Template:Infobox Video GameCars: The Video Game is a racing game for the Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, and Gameboy Advance. It is the first video game in the Cars series, and the predecessor to Cars: Mater-National Championship. It was released on June 6, 2006, with the Xbox 360 and Wii versions following in 2007.
Gameplay
Story Mode
A cutscene from story mode
There are five chapters of the story, each one containing 5-8 events. There are three types of events - road races, minigames and Piston Cup races. In road races, players proceed through 3-lap races, each race open to 5 different contestants. To complete minigames, players must complete an objective, usually being collecting a given number of an object. There are five Piston Cup races, one at the end of each chapter. There are 12 laps, and much more contestants. Halfway into the race, players must take a "pit stop" and a play a minigame in order to move on in the race. Once the game is completed, there is not much to do, other than to collect bonus points for the unlockables.
Arcade
Lightning, Mater, Flo, Sarge and Ramone in an arcade race
Arcade mode allows players to use any character they have unlocked so far on any event unlocked through story mode. Unlike story mode, each race's opponents are random. In the Xbox 360 and Wii versions of the game, there are three additional events only playable in arcade mode: Ghosting Mater, Mater's Speedy Circuit, and Mater's Countdown Cleanup.
VS
Two players can play together with any characters they have unlocked so far, but the number of playable events are limited. There is also the Pit Stop Challenge minigame from story mode, which is only playable in VS mode. The frame rate will drop while playing this mode.
Options
The options mode is where players go to change various settings of the game, such as control settings, profile data, and audio types. The "Cheats" button also allows players to enter cheat codes to gain access to various content of the game without having to meet the needed requirements to unlock them.
Bonus Content
King in the Bonus Content menu
Bonus Content serves as a "store" where players can spend their bonus points on characters, concept art, movie clips, and more.
Characters
The characters tab allows players to spend thier bonus points on new cars and paint jobs, for a certain price. The cars available are Doc, Ramone, Flo, Sheriff, Chick Hicks, Wingo, King, and Count Spatula.
Art
The art option gives players the ability to purchase concept art from the developers, divided into two categories, character and environment.
Videos
Three different categories of videos can be purchased here: deleted scenes, clips, and trailers. There are several deleted scenes that revolve around a story of Ramone talking to McQueen about how he "flew". There is also a variety of clips from the first Cars movie, ranging in duration of about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Characters
The game features 13 different playable characters, each one having their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as unique stats. There are also several more characters that appear throughout the game's story mode, that serve as opponents and event hosts.
Playable characters
| Photo | Name | Stats | Cost in bonus points |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Lightning |
Speed: 5 |
N/A |
 |
Mater |
Speed: 3 |
N/A |
 |
Sally |
Speed: 4 |
N/A |
 |
Doc |
Speed: 5 |
5,000 |
 |
Ramone |
Speed: 3 |
7,500 |
 |
Flo |
Speed: 4 |
6,000 |
 |
Sheriff |
Speed: 4 |
8,000 |
 |
Chick Hicks |
Speed: 5 |
10,000 |
 |
Wingo |
Speed: 4 |
12,000 |
 |
Darrell Cartrip |
Speed: 5 |
N/A |
|
King |
Speed: 5 |
12,000 |
 |
Lightning |
Speed: 4 |
N/A |
 |
Count Spatula |
Speed: 4 |
15,000 |
Other characters
Events
Events serve as the main feature of the gameplay, and are categorized into three different groups: road races, minigames, and Piston Cup races. Road races let the player drive on tracks in Radiator Springs, Tailfin Pass and Ornament Valley, minigames allow the players to play fun games with specific objectives, and Piston Cup races are longer than road races, but with simpler tracks.
