Cars 3: Driven to Win (Multi)
By: Warner
DESPITE the original’s lukewarm reception, a merchandising juggernaut ensured Pixar's terrifying vision of self-aware, emotional jalopies got a third spin on the cinematic track this week.
Cars 3 is, obviously, a work of digital art, though its fancy paint job doesn't have much under the hood. Without reinventing the wheel, the Rocky-esque comeback plot at least leaves the god-awful Cars 2 in the breaker’s yard and means Lightning can retire with some dignity.
And with more benign autophilia from the folks at Pixar comes the inevitable videogame tie-in, though there’s cause for optimism here. Cars 2 was that rare game that trumped its source material, with a finely tuned series of globetrotting events and arena battles racing the pulses of prepubescent petrol-heads.
Taking place after the events of Cars 3, Driven to Win once again features Lightning McQueen and his band of anthropomorphic autos taking another lap around the virtual asphalt, racing across the globe to secure a championship against rival Jackson Storm.
Based on locations from the movie and channelling the loose controls and arcade-style frolics of Mario Kart, there are up to 20 characters and 13 environments to unlock across a range of modes, from standard racing to battles, stunt showcases, takedown events and best-lap challenges.
The tracks, alas, are a confusing web of shortcuts and obstacles and it’s easy to lose your way. And if the course design doesn’t stymie your designs on the podium, the rubber-banding AI will. Long overtaken enemies will either catch up without rhyme nor reason or seemingly teleport in front of you, while their stockpile of weapons is infinite.
Such difficulty seems at odds with the target audience, though they’ll no doubt spend the bulk of their time in Takedown, the game’s equivalent of Burnout’s Crash mode. Armed to the grille with missiles and bombs, players must destroy as many opponents as possible across a timed race and there are plenty of cheap yuks to be had obliterating its cutesy cast with missiles (though I really hope the younger cars don’t feel pain).
Showboaters can fill their boost meter by performing stunts, such as driving backwards or flipping on to two wheels, all the while trying to complete as many of the game’s 136 skill-checks as possible. Best of all, every mode is playable in offline split-screen for up to four players, a welcome throwback to the huddled heyday of the console racer.
No cheap tie-in (though the fact that physical copies are exclusive to Argos may mean the kids of Cherry Valley will go without), Cars 3 is polished, tough and stuffed with enough Itchy and Scratchy levels of cartoon violence to sate its young fanbase. Though while it passes the MoT, Mario Kart can sleep easy.
