Cars

Well, summer is here, and that means a lot more time at home with the kiddos. This obviously also means a lot more time for kids to get bored, too, during a rainy day, and here in Louisville, Kentucky this means that there's not a whole heck of a lot to do except go see movies. Anyways, the latest Pixar film, Cars, was the last one that we all got to go and see, and lo and behold I pop open my mailbox when we got home to find the game waiting there for me. So, fresh from the theater, my kids and I got the chance to sit down and play it and I must say that it's not a bad movie to game title ... especially for the youngsters.

Cars for PC revolves around Lightning McQueen as he is getting back on track (no pun intended) to go back and race for the fabled Piston Cup. The thing is, McQueen has been hanging out with his friends in Radiator Springs for a while, so he has to get back in shape in order to get back out there and do well in the big times. What this means for the player is guiding McQueen and his buddies from the film through a variety of things like races and side quests in order to get back in shape again and head off to go after his dreams in a kind of after - story to the movie.

Now, the "GTA light" comment I made in the headline revolves around the way that the game is set up in story mode. The developers could have gone with a simple, drive around in multiple races aspect but instead gave the player a pretty open area to explore rather than just going from one thing to the other. If you're not in the mood to go and do the next mission, you can always go back and replay past missions, drive around and just talk to other inhabitants (some new ones not in the movie and some familiar faces) or collect various tokens for points which help you unlock new cars, upgrade current cars, or unlock a variety of extras including concept art or deleted scenes that they decided to leave out.

The missions and challenges that the player will get into vary, and yes ... there are, of course, your driving missions which pit you against other cars in and out of town to get more points for unlockables and to unlock new missions and tracks, but there are also missions that don't involve racing, like postcard collecting and even tractor tipping with Mater (the tow truck voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) while trying to avoid a large combine which adds in some variety and makes the game a little more interesting.

All in all, Cars is a solid title, but all is not completely Ok out there in Radiator Springs. Fortunately, the controls are good and the game is set up for younger players to be able to have a good time with it without it being too difficult, but the game overall isn't too terribly hard and some older or more experienced gamers may find it to be a little too easy for their tastes. To it's credit, it did add in an even easier difficulty for even younger gamers to play which is even simpler and actually comes in pretty handy for those kids who enjoyed the film but may not be old enough yet to really sit down and get into all of the driving around and trying to figure out what to do next.

Secondly, some of the camera angles in a few of the challenges get a little weird, and caused some control issues. For example, the tractor tipping stage has you use the arrow keys to sneak around and scare the tractors, but the way the level is set up causes the camera to move in a kind of circular motion which throws the controls off and caused some headaches. One minute your heading straight up the screen, and the next you're heading left away from your target ... it caused a few do-overs, needless to say.

Overall the game has a couple of issues to it, but honestly I have to give the developers credit in putting out a pretty solid title and being a little more creative than just tossing you into a bunch of driving missions. If you have little ones out there who enjoyed the film, this is a good title to pick up for them which will provide some good, quality entertainment and some fun for mom and dad too.

Gameplay: 7.8
The controls are good and the missions are mixed up to help kill repetition, but some older gamers may not find it to be challenging enough. There were also camera issues which caused some minor headaches, but not enough to ruin the overall enjoyment of the game.

Graphics: 7.9
The car animations were good, and the little backwater town of Radiator Springs, tracks, and outlying town areas were done well and were true to the film. Unfortunately the town is in the desert, so a lot of areas had the same look to them.

Sound: 7.7
The music tracks were good, some being from the film, and thankfully the voices of the cars were done by the actors themselves rather than being rip offs. Unfortunately a lot of the dialogue was said over and over again, which got repetitive.

Difficulty: Easy
The game overall may not be too much of a challenge for the experienced gamer, but it's still fun. In addition, they also added in a lighter mode for the really younger kids to help them play the game and have fun without it being too confusing.

Concept: 8.0
Again, I give the developers credit for really taking a game idea that could have been redundant and giving the player something more to have a good time with. The missions are varied and it was interesting to mingle with characters from the movie as well as some new and pretty creative ones.

Multiplayer: N/A
There is a multiplayer mode, but it isn't online and needs a keyboard and a second peripheral.

Overall: 7.9
Overall, the game may not provide weeks of entertainment, but it is fun and there's plenty to see, do, and unlock to keep it interesting for a while. If you have younger ones that liked the movie, or Pixar movies (even if they haven't seen the film), then Cars is probably a good and pretty safe purchase option which will keep them (and you) amused for a while.