Road Races
- Radiator Springs Grand Prix
- Radiator Cap Circuit
- Sally's Sunshine Circuit
- Doc's Challenge
- Boostin' with Fillmore
- North Desert Dash
- Sarge's Off-Road Challenge
- Sheriff's Chase
- Rustbucket Race-O-Rama
- Ornament Valley Circuit
- Sally's Wheel Well Sprint
- Doc's Check-Up
- Tailfin Pass Circuit
- Delinquent Road Hazards
- Monster Truck Mayhem
- Chick's Challenge
- Radiator Springs GP (night)
- Tailfin Pass GP
- Ornament Valley GP
Minigames
- Lizzie's Postcard Hunt
- Tractor Tipping
- Doc's Lesson: Powerslide
- Luigi to the Rescue
- Sarge's Boot Camp
- Mater's Backwards Lesson
- Sheriff's Hot Pursuit
- High Speed Heist
- Lightning Strikes Back
Piston Cup Races
- Palm Mile Speedway
- Motor Speedway of the South
- Sun Valley International Raceway
- Smasherville International Speedway
- Los Angeles International Speedway
Xbox 360 and Wii Bonus Games
These minigames are only available on the Xbox 360 and Wii versions, which were both released after the initial release of the game on other platforms.
Cheat Codes
- CHMPION - Unlock Hard (story mode only, not present in Wii version)
- CONC3PT - Unlock all concept art
- IF900HP - Unlock all mini-games
- IMSPEED - Get a high acceleration
- MATTL66 - Unlock all tracks
- R4MONE - Unlock all characters
- TRGTEXC - Unlock Master’s Speedy Circuit and Countdown Cleanup
- VROOOOM - Get a never-ending speed boost
- WATCHIT - Unlock all in-game movie clips
- YAYCARS - Unlock all cars
Opponents
Each story mode race features a different set of characters that compete in each race. In addition to the player, there are several CPU opponents, each one having a different speed level - there will be one very fast character, one fast character, one medium character, and one slow character. This system is very similar to the "rival order" that is featured in the Mario Kart game series.
| Course | Player | Very Fast | Fast | Medium | Slow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radiator Springs Grand Prix | Lightning | Doc | Sally | Fletcher | Ramone |
| Radiator Cap Circuit | Lightning | Fletcher | El Guapo | Gerald | Papo |
| Sally's Sunshine Circuit | Sally | Mia | Tia | Flo | |
| Doc's Challenge | Lightning | Doc | |||
| Boostin' with Fillmore | Lightning | Fillmore | Ramone | Mia | Tia |
| North Desert Dash | Lightning | El Guapo | Gerald | Fletcher | Papo |
| Sarge's Off-Road Challenge | Lightning | Sarge | Ramone | Fillmore | Sheriff |
| Sheriff's Chase | Lightning | Sheriff | |||
| Rustbucket Race-O-Rama | Mater | Zeke | Judd | Tommy Joe | Cletus |
| Ornament Valley Circuit | Lightning | Vince | Sonny | Lenny | Barry |
| Sally's Wheel Well Sprint | Lightning | Sally | |||
| Doc's Check-Up | Lightning | Doc | Fillmore | Ramone | Sheriff |
| Tailfin Pass Circuit | Lightning | Fletcher | Vince | Sonny | El Guapo |
| Delinquent Road Hazards | Lightning | Boost[1] | Wingo | DJ | Snot Rod |
| Monster Truck Mayhem | Lightning | Count Spatula | The Crippler | Ginormous | |
|
Chick's Challenge |
Lightning | Chick Hicks | Vince | Barry | Sonny |
| Radiator Springs GP | Lightning | Chick Hicks | Fletcher | Gerald | El Guapo |
| Tailfin Pass GP | Lightning | Chick Hicks | El Guapo | Gerald | Vince |
| Ornament Valley GP | Lightning | Chick Hicks | Vince | Sonny | Barry |
| Palm Mile Speedway | Lightning | Chick Hicks | Lee Jr. | Suregrip | Hollister |
| Motor Speedway of the South | Lightning | Chick Hicks | Hollister | Suregrip | Lee Jr. |
| Sun Valley International Raceway | Lightning | Chick Hicks | Guenther | Riley | Joltsen |
| Smasherville International Speedway | Lightning | Chick Hicks | Aikens | Riley | Joltsen |
| Los Angeles International Speedway | Lightning | Chick Hicks | Lee Jr. | Suregrip | Hollister |
Development
Cars: The Video Game was developed by THQ to be released on several different platforms. The console versions were powered by Rainbow Studios' engine, with the handheld versions running off of Havok.
