Cars: Mater-National Championship for Nintendo DS is a racing game, as you can probably expect from the Cars franchise.
The racing mechanics are fairly standard. The game features a boost mechanic, though it’s not quite arcadey like in Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour. I didn’t even realize how to do the boost at first, the reverse button needs to be tapped when sliding, then you need to be careful about balancing yourself after you’re done racking boost, with X button activating said boost. The AI opponents feature rubber banding, so they will slow down if you’re behind, but will almost always be on your tail if you’re ahead. The boost is only really useful if you’re behind your opponents, and its pretty effective for cutting corners because you can speed through land that normally slows you down (I don’t know if you’re unaffected by it at all, or the slow down is simply not noticeable enough). AI can also take advantage of the shortcuts that can be found in those race tracks.
The game does actually feature extras while racing through story mode. Each track (with the exception of the versus races) has a token that can be found if you drive through a specific path. These are basically optional challenges, and do make the game a little more interesting, like jumping over cactuses with L button, or avoiding oncoming planes or boulders, I do like these, as they break up the monotony of standard racing somewhat. There is one token that has no challenge for it for some reason, where a helicopter will hold said token in the background while you just… race forward, as if the developers forgot to put obstacles. These optional routes can be hidden quite well. I actually kinda cheated to get one of them by going the wrong way in one of the later tracks, though in the end I did miss one token because I was more focused on getting done with the game. These tokens unlock new characters to race as, as well as new paint jobs for the cars. I don’t know if different characters have different stats, because the game doesn’t tell you anything.
So how does the racing actually feel? How does the game play? Well… I think it’s pretty vanilla. It’s just standard racing, there’s nothing really crazy. Every track in the story mode awards you a number of stars, based on your performance, and you’re actually REQUIRED to get first place in all of the tracks to get through the story mode fully. The rubber banding gets more aggressive and the tracks become trickier the further you progress. Some tracks can change dynamically on each loop, like how some of the later tracks open up a different path to race through, or new obstacles appear, which does make it more interesting. One thing I didn’t like is that sometimes the AI opponents can throw you off balance and ram you off the road or into a pit or something. Though you can do the same to them, but it’s difficult to pull off. Another thing that occasionally frustrated me, is that this game has physics, and sometimes there are ramps you jump off. You don’t have air control, so sometimes you can land on off-road or not even make the jump. Though this mostly happens with optional shortcuts, but it is pretty annoying when that happens. The very last track is actually pretty straightforward, I mean it’s just a stadium. There are a couple of tricky turns, but nothing to really throw you off, making it surprisingly not too difficult. In the end, I do find the gameplay to be a tad repetitive, since it’s so focused on racing tracks. You could argue that… bruh, it’s Cars! But I remember console/PC versions offering more, the little sandbox environments that can be explored, monster trucks and mater sections are what I remember from those versions… man, I really gotta replay one of those versions to see if the game is as good as I remember.
That’s not to say Cars: Mater-National Championship DS doesn’t offer more. Besides story mode, there’s also challenge mode. There are three types of challenges: cup collection, time attack and elimination. Cup collection revolves collecting cups scattered about, which tests your knowledge of the tracks, as some of the cups can be found in shortcuts. You’re still racing like normal, as there’s a ticking timer that refreshes after each loop, so you can’t just explore at your own leisure. Time attack tasks you with racing through rings on a strict time limit, with each ring giving you a slight timer gain. This mode tests your speed and the usage of the boosting mechanic. At the same time, I found out that running out of time doesn’t result in an instant game over, instead you’ll gradually slow down, and you still have a chance to get through one of those rings, which is how I actually managed to win one of those. Lastly, elimination. It’s standard racing, except the car in the last place gets eliminated, so... don't cross the loop while in last place (also I should mention that there are only 4 racers max for all of the game's races). While neat, I would argue that this challenge mode doesn’t add that much to the experience. It’s not like Sonic Generations, where those challenge missions where the main appeal to me personally, with all sorts of creative ideas. The missions in this game still focus on average racing mechanics. I guess it’s the kind of situation where the creativity is bounded by the genre or limited resources that the game provides. Cars 2 videogame actually benefitted from focusing on spy and weapon stuff. But that’s a discussion for another day.
Graphically, the game is alright. The game doesn’t have a consistent 30FPS, with a little dipping when there are other racers on screen, but it doesn’t bother me much. The music is actually pretty good, with Shin’en at it again. It shares a few tracks with the GBA version, in an enhanced/remixed form. One of the tracks is also a remix of one of the tracks from Disney’s Herbie: Fully Loaded (or even The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Tipton Caper). It’s still a solid soundtrack that I like to listen to. Although, I did notice the audio bugs that make the soundtrack inconsistent, like some channels disappear (I only really noticed this when checking the credits for its theme, where it sometimes sounds off). Pretty weird, as I didn't notice this sort of thing in any other game (that used Shin'en's sound engineering).
Overall, Cars Mater-National Championship DS is a pretty average racing game. There isn’t very much to get excited over, but it’s also not a bad time. It is better than the GBA version, if only because it provides MUCH more content than that version. The gameplay is fairly repetitive and occasionally frustrating, which can be broken down slightly with optional challenges and the hunt for tokens, but otherwise the game won’t leave a lasting dent.
