Cars [DS]

In the entertainment world, summer equates to massive movies and the games that promote them. Sometimes the movie tie-in factor doesn't get in the way of quality, but most of the time good gameplay isn't as important as creating another reason to have a movie's logo splashed across shelves. Such is the case with the DS version of Cars. This blatant cash-in is little more than a collection of mini-games with a sketchy framework tying them together.

The framework is the Piston Cup, which plays a prominent role in the film. To get there, you'll have to complete mini-games which feature the film's characters, though each features no voice acting, and therefore little personality. Inspiration isn't in abundance as you stack tires, outrun the cops, and perform a Simon-Says game with a stoplight. Each of the minis is far too long; they trade WarioWare's channel-flicking brevity for several rounds of tedium. Cars gets a lot of things wrong, but paramount among the failures is an inability to recognize when enough is enough.

Finish one batch of three mini-games and you'll be able to race a round in the Piston Cup. Win that round and three more minis are unlocked. Given the design, neither achievement is much of a reward.

The Piston Cup races use both screens in a sort of top down view; the actual racing manages to be completely unlike either NASCAR or any entertaining form of car racing. It's like a hybrid of Super-Sprint top-down games and modern in-cockpit racing. It's impossible to see what's coming, so the game relies on patterns of car placement; your goal is to navigate the patterns, though winning is based more on chance than good racing. It's an achievement, really, to mess up such a simple thing.

A couple of decent mini-games are hidden in the mix. Flo's Cafe, which has you serving gas to rapid-fire customers and reminds us of Root Beer Tapper in a generally pleasant way, is even among the three that don't have to be unlocked. Another has you fishing with Mater, though some voice work would have made it better. But even these games get old as you play through the required number of rounds to clear each one. At least the mini-games frequently make good use of both screens, with good (and instantly recognizable) versions of the film's characters.

Even with those few good moments, the entire package feels like a betrayal of the brand name, especially given the fact that the console and PSP games bearing the same name are pretty good, not to mention totally different from this one. Even if you're absolutely infatuated with the Cars premise, this is no way to show the love.