The PC version of the game looked to be a direct port of the original Xbox game, as most file formats and size are identical.
Beta elements
- Main article: Cars: The Video Game/Beta elements
Reception
Overall, the game has received positive feedback. GameSpot gave 7.0 out of 10 for the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 2 versions, 7.6 out of 10 for the GameCube and Xbox versions, and 7.4 out of 10 for the PSP version. Metacritic gave 65 out of 100 for the Wii version, 54 out of 100 for the DS version, 73 out of 100 for the PC version, 71 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version, and 70 out of 100 for the PSP version.
Staff
- Main article: Cars: The Video Game/Staff
References to other media
- Cars: Several characters return from this movie, keeping all of the original voice actors. The game's story also takes place shortly after the events of the film.
References in later media
- Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures: All of McQueen's alternate paint jobs are the same as in Cars: The Video Game.
- Cars: Mater-National Championship: Although there are many changes to the open world in this game, there are still several areas and roads that remain the same.
- Cars: Race-O-Rama: All of the changes made in Cars: Mater-National Championship are no longer present, and the open world has returned to the way it was in this game, with the exception of a few new roads made specifically for Cars: Race-O-Rama.
Gallery
- For this subject's image gallery, see Cars: The Video Game/Gallery.
Media
| Game Music |
|---|
| High Speed Heist
|
| One More Chicken
|
Glitches
- Main article: Cars: The Video Game/Glitches
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Cars: The Video Game | Cars: The Video Game |
| French | Cars: The Video Game | Cars: The Video Game |
Trivia
- In the Xbox 360 version of the game, all of the racers, excluding Hollister, Cortland, Joltsen and Clarkson, have their numbers changed to the normal racers.
- The DS version of the game is much different than the console versions. It has a variety of mini-games to choose from, as well as a few Piston Cup races.
- The Game Boy Advance version only has four playable characters: Lightning McQueen, Doc Hudson, The King, and Chick Hicks. There are also unlockable pictures from the movie that the player can unlock and collect.
- The PSP version has its own story mode involving Boost, DJ, Wingo and Snot Rod as the main antagonists, and their friendship with Chick Hicks is revealed. There are 15 playable characters to choose from, with DJ, Snot Rod, Wingo, Boost and Chick Hicks as unlockable boss characters.
- If the player looks up in free drive mode, the clouds are tire treads, the same as in the movie.
- In the Xbox 360 version of the game, music doesn't play during the cutscenes and endscenes, while they do in other versions.
- The Xbox 360 and Wii versions use different 3D Models than other versions, for example, Gerald has smaller headlights and more streamlined hood, and Tommy Joe has dents on his trunk.
- The Piston Cup racers have different numbers and names, but the same sponsors, compared to the movie. That's because they are the reserve drivers.
- The Triplet Arrows in Ornament Valley are inspired on the actual Twin Arrows of the U.S. Route 66.
- The World's Largest Ball of Fan Belts, seen in Radiator Springs, is inspired by one of the various record fan belts.
- The last stripes at each end of the repaved road are shaped like lightning bolts.
- Like the film, the game is dedicated in memory of Joe Ranft.
- When the player visits Tailfin Pass in story mode, it will always be day time, even if the last event they played was at night time.
References
- ↑ Boost is often prone to setbacks in this race, and will sometimes finish in 4th as a result, behind Wingo and DJ.
Template:Cars: The Video Game