Don't be fooled by the images and the box cover: this is *NOT* a racing game.
So what that it is a movie tie-in game. There have been other movie-based games that did well.....right...? Didn't Rocky have a GBA game?
So, I scooped up a copy of Cars and tossed it in for an evening of 3D racing with two screens to look ahead.
The game starts out as a collection of minigames, most of which are along the lines of Whack-a-mole, target fishing, and other classics, but disguised in layers of very pretty 3D character renderings from Disney's latest Pixar Production Cars. They claim that these minigames will lead up to unlocking an actual racing game. They lie.
When you play through the multiple versions of whack-a-mole (which you are forced to go, by the way), you enter the racing tournament proper, where you are told you may steer with the control pad, and accelerate with the A button. OK, here comes the racing, right? Wrong.
The accelerate button merely makes your car move up the screen toward the top, without getting any faster, while the brake button moves your car down to the bottom to more easily avoid the traffic hulring down from the top screen. The 'steering' allows you to switch lanes to avoid said traffic. That's it. There is no track to speak of, since the track is scrolling underneath you at a relatively constant rate. So, no track means no cornering, no negotiating s-curves no drifting...just switch lanes to avoid the falling cars.There is only one other competitor-car you need to beat across the finish line, and there is no way to get away from that car. This one guy buzzes around you, smashing through traffic that slows you down if you were to hit it, and generally cheating its way along as you swerve to avoid the oncoming cars that your competition can apparently ignore.
So, you are left with a so-called racing game where all you do is switch lanes to avoid traffic, and punch the accelerate button when the finish line is coming up to make sure you are ahead of the one cheating car you need to beat. Woo hoo.
I am reminded of an old arcade game where you control a plastic car on a wire, on a track that is scrolling underneath you with cars appearing for you to dodge by switching lanes. It wasn't that much fun then, it itsn't much better with spiffy graphics now.
The minigames are mildly entertaining, and there are quite a few of them (15 I think), but when you expect racing and instead get a minigame where you have to run from stall to stall in a drive-in rubbing the cars to make them happy (an inappropriate metaphor, especially in what I now see is a game targeting 6 year olds), the experience is disappointing to say the least.
I suppose if you see this for what it is, a collection of race-themed minigames, then you might enjoy yourself. If you expected an isometric-perspective racing game, you have to either wait for micro machines, or try to find an old copy of hot-wheels racing for the GBA.