Cars: Mater-National for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

Let me start by saying this first, if you are looking for PGR or Forza, this isnt is. Hopefully if you are picking up a game with "Cars" on it, you know what to expect.

Graphics-6/10

Cars wont "Wow" you with its graphics. Its not Bioshock or Gears of War, but it isnt expecially ugly. The graphics are passible especially considering kids are the main focus. The cutscenes are pretty and most of graphics are taken right out of the first Cars game. The textures are decent and there arent any glaring issues. Nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about either.

Gameplay-6/10

This is a simple, shallow and easy kids game. That being said, you can adjust the difficulty if you find it too easy. The game is basically some races mixed into repeating the same mini-games over and over. Some are decent and challenging like "Tractor Tipping", while others like the "Monster Trucks Inc" levels are boring and easy. There is a variety of mini games and the racing parts are fun, but you have to do each mini-game 7-9 times to get the achievements, which gets repetitive after a while. Overall, it is mildly fun and has pretty easy achievements to get.

Replay Value-2/10
Unless you havent gotten all of the achievements, you wont really care about replaying this game. It took me just a few hours to beat the game and get all the achievements. It was ok while it lasted ,but I could care less about playing it again. It might be fun to play some of the mini-games with two players, but I didnt try it.

Overall-6/10
I gave it a pretty good score because the achievement were part of the game and not too hard, but hard enough that you actually felt like you did something. Not a bad game to rent especially for kids and one that anybody should have a good time with for a short period.

I'm a self proclaimed achievement addict, so I play a lot of games. But I don't think I've ever popped in a game and not been able to tell if I was playing the original or the sequel. There are more changes in Madden every year than there were in this sequel to the original.

In all fairness, there are some new mini games (some of which were better than the original) and some changes to the overall story. But in all honestly, this is a cheap cash-in to make a few more dollars on a popular franchise. The first game sold great on most systems, so let's do it again.

The gameplay is fairly fun overall. The races are pretty easy - I'd imagine even for kids. The biggest challenge can be found in the somewhat recycled minigames. The game is short with little replay value. There are many better games for kids in all respects: Bee Movie, Simpsons, Meet The Robinsons to name a few.

All that said, I mainly wrote the review to warn owners of the first Cars game to beware of this title. If your child already owns Cars, you could delete the save file and start over. It would practically be the same thing as renting or purchasing this game. Only Cars newcomers or achievement addicts should bother with Cars Mater-National.