Disney Pixar Cars Toon: Maters Tall Tales

My first question whenever a couch party game lands on my desk is simple: can four people pick it up, laugh for an hour, and walk away happy? Mater's Tall Tales gets about halfway there, and honestly, for the age group it is aimed at, that might be enough. The game is built around six tall tales - Rescue Squad Mater, Mater the Greater, El Materdor, Monster Truck Mater, Unidentified Flying Mater, and Tokyo Mater - each one broken into a set of short minigames that mirror the animated shorts. Across both Tall Tales Mode and Freeplay Mode, you get roughly 30 minigames in total, covering everything from dodging bulldozers and fighting tractors to racing through crowded streets and fleeing UFOs. The variety is genuinely impressive for a licensed kids title, and the Pixar visual quality comes through clearly. Minigames reward speed and accuracy with bronze, silver, or gold trophies, and coins can be spent customising your own car - body shape, colour, spoilers, wheels, vinyl - which gives younger players something to chase between sessions. Here is where I have to be straight with you though. If you are not a Cars fan aged roughly five to ten, the minigames feel thin pretty quickly. Critics and players have consistently noted that individual games lean simple, some run longer than they should, and a handful are just not that engaging even for kids. The bigger structural annoyance is that Freeplay and party modes are locked behind Tall Tales Mode progress, which means a parent or older sibling may need to grind through the story before the younger ones can jump in freely. That is a frustrating design choice for a game marketed on spontaneous, pick-up-and-play fun. On the hardware side, the game requires a gamepad - keyboard support is basically non-existent in practice - so make sure you have controllers sorted before sitting the kids down. There is no true split-screen racing mode here; this is a minigame collection, closer in spirit to Rayman Raving Rabbids than to any traditional kart racer. Multiplayer exists but community reports suggest it works best as a shared-controller experience rather than simultaneous competitive play, so temper expectations for a full four-player simultaneous setup. Who actually gets value from this? Kids who love the Mater shorts will recognise every scene and laugh at the right moments - the writing captures the tone of the cartoons well, and the Pixar polish on the presentation is hard to fault. Parents looking for something non-violent and genuinely age-appropriate for under-tens will find it ticks those boxes comfortably. Adults or older players wanting a party game with real depth or competitive racing mechanics should look elsewhere. The Mixed Steam rating (78% positive from a small pool) tells the real story: fans of the source material enjoy it, everyone else finds it passable at best.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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