''Cars Mater-National Championship'' is a 2007 racing game published by THQ for the

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Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

, and

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

. The game received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel, ''

Cars Race-O-Rama ''Cars Race-O-Rama'' is a racing video game based on the ''Cars'' franchise that was released on October 12, 2009. It is the sequel to ''Cars Mater-National Championship'', which was released on October 29, 2007. Gameplay ''Cars Race-O-Rama'' ...

'', was released in 2009.

Premise and gameplay

Taking place sometime after the events of the previous game, ''Cars Mater-National Championship'' is about the first ever ''Mater-National'' tournament, held in Radiator Springs by

Lightning McQueen Montgomery "Lightning" McQueen is a fictional anthropomorphic stock car who is the protagonist of the animated Pixar franchise '' Cars'', primarily voiced by actor Owen Wilson. His appearances include the feature films '' Cars'', ''Cars 2'', and ...

and Mater. The player controls McQueen as he races against opponents from around the world, all while overseeing the building of his racing headquarters and the ambitious Radiator Springs racing stadium. In addition to returning characters, there are multiple new characters that appear in the game, many of which come from different countries such as Germany and Japan. Just like the previous game, ''Mater-National'' features three hub-worlds; Radiator Springs, Ornament Valley, and Tailfin Pass - all of which have been redesigned, although certain areas are blocked off and can only be accessed in races.

Playable Characters

There are 17 playable characters, with 5 of them being unlockable and 2 of them are guest characters from '' Monsters, Inc.'' * Doc Hudson * Fillmore * Flo * Emma * Giovanni * Gudmund * Koji * Lightning McQueen * Luigi * Mater * Mike * Monster Lighting McQueen * Monster Mater * Otto * Ramone * Sarge * Sulley Notes

Reception

''Cars Mater-National'' has received average reviews from critics upon the release. ''PSXExtreme'' gave this game a 7.0, praising the better

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum * Digital audio, representation of sou ...

, but criticized the

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...

. '' IGN'' rated the Nintendo DS version of the game 6.8/10, calling it "cute" and "kid-friendly" but never made into 5th gear.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

aggregate scores for the Nintendo DS version 69/100, the Xbox 360 version 58/100, the PlayStation 3 version 63/100, and the PlayStation 2 version 67/100.

References

External links

* {{Rainbow Studios 2007 video games Cars (franchise) video games Disney video games Game Boy Advance games Nintendo DS games Open-world video games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 3 games Racing video games THQ games Video games based on films Video games developed in Australia Video games set in Arizona Wii games Wii Wheel games Windows games Xbox 360 games Tantalus Media games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Rainbow Studios games