Disney Pixar Cars brings you back to Radiator Springs after the events of the movie. Lightning McQueen has established his headquarters at the little dusty town and the one-light city is hustling and bustling with a life it hasn't seen since the Interstate was laid down.
When I first saw the commercials for this movie, I had just finished reviewing an Atlus "carPG" called ChoroQ. My immediate thought when the preview started was that someone was making a ChoroQ movie. Obviously this wasn't the case. Then I started thinking about the game that was sure to follow this new movie and thought it would probably follow a similar formula to the above mentioned game. But alas, even though there are a few similar elements -- any resemblance to the cute, car-racing-RPG is very high-level and superficial.
Cars's Story modes feature a semi-open-world environment where you can drive around Radiator Springs and talk to residents and visitors. You will be asked to sign autographs, run errands and, of course, take part in races. The game has two Story modes, a quick overview game geared to wards younger kids with short attention spans and a longer story for those of us who want a little more detail.
As mentioned above, Cars is filled with mini-games that are unlocked as you progress through the story. These games let you relive many of the memorable scenes from the film like going tractor-tipping, chasing speeders or harassing other cars on the highway as the tricked-out pranksters from the movie.
The Road Races mode lets you go through more than 20 races on the dirt and back roads of Radiator Springs, while the game's VS mode lets you and a friend race against each other.
Not all the action takes place in Radiator Springs. In Piston Cup mode, you can control Lightning as he takes to the circuit in an attempt to put Chick Hicks to shame once and for all. All of the races (Piston or otherwise) and mini-games that you've unlocked are available at any time through the game's Arcade mode.
