Cars:  Radiator Springs is an animated children’s racing game released in 2006 based on the Walt Disney/Pixar Animation movie of the same name. In story mode, the game is a sequel to the movie with events taking place roughly after the end of events in the movie version. In educational terms Cars: Radiator Springs  features problem solving and creativity. Problem solving includes mini-games, arcade races, and tactics. The gamer’s creativity is expressed by exploration of the town in story mode, which is open or sandbox style with items to discover and trigger points to launch mini-games. Cars: Radiator Springs  has three modes of play; story, arcade and head to head race. The story mode features two choices, a ‘Full Size’ or ‘Compact’. Full Size contains the entire story mode and Compact is a shorter version which may be easier for younger kids to follow. Arcade mode has three levels of difficulty and three different modes of play, the Piston Cup, Road Races and Mini-Games.

The game developer, Rainbow Studios, created a fun game using the lighthearted content of the successful film. Cars: Radiator Springs  is simple enough for a child (with a shortened story mode for youngsters) while engaging enough for an adult to be amused playing along. With a second controller, two persons can play in split screen. People of all ages can cruise around Radiator Springs in the role of their favorite car, Lightning McQueen, and the gamer will have to train Lightening rigorously in order to win the professional circuit against his arch rival Chick "Hicks" Murphy.

Being an arcade racing game set in an imaginary town, Cars: Radiator Springs  is not heavy with classroom facts, but we found a few automotive terms, basic result charts, simple math, common graphic aids of compass and mini-map, and a hearty dose of hand-eye coordination.

The gamer views a chart at the completion of every race showing lap times and on which lap the gamer had their best time. A second chart displays points earned based on position at the finish. Simple math came into play when our rater used basic addition and subtraction to calculate whether he had enough points to buying a car, custom paint colors or concept art. Cars: Radiator Springs employs a basic navigation compass, with a single indicator arrow that points north. As the gamer turns, the compass revolves around the screen. Because Cars has a sandbox layout in Story mode, the compass can be quite useful, and with it the gamer can determine which way they are headed and avoid becoming temporarily lost. The mini-map shows dots to represent the locations of events and mini-games. Green dots show events that have been completed while white dots show events that have been recently unlocked.

Cars: Radiator Springs  utilizes a few common automotive terms such as piston and radiator, but the game does not go into detail explaining them. The gamer can choose to read or listen to dialogue in story mode, and for some mini-games reading the directions is required.

By the Gamer:

Story mode is sandbox style and does not confine the gamer to a linear plot. Instead, the gamer can choose to have fun exploring the town and surrounding areas without competing in races or mini-games. There is one side quest where Lightening agrees to retrieve a collection of 40 post cards that were accidentally scattered all over town. This quest creates a natural incentive for Lightening to explore the game world. Another reward for exploration is the bonus points that are spread around the game world and can be collected to unlock features such as cars, paints, and artwork. There are also characters that can be unlocked with points earned in story mode. The characters unlocked can be used in arcade or versus mode. Cars:  Radiator Springs features many side quests and mini-games for the gamer to choose from ranging from tractor tipping to off-roading with Sarge. There are only a few mini-games to pick from in the beginning, but as the gamer progresses more become available.

Cars:  Radiator Springs lets the gamer be creative with their choice of music. Road Races, Piston Cup and Explore modes allow the gamer to choose from a selection of music on the Jukebox. Selections of the Jukebox include popular music by classic artists such as the Stray Cats, Edgar Winter Group, All American Rejects, and Lynard Skynard.

By the Developer:

The developers, Rainbow Studios created a game which nicely follows the film of the same name. The game is unique and offers a wide variety of modes of play to give the gamer plenty of hours of entertainment. The visual style is cartoon and works well with the plot and scheme of the game. The music is upbeat, setting a fun and lighthearted mood.

The sense of immersion felt when playing a game like Cars differs from person to person. A teen gamer who wants a simulation game with realistic racing and optimizing cars will not prefer this game. On the other hand, a gamer looking for a fun, light hearted, animated racing game with a little of everything will find Cars:  Radiator Springs very enjoyable.

Cars: Radiator Springs includes a few business skills worth mentioning. The gamer earns points based on where they finish in races, with more points awarded the higher Lightening places. There are other ways of earning points, such as collecting bonus points around the game world, but racing seems more efficient. The points earned permit the gamer to unlock new colorful paint jobs, as well as new cars like Chick "Hicks" Murphy and Doc Hudson. Every time the gamer buys something new their points reduce and the gamer must return to story mode if they want to accumulate more points.

Multiplayer:

This a multiplayer game by way of split-screen play. This means that unless the gamer has a friend to play with, the gamer will be always be interacting with computer opponent (the "AI"). There is no cooperative play, meaning Multiplayer games are only available in Arcade and Head to Head modes. Our rater found playing with another person more fun and challenging than playing against the AI, although the mini-games with levels proved challenging at the higher levels.

Single player:

The AI characters are fairly lifelike in speech and actions. While the AI characters are essentially just an offbeat collection of cars, their speech and eye movement are animated well, and more importantly, each car expresses an individual personality. There is a complex relationship between Chick Hick Murphy and Lightning McQueen. Chick wants to beat Lightning in the race but he is constantly belittling Lightning. Mater, the tow truck, is a quirky character that adds a lot of fun and humor to the game. His appearance and way of talking is humorous but he displays good human qualities and is a good friend to Lightning.

Cars: Radiator Springs earns most of its educational points for problem solving. While kids games based on a movie are too often disappointing, Cars holds its own as a video game. Sound tactics and strategy are important to beating the mini-games and driving tactics can help the gamer place better in races, earning more points.

Each mini-game has higher levels of difficulty that can be played after bearing the lower levels. An example is Tractor Tippin’ with Mater. The gamer drives Mater around a field scaring tractors with his horn which in turn makes them spin their wheels and fall backwards. Problems solving comes into play when Frank, a grain harvester, walks around the field looking for Mater. The gamer must avoid being caught by Frank or various searchlights that reveal the characters position. The lowest level was easy, but at the higher levels our skilled video game rater was caught several times.

Three difficulty levels are available in arcade mode so when the gamer is ready they can progress from Rookie to Pro and on to Champion. In story mode, there are two difficulty levels and the gamer must solve a slew of mini-games and races to complete each mode.

While Cars: Radiator Springs shares some elements of a driving simulator it is arcade style. Lightening can’t be rolled and collisions while racing neither damages the cars nor degrades their performance. The controls are fairly simple, but the gamer must use timing to brake or accelerate in order to achieve the most effective turns and jumps.

Video games are often cranked out to capitalize on the popularity of a movie, sometimes with disappointing results. Cars: Radiator Springs turns out to be one of the better movie tie-ins based upon its open game play in story mode and solid collection of mini games.

We award Cars: Radiator Springs extra credit for humor and diversity. The developer added different accents and speech for the AI characters.

There are three difficulty settings in Arcade mode which are rookie, pro and champion; and two difficulty settings in Story mode, which are full size and compact. Being a child friendly video game based on a Disney/Pixar film, the game does not need any parental controls. This game can be paused at any time. It has sound and music volume as well as an option to speed up or slow down the dialogue. There is an international friendly option where the gamer can display the speedometer either in Kilometers or Miles Per Hour. Cars: Radiator Springs comes with a cheat codes option that makes it easy to modify the game with cheat codes.