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Cars: Mater-National Championship
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Graphics & Sound:
Disney's Cars took the world by storm in the summer of 2006. Lightning McQueen, Doc Hudson, Sally, and the lovable Mater were so popular that now they have their second videogame.
The graphics in Cars: Mater-National Championship are wonderful. The characters look exactly like they did in the movie. The scenery is bright and colorful, since this does take place after the movie. The town isn't full yet, but the main buildings are restored. All the cars, familiar favorites and new faces, are well drawn. The designers also decided that you might get bored of seeing the same paint job throughout the entire game, so they provide a few new custom paints jobs for you to find in the game. I personally like the gold with purple lightning bolts, it just reminds me of LSU.
Not only do the characters look just like their movie counterparts, but they sound just like them too. All of the main characters sound like they're voiced by the same actors from the film. If they're not, it's a perfect imitation. You'll get to hear McQueen making his trademarked "Ka-Chow," Doc talking about how the tracks were dirt when he raced, and all the rest of the characters you remember plus some new ones chatting with you every time you drive past them. |
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Gameplay:
Cars: Mater-National Championship provides a few different modes of play. Story Mode is where you play through the game unlocking various things as you go. When you start it, you'll notice that there is a severe lack of direction telling you what you're supposed to do. You'll see big blue and green flags at various spots around town. Drive under them and press the (B) button to activate that particular challenge. The green flags are races of some form. The blue flags are various mini-games. After each challenge, you're given the chance to save your game. You can also save from the Pause Menu. The Pause Menu also has player stats and options. Player stats show you how much of the game you have found/completed. Options gives you the choice of sound options, where you can change the volumes of sfx, music, and dialogue, and Game Options are where you can change your difficulty setting (which is really nice to have handy) and change whether your stats are on, map is on, speedometer is in MPH or KM/H, and camera auto re-center.
Ramone's Rhythmic is one of the mini-games. It requires you to press the buttons in time to the music. Since you use the (C), (Z), (A) and (B) buttons, it's easier than a lot of other rhythm games because you can have a finger on each button. Playing that way, there's no need to move your fingers back and forth. The only difficult part is watching the notes come in from the sides without ending up with your eyes crossed. As you find more objects, you'll unlock more of the game, like Ramone's House of Body Art, where you can get a new paint job.
You'll find a relay race in the town. After you win the relay race, you'll unlock the next area, Ornament Valley. To win the Mater-National Championship, you'll need to win the four relay races in the game.
When you want a break from Story Mode, you can go play in Arcade Mode. There, you can run through any of the races or mini-games that you have already unlocked. You can also go play in Vs Mode if you want to play with a friend. There, you can run the same things you can in Arcade Mode, except you play against a friend. Just be aware that the race doesn't end until both of you finish, so if you're playing against a slow poke, just keep lapping them until they finally finish.
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Difficulty:
Cars: Mater-National Championship provides three difficulty levels available at the start of the game: Rookie, Pro, and Champion. There is also Expert, but it will not be available until you unlock it. You can change your difficulty at any time under the Options Menu. Rookie is a really easy level to start on. You'll be able to learn the controls of the game and the layout of the racetracks without losing every match. When you want to make the game more challenging, just kick yourself up a level.
There are also car parts hidden in various areas. These parts upgrade you so that you have more boost available. These are very important to find, because the further you go in the game, the faster you're going to need to be to win the races.
Since there's really no way to die in the game, you can just drive around and have fun exploring. You have a map available, so you can't really get lost either. The one thing I did find difficult was timing my speed right to reach some of the coins, tires and other things that were placed just above where you can reach with normal driving. There are small ramps and bumps you can drive over to get air, but you have to be at just the right speed and hit your boost at just the right moment. Basically, I recommend working on those for a little and going back to racing when you get frustrated. An addendum to this, when I decided to read the manual, I found out that you can jump by raising the Wii Remote, which definitely made reaching some of those things easier. Other items will still require you to jump over ravines or ditches to get to them.
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Game Mechanics:
Cars: Mater-National Championship, by default, is played by using the Nunchuk and the Wii-mote together. Playing with both of them, you'll use the (A) button for your gas and the (B) button for your brake/reverse. If you need an emergency brake, press down on the D-pad. Press it twice if you just feel like driving backwards. The (-) button displays the Story Mode Map. With it, you can see the big picture of where you're located and where you want to get to. The (+) button brings up the Pause Menu that I mentioned before. Then you will need the Nunchuk to steer, tilt, boost, and power slide. The Analog Stick steers you wherever you need to go. I found that it was relatively sensitive, but you'll still need to use your brakes and possibly emergency brakes to cut some of the corners correctly. The (C) button lets you tilt and (Z) is your boost. To power slide, rotate the Nunchuk.
If you don't have a Nunchuk or just don't want to use it, you can choose to play using the Wii-mote only. Personally, I didn't think that it felt natural playing with just the Wii-mote. To steer, you have to tilt the Wii-mote left or right, and it just wasn't as accurate as using the Analog Stick. But, if you don't own a Nunchuk, at least you'll still be able to play.
I had a Christmas party this year with 2 kids here, a 5 year old and an 8 year old. They spent at least 2 hours (the majority of the time they were here) racing and playing Cars: Mater-National Championship. They highly recommended it and so do I. It's a fun game to play alone, and also great to play with a friend. The only way I would have liked it better is if you could play with four players.
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-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl |
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