Disney Pixar Cars 2

My honest reaction when I first loaded this up was relief: relief that Avalanche Software actually built a proper kart racer instead of a lazy movie cash-in. The combat racing here has real bones to it, with drifting, boosting, jumping, stunts, and a full weapon kit including energy beams, missiles, and impulse shocks spread across modes called Race, Battle Race, Hunter, Attack, Survival, Arena, and Disruptor. That is a genuinely meaty mode list for a family title, and most of it holds up. The spy-training framing, built around C.H.R.O.M.E. (Command Headquarters for Recon Operations and Motorized Espionage), gives the game a loose mission structure. You pick from a roster of over 20 characters including Lightning McQueen, Mater, Finn McMissile, and Holley Shiftwell, earning Spy Points as currency, unlocking Badges and Crests, and climbing through six Clearance Levels. The smart move Avalanche made here is that unlocking a new Clearance Level opens all its content immediately across every mode, so you are never stuck grinding a single event type just to see the next track. Cars also pull off tricks you would not see in a standard kart game: backwards driving, two-wheel driving, air tricks, and sidestep dodges that make the handling feel distinct from the usual genre fare. Now the part that matters most to me: the couch multiplayer. The full campaign, including C.H.R.O.M.E. missions, is playable in four-player split-screen, and the performance holds steady throughout. For a Saturday night with kids in the room, that alone clears the bar. Grab four controllers, throw it on, and the chaos basically organises itself. Battle Race mode in particular is exactly as loud and anarchic as you want it to be. The big caveat is that there is zero online multiplayer, which was a genuine criticism even at launch and stings more now that most players are not all in the same living room. The PC version carries its own set of warnings. Graphics settings are preset-only with no individual sliders, and some machines hit a resolution ceiling well below 1080p. A music looping bug tied to CPU threading can crash the game mid-event, which is frustrating and has not been patched. The visuals were already showing their age at the Steam launch in 2014, and modders have stepped in with things like higher-detail character models and proper controller button prompts, but you should not need third-party fixes for basics. Solo play is also noticeably thinner: the lack of a proper story mode means single-player is essentially time-trialling the same tracks you will race with friends anyway, and the appeal drops fast without a second player. Bottom line for my audience: if you have kids aged six to twelve who clock Cars movies on repeat, or if you are hunting for a no-setup four-player couch game that even non-gamers can enjoy, this delivers. Adults playing solo will check out within an hour. Patch the threading bug before your first session, accept the controller requirement, and manage expectations on the PC port quality. The fun is real, the multiplayer is the point, and everything else is fine print.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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