Bird Gardening and Nature Community :: Cars :: Des's Review of the PS2 Cars Game

This is a review I had up on Live Journal. I've since beaten the game many times and have to make a few corrections to it since I know so much more now than I did then. I've also taken the time to make screen caps of all the major cinemas in the game. So here's the review with some edits at the end.

This game is a lot of fun once you get used to it. I'm going to review the story mode only and touch on a few of the other things you can do in it.

First up Control. The controls in this game aren't that great. For a racecar Lightning starts off pretty slow. The reverse button is aweful. Hitting reverse sometimes doesn't do anything. You have to hit it twice like a double click which is annoying. It took me a while to figure this out and get used to it. You can control the camera angles with the right stick but it's really hard to do when you're driving and it won't correct itself once you let it go. Perspectives can be changed with the pyramid button from close, far and bumper cam. All the rest of the controls work pretty well. The use of the tilt feature isn't really necessary. I got through the whole game never using it in any race. It would have been so much better if they'd made the controls the same as the driving controls in GTA: San Andreas.

Graphics. The graphics in the game are pretty good actually. Didn't notice too much pixleisation. Everyone looked good pretty good. The cinemas are wonderful and very enjoyable. The art for the load screens is gorgeous! There's a different art card for each race and mini game. They picked a great artist to make those.

Sound The voices in the game were great. I'm not sure if they got the same voice actors but the only one I could tell that didn't sound like in the movie was Mater. Still the person that did his voice did a good job with the accent and you forget about it the more you get into the story.

The music in this game is AWESOME!! They have GOT to make a soundtrack just for the video game. Most of the songs are country music or 50's style classic rock. It fits the scenary very well. The score was done by Bruno Coon and it's mostly country. It's very funny music and entertaining. This is one soundtrack that won't drive you up the wall from hearing it over and over. What's nice too is there's a jukebox feature where you can customize and pick which pieces you want to listen to when in Piston cup races, road races or just exploring. That's a very nice feature. Some of the mini game races have their own music like High Speed Heist is ambiant techno and the monster truck race has metal riffs. All the music in the game was one thing that really won me over for this game.

Story Mode. I'm going to go over the full size version of the game. There's a compact version but I didn't bother to play that.

The game is the sequel to the movie and you really get to feel that. Playing the game is like watching another movie. There are 33 events laid out in five chapters in three different areas: Radiator Springs, Ornament Valley and Tailfin Pass. One of the objects of the game is to collect bonus points. These are lightning bolts that are scattered through out the game and work like money so you can buy characters, paint jobs, art etc. The yellow and red ones are worth 100 points, the sliver and red are worth 500 and the gold are worth 2000. The yellow ones are everywhere and easy to find. The silver and gold are a little harder to get to and many you have to do fancy stunts and jumps to figure out how to get them. Don't bother for the really high floating ones until you get all three boost tanks.

You can free roam and explore the town. You don't have to jump into mission right away. It's neat because the other cars will give you comments when you drive by. They'll yell at you if you crash into them. Lightning says all kinds of neat things too depending on how fast you go, if you make a stunt or if you crash. One of my favorites is his impatiences. If he's just sitting there he'll start singing to himself and softly say, "Ka-Chow" or he'll say, "Ah, it's nice to be me." Gotta love thingyy characters. One thing I wish you could do in this game is respond to the characters that talk to you. Again it should have been like GTA: San Andreas where you can choose to respond positively or negatively to any comment. What's neat about the other cars is that they look at you when you get close.

You can earn more points too in races and mini games by doing powerslides, jumps to get big air or for "safe driver". I think safe driver means you don't crash much.

Chapter 1
The events in this are:

Radiator Springs Grand Prix
Radiator Cup Circuit
Lizzie's post card hunt
Sally's Sunshine Circit
Tractor Tipping
Doc's lesson: Power slide
Doc's Challenge
Palm Mile Speed Way

When you finish an even you usually have to finish in the top three to get trophies. The trophies add up so you can do the pison cup races, but even if you have enough trophies you have to still unlock things in a certain order.

Chapter 1 introduces new characters into the game. They are two British racers. After the second race Lizzie's Post Card Hunt opens up. The postcard hunt is rather pointless. You earn trophies so you can get 20. One for each post card. You can't get them all until the other areas open up and you don't even get a cinema once you do get them. So unless you want to get 100% in the game (and you don't get anything for that either just bragging rights) then it's really not worth it. Get the easy ones within reach but don't bother with the rest.

In Tractor Tipping the situation is similar. You only need to beat level one to open up Doc's Lesson. After that when you beat a level you get trophy points but you don't have to finish this event to beat the game.

Palm Mile Speed Way is the first piston cup. These are very hard races despite being circular. There are so many cars around that it makes it hard to get ahead. Boost isn't allowed so you cant cheat.

Chapter 2
Events:
Boostin' with Filmore
Luigi to the Rescue
North Desert Dash
Sarge's Boot Camp
Sarge's Off Road Challenge
Motor Speed Way of the South

Chapter 2 is very fun. Boostin' with Filmore will give you your first boost tank. You get three total. Beat this race because you'll need the boost in later ones. Filmore is amazingly fast.
Luigi to the rescue is another mini game that you only need to beat level one to get the next race unlocked, but it's not as hard as the other mini games. I actually completed all of these to get all 20 trophies and even though you don't get a cinema at the end it becomes quite obsessive. You are Luigi and you have to go out and find abandoned tires in the road under a time limit. When you get them then you have to rush back to the store to put them away. The music is this funny Italian music and it's fun trying to find all the tires on the map. Biggest complaint is that the map is deceptive. It will show you right on top of a yellow dot that represents a tire but it's not there. It's usually ahead of where it says it is.

