Cars Mater-National Championship

Cars Mater-National Championship is a step up from the original Cars Nintendo DS video game. This THQ published video game is an actual racing game. Lightning, Mater, Doc, and many more are selectable characters that get to race at amazing speeds (editor: many have to be unlocked first though). The storyline from the last Disney Pixar Cars video games is continued as international cars come to race Lightning in his brand new headquarters, and race track. This new race track is something to be seen that this reviewer really enjoyed.

The images in Cars Mater-National Championship are classic characters from the Cars universe. Plenty of colors are used on the various machines, and buildings. The tracks have a nice 3D look to them, but some of the background graphics suffer. There are enough different tracks to keep Nintendo DS gamers busy for quite some time. A few of them look too similar to previous tracks though.

There are some really cool sound bytes in this game from the different characters. The humor factor is pretty high, and it is the kind of humor children can understand as well. The racing sounds go along great with the action, and the game is very encouraging with most all of the sound bytes. The music is classic Cars that really adds to the game.

Cars Mater-National Championship has enough things to unlock, unearth, find, and play to keep you busy for months. The story mode can be beaten on easy (without unlocking anything) in five hours. There is so much else to do though. I cringe at recommending our wonderful readers spend their money on brand new video games, however this game is one of those that is worth it.

THQ makes sure the developer Tantalus Interactive got the controls spot on perfect. Cars Mater-National Championship feels the way I imagine racing Lightning would feel. The same goes for the other vehicles in this game. There is plenty of intelligent design to the race tracks, and a lot of forgiveness when I went off cliffs.

The only concern I can see with Cars Mater-National Championship is the speeding aspect. This is a fantasy world, and they are racing each other without the public being involves. Which leads me to a separation of street racing and this game. I would love to see some sequels, especially if the background graphics are improved. My pastor will be hearing from me about this game. I enjoyed the good sportsmanship that this Nintendo DS games teaches all of us.
- Sam