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IGN Review of Cars
Much like the rest of the never-ending movie-to-game conversions out there, Cars for the Game Boy Advance has hit shelves just in time to capitalize on the fame of its license. We've been following the console version for some time now, as THQ has been using developer Rainbow Studios (famous for the MX vs. ATV series) to bring Cars to the major systems in style. For the GBA rendition, developer Helixe has dropped into the drivers seat in hopes of bringing the pocket version as much speed and entertainment as gamers expect from the larger productions. What fans will get in the final product, however, will make them wish they held out for the movie's release for their fix of Cars.
The basic design of Cars is really quite simple, as it can essentially take the premise of the movie and directly mold it into a suitable genre. We honestly can't tell you how many times a movie releases and floods the shelves (and our desks) with yet another generic action platformer. It's the most common genre in 2D gaming, so naturally it is done to death. Cars for GBA works the obvious racing angle, however, so the transition is expected to be quite smooth. The team over at Helixe took the four main characters in the game (Lightning McQueen, Doc Hudson, The King and Chick Hicks) and plopped them into a 2D perspective racing engine similar to Rock N' Roll Racing for GBA, or more recently the cult classic Racing Gears Advance. The design incorporates everything you'd expect from a basic "get it out the door" licensed game, such as storyboards for driving (pun intended) the plot, multiple playable characters from the movie and unlockable content taken directly from the big screen (in this case, 16 screenshots). When it comes to execution, however, there are more than a handful of issues to be found.
For starters, Cars GBA is a licensed title, so it automatically suffers from a basic requirement that all publishers ask of their developers, and that is the character size. Since the game is supposed to center around the franchise, the characters have to take up a large portion of the screen so that the player can see them clearly at all times. We've seen this countless times, and it seems to be a staple of all licensed products. After all, on a GBA it's a bit difficult to showcase key characters if they aren't a tad on the large side. This is especially rough on the Cars design, however since it means the camera is given a very zoomed-in feel, and reaction times need to be extremely high in order to be successful at the game. Tracks are filled with speed boosts, slow-down traps and pedestrian cars. Team that with the speed Cars attempts to deliver and you have a very difficult game right off the bat.
There are a few ways this could have been handled, and though Helixe did try to make the best of a tough situation it's difficult to overcome such a huge design restriction. During the race, on-screen turn prompts will flash, telling players which way to turn. The indicators definitely help, but they are often too late or timed differently for each turn, so knowing exactly when to make your move is still a ton of guess work. There's no on-screen map at all times either, so the L button swaps in a very small map to take the place of the turn indicators. This really doesn't help though, as the map seems to be an afterthought and is basically a rough sketch of the level and not a true representation of where turns are. Oftentimes the map will show a slight dip in the road which is actually just an icon that isn't lined up rather than an actual low-angle turn. In the end the majority of players will force themselves to use only the on-screen turn indicator.
Though the camera zoom is one of the primary problems with the design, making the game deceptively difficult, the control simply isn't tight enough for what the tracks intend. Navigating the characters is essentially the same as driving an RC car, so turning is based on the car's position on the screen. There's a bit of an odd feel to the steering though, as pressing left or right doesn't rotate the car as expected. When a direction is pressed the car rotates only slightly and then is automatically straightened out by the computer to keep the driver on the road, almost as if switching lanes. Since the car is constantly repositioning itself, the control feels clunky, rather than just having it drive in the direction the front of the car is pointing. Sometimes simple is better, and the basic control in Cars is a definite poster child for that.
In fact, nearly every facet of the Cars design seems very watered down, which could definitely be an indication of a rushed project. The interface screens are amazingly simple, having only one save slot and no additional features outside of the main game. Controls are handled with only A and B, and the only function of the options menu is to flip which is gas and which is brake. There are only 11 main tracks in the game, and four of the Piston Cup races (the actual "Nascar" events) are all very simple in design. Beating the game the first time through took just over an hour, which opened up nothing aside from a few more screenshots. In fact, though there are four total racers in the game they can only be used on tracks that have already been beaten, so if players never go back to beat tracks multiple times (to collect the remaining unlockable screenshots) Lightning McQueen is the only character in use. As a final oddity to the execution, we saw slowdown occur when multiple racers (usually three or more) were on the screen at once, and no in-game music is used while a race is in session. Just odd.
