Cars (Game)

Cars

GAME » on June 6, 2006

Game Boy Advance (Platform)GameCube (Platform)Mac (Platform)Nintendo DS (Platform)PC (Platform)PlayStation 2 (Platform)PlayStation Network (PS3) (Platform)PlayStation Portable (Platform)Wii (Platform)Xbox (Platform)Xbox 360 (Platform)

A racing game/minigame collection based vaguely on the 2006 Disney/Pixar movie Cars, and features the full movie voice cast. The game varies greatly between platforms, and features infamously blatant rubber banding from AI players.

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Overview

The most substantial portion of the game is found in the Story mode. Players control Lightning McQueen (Character) through an open hub world based on Radiator Springs. Lightning interacts with the many inhabitants to play minigames, learn new abilities, and--most frequently--race them. Players collect 'Trophy Points' for accomplishing the various events, which along with a loose story progression, unlock additional events at fairly regular intervals.

Other game modes include:

Arcade mode : Play as any unlocked character in any unlocked race or mini game.
VS Mode: Pick any two unlocked characters to compete in local-only versus racing.

The racing in Cars is very basic and does not feature any weapons like most other cart racers. Instead the player relies on an auto-refilling boost, power sliding, jumping and shortcuts to take and hold the lead. The NASCAR style events do not feature any of these abilities. Like real NASCAR the player must avoid other players and pit effectively.

Cars does not have online play.

Plot

Cars confusingly takes place after the movie. Lightning must re-learn abilities from the residents of Radiator Springs so that he can use them on the track to overtake his greatest rival, Chick Hicks (Character) (all of which happens in the movie). After besting Chick on various tracks, Chick challenges Lightning to one final tournament of races. These races take place over each environment of the game culminating with a second Piston Cup victory.

Gameplay

Mini Games

Aside from racing, the game features a small collection of mini-games. These mini games frequently have several stages of increasing difficulty.

Lizzie's Poscard Hunt - Collect 20 postcards spread out around the game's environments.
Luigi to the Rescue - Collect tires against the clock.
Sheriff's Hot Persuit - Chase down down delinquent cars, 3 at a time.
Tractor Tipping - Mater (Character) must avoid spot lights and Frank the Combine to tip tractors.
High Speed Heist/Lightning Strikes Back - The delinquent street racers make their way through traffic to hijack Mac on the highway, stealing some of Lightning's supplies. The second level is Lightning recovering these items.

Characters

While players play solely as Lightning in the Story Mode, additional characters can be unlocked and played in the VS and Arcade modes. Each character has additional paint jobs that can be unlocked by earning points in Story Mode. Each character is voiced by their original movie voice actor.

Character Name	How to Unlock
Lightning McQueen (Character)	Available immediately
Mater (Character)	Available immediately
Sally	Available immediately
Darrell Cartrip	Available immediately
Lightning McQueen (Monster Truck)	Available immediately
Doc Hudson (Character)	Earn 5,000 points
Flo	Earn 6,000 points
Ramone	Earn 7,500 points
Sheriff	Earn 8,000 points
Chick Hicks (Character)	Earn 10,000 points
King	Earn 12,000 points
Wingo	Earn 12,000 Points
Count Spatula (Monster Truck)	Earn 15,000 points

Cars requires 5.2GB of space to install on an Xbox 360 HDD.