Sarge's Boot Camp is a three part obstacle course that's very hard but so fun! You learn how to do jumps here and the music is this really neat patriotic march. Beat all three in the time allowed to open Sarge's Off Road Challenge which unlocks Motor Speed Way of the South.

Chapter 3
This chapter starts at night.
Events:
Mater's Backwards Lesson
Sheriff's Chase
Sheriff's Hot Pursit
Rust Bucket Race-O-Rama
Ornament Valley Circuit
Sun Valley International Raceway

Mater's Backwards Lesson is a lot of fun. The country music in it is so funny. When you win you learn how to drive backwards, or so it says. It never worked for me and I beat it twice. Must be a glitch. Doesn't matter because you never use it anyway.

Sheriff's Chase is next and beating it unlocks the next two events. This is a one on one with Sheriff so you have to come in first. After this don't bother with Hot Pursuit. Go and beat Rustbucket Race-O-Rama first. Winning that will give you your second boost tank and you'll need it. you get to use Mater in a demolition derby race and the comments are just halarious in this race. It's so funny but it's very hard to win. It's a figure 8 track with lots of fun jumps.

Sheriff's Hot Pursuit is one of the most annoying races you have to do. Sheriff is so darn slow and you have to catch three speeders every time. They are very easy to lose. You have to stay close behind them to make their meter run out. I like to think of it as they run out of gas. If you catch one don't quit the game and save. It won't save the one you caught. You have to do all three at once. If you've caught one and you lose the second one don't worry when your retry it still keeps the one you caught before THANK GOODNESS!! Even if you have boost it isn't fair. You've got poor old Sheriff trying to catch guys like Boost and DJ. Not easy. The good thing is they do have a pattern so try to stay with them to memorize where then go then just try to stick close to them. Sometimes you'll get lucky and they'll crash and get stuck. If that happens just wait close to them. Don't bump them so they don't get freed. This happened to me with Mia. She crashed into a fence of a house and I cornered her and her meter went down real quick. So you have to do five groups of three each time. Expect to hit the retry button many many times. This was the mission that made me want to throw the controler at the screen. The detective music is funny though.

Chapter 4
Events:
Sally's Wheel Well Sprint
Doc's Check Up
Tailfin Pass Circuit
Delinquent Road Hazards
Monster Truck Mayhem
Chick's Challenge
High Speed Heist
Lightning Strikes Back
Smasherville International Speedway

After beating the first race I recommend doing Delinquent Road Hazards next. You rece Boost, DJ and the rest. If you win 1st place you get the last boost tank. This race is fun because you get to go through this cool mine tunnel and when you win it opens up new areas. It was also cool to see DJ and Wingo almost cry when you beat them. Monster Truck Mayhem is funny but very hard. The voice overs are great because the trucks are literally MONSTER trucks. They talk like vampires, Igor and a few other funny monster voices.

High Speed Heist is a really fun mini game where you get to control DJ, Boost and Wingo. Chick hired you to steal Lightning's stuff. You're on the freeway and you have to catch up to Mack and steal the stuff from his trailer. Try not to get off the road or hit the other cars so you don't slow down. Wingo's was the hardest. He's got the worst handling of any character in the game. I was amazed because I thought he'd be real fast. When stuff starts to fall out of the back of Mack only pick up the boxes. If you pick up trophies and stereos they weight you down and slow you down. Took me a while to figure that out. You have to pic up five boxes.

Lightning Strieks Back is the pay back mission. You chase Boost, DJ, Wingo and Snot Rod against traffic. You have to crash each one three times to get your stuff back and avoice on coming traffic. Both these missions are a blast. The music is techno and the screams and insults from the other cars are great. Two of my faves are, "AAAAHHHH A CAR!!" and "You're a bad car!"

Chapter 5

This chapter's pretty easy. Chick couldn't accept the fact you'd won so he asks for a rematch. Lightning agrees but wants it to take place in the three areas of Radiator Springs. So there are no mini games this time. You just race Chick and the others all over the three areas then it's off to the final race to become the champ.Stick around afte the credits to see the whole cinema. Then you have free roam of the area and can pick up lightning bolts you may have missed. One of my complaints is that after you bet it you can play the races over again but you only get to see the intro cinemas. You don't get to see the endings when you win.

All the events should be unlocked and you can go and pic any of the races or

piston cups under arcade mode. Here is where you can use the other

characters. You're limited to who you can use in the piston cups but it's fun to hear the announcer because he says different stuff for each one. Also when you bump or crash the character says different things. This is the only time you can use The King unfortunately. And there's a glitch. When you win you don't get to hear their victory quote or even if you lose you don't get to hear what they say like you did in story mode.

*************

Ok, one thing I was wrong about is that if you do get all 20 of Lizzie's post cards you should return to the target by her store. You get a nice little cinema of her forgetting who you are for all that work. A few other complaints I have are that you can't free roam as anyone once the game is beaten. I really wish you could respond to cars that talk to you. In two player mode not all mini games and tracks are open. You also are limited depending on the race you chose to who you can use. I wish you could mix anyone on any track. Can you imagine Count Spatula in a PistonCup or The King in the RustBucket race?

Despite all that it is worth buying and has great replay value. I've done everything and it's still loads of laughs. I read about some of you crashing on purpose. I do that too to hear all the phrases plus I love to hurt my favorite guys. I think the phrases change depending on the speed you crash. Also apart from always winning it's good to lose because everyone has several lose and win phrases. These don't work on the Piston Cup unfortunately. If you guys have any questions feel free to ask. I've found some interesting and unique thngs to do in this game I haven't seen in too many places. [1 edits; Last edit by Chick_Peep_Des at 22:21:50 Wed Sep 13 2006]

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