©2006-06-08, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The basic design of Cars is really quite simple, as it can essentially take the premise of the movie and directly mold it into a suitable genre. We honestly can't tell you how many times a movie releases and floods the shelves (and our desks) with yet another generic action platformer. It's the most common genre in 2D gaming, so naturally it is done to death. Cars for GBA works the obvious racing angle, however, so the transition is expected to be quite smooth. The team over at Helixe took the four main characters in the game (Lightning McQueen, Doc Hudson, The King and Chick Hicks) and plopped them into a 2D perspective racing engine similar to Rock N' Roll Racing for GBA, or more recently the cult classic Racing Gears Advance. The design incorporates everything you'd expect from a basic "get it out the door" licensed game, such as storyboards for driving (pun intended) the plot, multiple playable characters from the movie and unlockable content taken directly from the big screen (in this case, 16 screenshots). When it comes to execution, however, there are more than a handful of issues to be found.
For starters, Cars GBA is a licensed title, so it automatically suffers from a basic requirement that all publishers ask of their developers, and that is the character size. Since the game is supposed to center around the franchise, the characters have to take up a large portion of the screen so that the player can see them clearly at all times. We've seen this countless times, and it seems to be a staple of all licensed products. After all, on a GBA it's a bit difficult to showcase key characters if they aren't a tad on the large side. This is especially rough on the Cars design, however since it means the camera is given a very zoomed-in feel, and reaction times need to be extremely high in order to be successful at the game. Tracks are filled with speed boosts, slow-down traps and pedestrian cars. Team that with the speed Cars attempts to deliver and you have a very difficult game right off the bat.
There are a few ways this could have been handled, and though Helixe did try to make the best of a tough situation it's difficult to overcome such a huge design restriction. During the race, on-screen turn prompts will flash, telling players which way to turn. The indicators definitely help, but they are often too late or timed differently for each turn, so knowing exactly when to make your move is still a ton of guess work. There's no on-screen map at all times either, so the L button swaps in a very small map to take the place of the turn indicators. This really doesn't help though, as the map seems to be an afterthought and is basically a rough sketch of the level and not a true representation of where turns are. Oftentimes the map will show a slight dip in the road which is actually just an icon that isn't lined up rather than an actual low-angle turn. In the end the majority of players will force themselves to use only the on-screen turn indicator.
Though the camera zoom is one of the primary problems with the design, making the game deceptively difficult, the control simply isn't tight enough for what the tracks intend. Navigating the characters is essentially the same as driving an RC car, so turning is based on the car's position on the screen. There's a bit of an odd feel to the steering though, as pressing left or right doesn't rotate the car as expected. When a direction is pressed the car rotates only slightly and then is automatically straightened out by the computer to keep the driver on the road, almost as if switching lanes. Since the car is constantly repositioning itself, the control feels clunky, rather than just having it drive in the direction the front of the car is pointing. Sometimes simple is better, and the basic control in Cars is a definite poster child for that.
In fact, nearly every facet of the Cars design seems very watered down, which could definitely be an indication of a rushed project. The interface screens are amazingly simple, having only one save slot and no additional features outside of the main game. Controls are handled with only A and B, and the only function of the options menu is to flip which is gas and which is brake. There are only 11 main tracks in the game, and four of the Piston Cup races (the actual "Nascar" events) are all very simple in design. Beating the game the first time through took just over an hour, which opened up nothing aside from a few more screenshots. In fact, though there are four total racers in the game they can only be used on tracks that have already been beaten, so if players never go back to beat tracks multiple times (to collect the remaining unlockable screenshots) Lightning McQueen is the only character in use. As a final oddity to the execution, we saw slowdown occur when multiple racers (usually three or more) were on the screen at once, and no in-game music is used while a race is in session. Just odd.
©2006-06-08, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved