Cars: Fast as Lightning 10/20/2014

I'm going to be honest.  I did not have much merit in Cars: Fast as Lightning.  It's not Game Loft's fault; Disney has yet to impress me with a mobile offering that either wasn't completely unplayable due to bugs or didn't get incredibly boring after half an hour.

Image from Android Blog

However, Cars: Fast as Lightning is actually pretty fun.  For those outside the demographic to be interested in the Cars films, Cars centers around Lightning McQueen, a race car who, naturally, races, and winds up being stuck and then enamored with the small town of Radiator Springs, based off of Route 66.  The game seems to pick up between Cars and Cars 2, as Lightning is now in the business of everyone being able to design their own race tracks and ultimately visiting Radiator Springs themselves.  

Game Loft has taken what would have been another run-of-mill mobile racing game and combined with town simulator aspects.  The user unlocks both new features for the race track, as well as buildings and decorations for Radiator Springs, the town from the movie Cars.  You get to race as pretty much every character featured in the films, which is an impressive roster.  On top of a large amount of characters, customizable track and city, there are also two different unlockable paint jobs for each character.

Each car has a base speed, seen just before each match.  Eventually you will face off against an opponent that you simply can not beat.  This is part of the game, and requires you to go to the garage in town for a "tune up" which boosts your speed.

Each upgrade takes an increasing amount of coins and time.  Coins are earned through buildings built in Radiator Springs.  There is also premium currency that can be purchased or earned which can speed up the process.

Image from Windows Phone Central

The game has really well done cutscenes.  I was impressed by the level of effort put into to not just the key components of the game, but the cutscenes before each race, as well as during story moments.  The controls are very easy, and do not include turning your phone sideways.  There is a gas pedal in the bottom right corner during races.  Simply hold it on straightaways and briefly release it on turns.  To perform tricks, an onscreen prompt appears telling you to swipe the screen in a certain direction.  Easy peasy.

The game took a potentially boring game and gave the user lots of things to do at once.  The player has missions to complete, which include building certain tricks for their race tracks, having certain buildings in town, and receiving certain upgrades.  When on the Radiator Springs screen, the townspeople will want to visit certain buildings for quick cash, albeit not a lot of it.  The game has the actual voices of Mater and Lightning, Larry the Cable Guy and Owen Wilson respectively.  This makes the game actually feel like a short between the two films.

The downside of the game is it is a little repetitive, as racing and town sims usually are.  The stickers side quest is a bit annoying as in order to earn stickers, which unlock new paint jobs, you have to race each individual racer on each track.  Reracing the same character does not earn new stickers, you have to beat each and every one.  Every single time.  Like all Disney games I have played thus far, the game is a little buggy, but not to the point where it is unbearable.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this, and if Disney was smart they would let Game Loft make more of their content.