The racing mechanics are fairly standard. The game features a boost mechanic, though it’s not quite arcadey like in Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour. I didn’t even realize how to do the boost at first, the reverse button needs to be tapped when sliding, then you need to be careful about balancing yourself after you’re done racking boost, with X button activating said boost. The AI opponents feature rubber banding, so they will slow down if you’re behind, but will almost always be on your tail if you’re ahead. The boost is only really useful if you’re behind your opponents, and its pretty effective for cutting corners because you can speed through land that normally slows you down (I don’t know if you’re unaffected by it at all, or the slow down is simply not noticeable enough). AI can also take advantage of the shortcuts that can be found in those race tracks.
The game does actually feature extras while racing through story mode. Each track (with the exception of the versus races) has a token that can be found if you drive through a specific path. These are basically optional challenges, and do make the game a little more interesting, like jumping over cactuses with L button, or avoiding oncoming planes or boulders, I do like these, as they break up the monotony of standard racing somewhat. There is one token that has no challenge for it for some reason, where a helicopter will hold said token in the background while you just… race forward, as if the developers forgot to put obstacles. These optional routes can be hidden quite well. I actually kinda cheated to get one of them by going the wrong way in one of the later tracks, though in the end I did miss one token because I was more focused on getting done with the game. These tokens unlock new characters to race as, as well as new paint jobs for the cars. I don’t know if different characters have different stats, because the game doesn’t tell you anything.
So how does the racing actually feel? How does the game play? Well… I think it’s pretty vanilla. It’s just standard racing, there’s nothing really crazy. Every track in the story mode awards you a number of stars, based on your performance, and you’re actually REQUIRED to get first place in all of the tracks to get through the story mode fully. The rubber banding gets more aggressive and the tracks become trickier the further you progress. Some tracks can change dynamically on each loop, like how some of the later tracks open up a different path to race through, or new obstacles appear, which does make it more interesting. One thing I didn’t like is that sometimes the AI opponents can throw you off balance and ram you off the road or into a pit or something. Though you can do the same to them, but it’s difficult to pull off. Another thing that occasionally frustrated me, is that this game has physics, and sometimes there are ramps you jump off. You don’t have air control, so sometimes you can land on off-road or not even make the jump. Though this mostly happens with optional shortcuts, but it is pretty annoying when that happens. The very last track is actually pretty straightforward, I mean it’s just a stadium. There are a couple of tricky turns, but nothing to really throw you off, making it surprisingly not too difficult. In the end, I do find the gameplay to be a tad repetitive, since it’s so focused on racing tracks. You could argue that… bruh, it’s Cars! But I remember console/PC versions offering more, the little sandbox environments that can be explored, monster trucks and mater sections are what I remember from those versions… man, I really gotta replay one of those versions to see if the game is as good as I remember.
That’s not to say Cars: Mater-National Championship DS doesn’t offer more. Besides story mode, there’s also challenge mode. There are three types of challenges: cup collection, time attack and elimination. Cup collection revolves collecting cups scattered about, which tests your knowledge of the tracks, as some of the cups can be found in shortcuts. You’re still racing like normal, as there’s a ticking timer that refreshes after each loop, so you can’t just explore at your own leisure. Time attack tasks you with racing through rings on a strict time limit, with each ring giving you a slight timer gain. This mode tests your speed and the usage of the boosting mechanic. At the same time, I found out that running out of time doesn’t result in an instant game over, instead you’ll gradually slow down, and you still have a chance to get through one of those rings, which is how I actually managed to win one of those. Lastly, elimination. It’s standard racing, except the car in the last place gets eliminated, so... don't cross the loop while in last place (also I should mention that there are only 4 racers max for all of the game's races). While neat, I would argue that this challenge mode doesn’t add that much to the experience. It’s not like Sonic Generations, where those challenge missions where the main appeal to me personally, with all sorts of creative ideas. The missions in this game still focus on average racing mechanics. I guess it’s the kind of situation where the creativity is bounded by the genre or limited resources that the game provides. Cars 2 videogame actually benefitted from focusing on spy and weapon stuff. But that’s a discussion for another day.
Graphically, the game is alright. The game doesn’t have a consistent 30FPS, with a little dipping when there are other racers on screen, but it doesn’t bother me much. The music is actually pretty good, with Shin’en at it again. It shares a few tracks with the GBA version, in an enhanced/remixed form. One of the tracks is also a remix of one of the tracks from Disney’s Herbie: Fully Loaded (or even The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Tipton Caper). It’s still a solid soundtrack that I like to listen to. Although, I did notice the audio bugs that make the soundtrack inconsistent, like some channels disappear (I only really noticed this when checking the credits for its theme, where it sometimes sounds off). Pretty weird, as I didn't notice this sort of thing in any other game (that used Shin'en's sound engineering).
Overall, Cars Mater-National Championship DS is a pretty average racing game. There isn’t very much to get excited over, but it’s also not a bad time. It is better than the GBA version, if only because it provides MUCH more content than that version. The gameplay is fairly repetitive and occasionally frustrating, which can be broken down slightly with optional challenges and the hunt for tokens, but otherwise the game won’t leave a lasting dent.