated cars that look like they were ripped straight from the Game Boy Advance version, though this is fortunately the only area in the game like that.
Much to my surprise – and quite a pleasant surprise it was – despite being a collection of mini-games, Cars actually looks really good. I mean, obviously, given that this is the Nintendo DS we are talking about (no offense), it doesn’t have startling movie-like graphics, but it manages quite nicely. The cars, for the most part, look just like their movie counterparts and you can always tell who each one is, instead of being some flat and oh-so-generic game like other licensed material. But, more importantly, everything is bright and colorful and it is sure to please the kids. You likely won’t find any grumblings from the little guys about the audio either, but unfortunately I am not so forgiving. Like too many games, Cars skimps on the voice acting, which is a real shame considering (like most animated movies) the lively cast that is already loaning its voice out: Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Michael Keaton, Cheech Marin and Larry the Cable Guy, just to name a few. When you have a licensed movie like this, as I have echoed many times, it is nice to have some authentic (or, at the very least, a recognizable sound-alike) talent to pump things up a little and, what’s more, the DS is more than capable of producing quality sound. Still, in the end, the game does knock things out of the park with an impressive soundtrack that perfectly captures the feel of the film in my opinion, and (again) that’s probably most important, as it will surely entertain the little ones.
However, if you are thinking of getting this game as a way to keep them busy, put the brakes on! If your kid doesn’t simply stab his stylus through the still beating heart of his Nintendo DS and actually completes the challenges, then there is really little else to do in this game. While Pixar movies generally please a wide swathe of people, Cars (the game) is aimed strictly at the kiddies, though it may even fail there after a while. You see, a game like this, full of mini-games and challenges, is perfect for bringing out a sense of competition, a little friendly rivalry, but this game does nothing to cater to that. I mean, once you unlock the extra rounds in the mini-games, there is really nothing left to do – no matter how well you might be doing, this game doesn’t save your score so you or someone else can come back and try and beat it later. In fact, once you get to a certain point, you can’t even play anymore, the game just tells you that you’ve won and ditches you right back in the main menu where you have to start all over again. While I can’t say how easy it will be for a child to reach the end, with the exception of a few that I’ve directly mentioned above (such as Ramone Style), I completed most of them in just a few minutes, giving this game only a couple of hours worth of playtime. And, on top of that, the game’s multiplayer doesn’t even bother with the mini-games and is strictly limited to the Piston Cup races, but even that requires to cards! If the game had some sort of arcade-like play-until-you-lose score system and the multiplayer included DS Download Play, Cars could have gotten a lot more mileage, especially within a family.
Bottom Line:
Despite being based off of a movie – and an animated movie, at that – Cars successfully manages to avoid most of the trappings of animated movies. The game looks pretty good, it has a decent soundtrack and it offers up a fair amount of variety, including the multiplayer Piston Cup races. Unfortunately, where Pixar movies are usually so successful, this game fails miserably. I think Cars is too demanding for the younger audience, though there is sadly not enough there to capture the attention and entertain anyone older. In an attempt to please everyone, this game ends up being fit for no one.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 3.5 |
Posted: 2006-08-04 02:26:21 PST