- Cars: Mater-National Championship (PlayStation 3)

I've had this game for about a month now. I haven't played it all the way through, but I've had a good time with the races I've done. Basically, the game has a story mode where you play as Lightning McQueen (it's set in the time period after the movie) and you engage in various races for different reasons. You drive around the town and area of Radiator Springs and as you go you find places that have races for you to do.

The bottom line here are the races. I've played a lot of racing games from Gran Turismo to Need for Speed and I actually found this to be challenging. If fact, I was pretty angry at first that I didn't immediately start beating this "kid's game!" Of course, I started off in the "Champion Mode" because it was a "kid's game." But, once I learned the race course, I was able to place first. (I know, you're really impressed.)

My daughter is almost five and she likes the game but is just a bit too young to really be able to play. So, she gets frustrated. But, she still likes trying to play it. The kids love the Pixar characters so that's fun.

The game has a lot to recommend. The racing is fun. The graphics are really great, very sharp and clean. There are cute things like the cars talk to each other when they're racing, like taunting each other as they pass. Mater is fun to drive (in arcade mode, for example) because his tow cable whips around when he catches air as if it were a tail (remaining true to the movie, too, if I remember correctly).

So, it's a fun game. Play it with your kids. Unlike many games based on movies it appears that they were actually interested in making a good racing game for young ones instead of simply cashing in on the name-recognition.
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