Calling all PS3 owners, Jaffe has delivered!
Calling All Cars is a game directed by the director of the original God of war, developed in Santa Monica studios, than published by Incognito. The game is available in the Playstation store and has a price tag for less than 10 dollars, $9.99. Gameplay
The gameplay in calling all cars is probably a totally different experience than anything you have played before. You battle to catch a villain against 3 other cops. You move around a 3/4 board perspective map. The car you move is extremely small and resembles a toy car. The main point of calling all cars is to put an escaped criminal back in jail, there are 5 ways total to do this. 3 of the ways is to drive him to a jail with 3 entrances, each one displays a point marker. 1 point entry is the easy way, while 2 is medium, and 3 is difficult. You can also take your escaped convict to a van that drives around to collect convicts, the downside to this is the car is very fast and sometimes hard to track down. The last way to gain points is to give the criminal to the helicopter, which sparks you 4 points but is easily the hardest way of getting points. Finding the criminal is helped by an arrow above your car that points in the direction you should go.
The goal of each game is to receive more points than your opponents, all 4 cars are in a constant battle to get the convict back in jail, you hit each other, slam into each other, and sometimes steal the convict at the last possible moment. the game has a time limit of usually 5 minutes, and the player with the most points wins the match. There are 3 items usable in the game. Those 3 are the hammer, the missile, and the magnet. The hammer attacks the floor in a wide range in order to hurt the car around you to release the convict. The missile attacks a specific opponent in order for them to release the convict. The magnet (the best weapon in the game) sucks the convict out of a car, or off the floor right into your possession. Controls
you move your mini car with the left analog stick, accelerate simply by moving the stick. To go slightly faster click the X button, to burst off with massive speed use the L2 button, however the L2 speed runs out. By pressing L1 you can jump into the air and dodge either the hammer, or the missile or you can jump to make it over a cliff, or to simply dodge a pile of cars. The R1 button fires your weapon, and the Square button puts you in reverse mode, or quickly stops you.
The controls in calling all cars are very weird at first play, however they get marginally better with about 10 minutes worth of practice. The controls are very solid and accurate for the type of game calling all cars is. However, making quick sharp turns can prove as a problem because you tend to drift to the side. That is probably my only complaint with the controls. Graphics
Calling all cars is a very pretty game in art direction. The game is extremely cartoony and gives off a pretty, colorful cel-shaded look. The game runs in 1080P and I have experienced absolutely no in game lag whatsoever. The graphics are smooth, the character animations in the beginning of a level are nice to look at, and the graphics are just very well made. Almost all the environments are destructive, and begin to crumble when hit. All the levels usually feature moving environments, and plenty of buildings, trees, and other neat things to look at. Sound
The sound effects in the game also give off a wild spark to it. The introduction voice overs give you the feeling of old cartoons like Rodger rabbit. The music in the background just keeps you engaged in all the action and is very simple, yet satisfying. The constant Police siren goes on throughout most of the game, and you get a cowboy like voice yelling at you in the background trying to aid you, by saying things like, "THE JAIL IS CLOSED!" or "THE JAIL IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!." The sound effects aren't amazing, but they offer a simple touch to it, and it fits in with the graphics of the game.
Lasting Appeal
COC surprisingly has some staying value into it. The single player offers 1 tournament, or a single game. There is 4 maps total, along with 4 difficultys. David Jaffe also made you beat the game under specific difficulties to unlock one of the many types of cars. The game offers split screen multiplayer, and a full fledged online play with up to 4 players.
The downside to multiplayer is that it doesn't let you use your friends list which can be annoying, however they try to soften this blow with allowing you to make private matches with a password entry. The multiplayer is made EXACTLY like twisted metal head on's for PSP. But once again, 4 maps is a major sting to the lasting appeal, but the game after all was a budget title. For $9.99 there is a lot of time to be spent in calling all Cars.
Closing Comments
Calling All Cars is probably one of the weirdest games I've played in a long time. IMO It is the best game available on the PSN, and can compete with anything microsoft has on their XBLA. Calling All Cars proves that a game can be different while using a normal controller, and that you do not need motion sensing in order to be innovative. Calling All Cars is arguably one of the best exclusive PS3 titles available right now, an overall well built package. For $9.99 you simply must buy calling all cars.