Pixar has taken to releasing
video-game sequels to its franchises, despite having no film sequels to tie them
in to. The Incredibles endured the Rise of the Underminer, Nemo and friends
tried to Escape to the Big Blue, and even the studio’s most recent film,
Ratatouille, saw the release of the Cooking Mama-inspired Food Frenzy. Now we
have the opportunity to pick up the continuing adventures of Lightning McQueen
and the residents of Radiator Springs in Cars: Mater-National for the Game Boy
Advance. While the premise is sound, the game’s execution leaves a lot to be
desired, and as such will hold little interest for those outside the 5-8 age
bracket.
There’s not much of a storyline
here. Lightning McQueen has invited the top race cars from around the world to
compete in a racing tournament held in and around Radiator Springs. That’s
pretty much it. After a short still-shots-with-text story sequence, you pick
your car for the first race, and the game’s problems arise immediately. While
you can choose from a healthy assortment of the film’s characters to race as,
each has virtually identical racing statistics (Acceleration, Suspension, and
Speed), and no character is much better or worse than any other. That’s right:
Mater, the boxy dump truck, is just about as good as Lightning, the sleek,
streamlined stock car, and can easily beat him on the track. After every few
races, an international opponent shows up, acting as a sort of “boss” race, but
these races are no more challenging than any of the rest. Defeating the foreign
cars unlocks them as choosable characters, but again, none of them are
significantly better than any other character.
In fact, it doesn’t matter who you
choose to race as, since the racing AI for the opponent cars is about the
dumbest I’ve ever seen. In every race, I was able to take first place
immediately and then finish the race without ever seeing the other cars again. This includes the final challenge level, versus the Ferarri-lookalike Giovanni;
after passing him in the race’s first ten seconds, he never even managed to
catch up to me (let alone pass me), despite several spin-outs on my part. Sure,
there’s an Expert Mode that’s unlocked after beating the game, but it simply
ramps up your opponent’s speed — which just means it’ll take you twice as long to
pass them, never to see them again.
Even if the game is absurdly easy,
it could still be fun to play if the gameplay mechanics are solid, right? If
only that were the case. Touchy controls will have you over-steering, spinning
out around every curve, and constantly finding yourself in the grass/dirt just
to the side of the actual racetrack. The tracks themselves are little more than
tunnels; with solid walls on either side of the course, you can never drift more
than about a car’s width from the racetrack. These two factors, taken together,
make the game feel like you’re trying to steer a toy car through a connected
series of cardboard boxes, careening back and forth from wall to wall, all the
way to the finish line.
Is the game entirely without merit? No, not entirely. The developers have managed to wrangle a pretty impressive 3D
engine onto the antiquated Game Boy Advance hardware. Your car moves up and
down hills smoothly, with a respectable frame rate throughout. In fact, at
times the game looks more like an early PS1 title than anything 16-bit. And
there’s plenty of fan service to be found for Cars enthusiasts, with nearly every
character and location from the film making an appearance.
While it’s not the worst racing game
I’ve ever played, Cars: Mater-National is a deeply flawed game — but the little
kids the game is so obviously targeting probably won’t care. Anyone who can
handle the complexity of Mario Kart would certainly be better off sticking with
that far superior series, but if you know a Cars fan with a Game Boy Advance,
and they’re of elementary school age, then there’s a fair chance they’d enjoy
taking Lightning and the gang out for a race.
|
Review Scoring Details for Cars Mater-National |
Gameplay: 5.3
Touchy controls mean that you’ll be
sliding all over the place, but the AI’s bad enough that you’ll probably still
win. The gameplay is probably too simplistic for anyone whose age consists of
two digits.
Graphics: 7.2
The developers have managed to make
a remarkably powerful 3D engine run on the Game Boy Advance. While the level
design leaves something to be desired (Radiator Springs is a desert town, so
most of the stages resemble dirt, then more dirt), you can’t fault the technical
end of things.
Sound: 4.2
Mater-National on Game Boy Advance
has exactly two songs: Menu Song, and Race Song. You will hear these two cheesy
electronic songs, over and over again, for the duration of your playtime. Liberal use of your Game Boy’s volume control is strongly recommended.
Difficulty: Easy
I beat the game in one sitting,
without ever having to fight to keep first place. In every race, including the
final boss. Like I said, you unlock Expert Mode by beating the game, but aside
from upping everyone’s top speed a bit, Expert Mode’s more of the same.
Concept: 6.7
Sure, it makes perfect sense that a
game based on Cars (a movie about race cars) would be a racing game. Still, the
concept of an international racing competition makes perfect sense for sequel
plot material.
Overall: 5.1
The game’s easy to a fault, the
controls are pretty loose, it’s got design issues everywhere you look, and
there’s no real storyline to speak of. There’s no getting around it — this is a
deeply flawed game. That said, real young kids will probably get a kick out of
it, even if it’s just from seeing their favorite characters zooming around the
track.
