Finally! I've been hyping this one up all month, now it's finally time to cover one of my favorite racing game franchises of all time, Disney/Pixar's Cars!
I'm sure you all know about Cars. Love it or hate it, it's one of Disney's most profitable cinematic universes, set in a world where anthropomorphic vehicles are the dominant species. The movies are all very meh. Decent enough kids flicks that don't offer a whole lot of substance, the first film at least teaches a decent lesson about slowing down and enjoying life.
Anyway, we're here to talk about the first game in the series, and luckily, the game is set after the film entirely! The story takes place about a year after the film, and centers on Lightning as he prepares for the next Piston Cup circuit. And uh... That's the plot. Short and simple.
Let's jump right into gameplay then! Cars is an open world adventure game with a focus on racing and minigames. The basic gameplay sees the player driving around a fully mapped Radiator Springs, looking to complete minigames and train with the local residents to unlock new abilities. Each time you get a new ability it will dramatically change your options in races, as well as making exploration more fun and easy in general.
After every event, you're given a few trophy points, which are saved up to unlock more challenges. Your goal here is to earn 250 trophy points so that you can enter the Piston Cup and win the game! Better hit the track!
As you can see, I did not finish the game. I was playing PUBG on my new phone instead, for some reason. Sorry!
The majority of the game is spent doing street/offroad hybrid races around Radiator Springs, but that's not all you do. On occasion you'll be tasked with some simple side activities like collecting loose tires for Luigi, Practicing your jumping skills with Sarge, or Tractor tipping with Mater. These little activities are fun for breaking up the monotony of all the racing, but they're not very exciting.
I feel I should also mention the game's difficulty. This game is very easy. On the parent difficulty setting, I was able to complete almost every race without letting go of the accelerator, and I usually made some pretty good times while doing so. The game's respawn mechanic is also extremely generous, meaning it's easy to "Death-Abuse" by going off-track and hitting the respawn button to appear further down the track.
Look at this shit! I skipped an entire lap BY ACCIDENT!
If I had any other big complaints about this title, it's the lack of music. I assume it's due to the space limitations of the GameCube, but the version I played had exactly 5 music tracks, and none of them were licensed tracks, a feature that the Cars game series would later be notable for.
And that's really just about all there is to say about Cars: The Video Game. A Solid racing game for children, a fun experience, and definitely one of the best Pixar games out there, I'd rank it up there with Toy Story 2 and That K.N.D. game as one of the higher quality Licensed kid's games.
And thusly, concludes Licensed Game Month. It's been real fun, but I think I'd like to get back to my usual edgy shoot games now. Join me next week, when I review...something from '97. Maybe Captain Claw, or Ghost in the Shell.