Lots of games and lots of fun!

Our daughter is 7 years old and loves computer games. Disney Pixar cars is her favorite movie. We saw this game and picked it up for her. She was excited and wanted to play it as soon as we got home. The installation was easy. It is a CD-ROM for Windows or Mac both. The install instructions are as follows:

Installation

Windows
1) Insert your Disney Pixars Cars: Radiator Springs Adventure CD into your CD or DVD drive.
2) If you have the Auto insert notification enabled for your CD-ROM, simply left click on install game and skip steps 3 and 4. If you don’t have Auto insert notification enabled, you'll need to double click on your CD or DVD drive to bring up this menu.
3) Left click on the Start Button on the Windows Task Bar then select run from the Start Menu.
4) Type D:autorun (D refer to your CD-ROM drive. If your CD-ROM drive is not D, type the appropriate drive letter.) Now click on the install button.
5) Once the installation procedure starts, please follow the on-screen instructions.

Macintosh
1) Insert the Disney Pixar Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures into your CD-ROM drive.
2) In the window that appears, double click the installer icon.
3) Follow the on-screen instructions.

Also for Windows, this game requires DirectX 9 which is also included on the CD-ROM.

After the game is installed and you start to play the game, there will be a start screen. The start screen in the game is red and has a blue banner across the top that says Disney Pixar Cars Radiator Springs Adventures. There are 3 choices to choose from. There are Activities, Legends Race, and Lightning McQueen's HQ. I will start with the Activities. There are 10 games in the Activities and they are as follows:

Activities

As you play through the Activities, you see little cut scenes and things of that nature. It's like a story mode and you see more as you progress through the Activity games. Also most of these games are on a time limit. You have a gas gauge in the corner of your screen and when you run out of gas your time is up. In all these games, there are extra items that you can pick up such as a gas can and you get a little extra time. These activities do not have to be done in any order. Just choose whichever one you want to do!

Hip-Hop it Up

Lightning drives up to Ramone to see how he is doing and Ramone tells him that he needs to practice his dance moves and tells Lightning he needs to practice his moves too.

This is a memory game. You have to watch the arrows above Ramone when he performs his dance moves. You have to listen to the beats and time your mouse clicks to the same beats to repeat Ramones moves. There is a diamond shaped sign above Ramone with arrows. You can see the beats as well as hear them and they light up green. So while the sign is above Ramone, you remember them. Then the sign moves above Lightning and you have to press the right arrows with the mouse. If the beats or arrows are correct, they will show up green. If you get them wrong, they show up red. Each level gets harder because you have to remember more and more. Lightning and Ramone actually kind of dance which our daughter thinks is funny. Another neat thing is that Ramone is painted a different color in each round!

Fill 'Er Up

Lightning pulls up to Flo's Cafe to see how she was doing. Flo for some reason or another thinks that Lightning wants a job and even though he tells her he doesn't she tells him he is hired.

This is another matching game with pictures. There are 2 gas pumps with pictures on them. Each picture lights up a different color. The different colors have no meaning to the game only that I think it makes it a little easier with the different colors. You have to click on the pictures in the correct order as they light up. A car will pull up and after pressing the right order 3 times, you will fill the car up. As you go along, it gets harder as there are more and more pictures to remember at one time. Some of the different cars that I have seen pull up to their gas has been Mater, Luigi, Doc Hudson, and Sarge.

Doc's Tune Up

Lightning pulls up to Doc's Garage and he asks Lightning for his help because he has to many cars to work on. So of course Lightning helps the old car out.

In this game, you have to drag pieces of hardware out of a cars tailpipe. To do this, you have to press and hold down the mouse button to pick up the hardware. You can slide the screen over to the left because the tailpipe continues on past the screen. Make sure that you aren't holding onto anything though because you will drop it and have to start over. It's not much of a big deal anyway because when you get to the edge of the screen and drop the item the screen moves for you anyway. While you are dragging the hardware through the tailpipe, don't touch the sides or hit any moving pieces in the tailpipe like oil spots that randomly appear or sometimes you will see a screw coming through the tailpipe and you don't want to hit that. The hardware pieces that you have to move is either a bolt or a spark plug. The screen looks like a tailpipe and as you get further in the levels the tailpipe gets curvier and there are more items that can make you start over.

Sarge's Boot Camp

Lightning checks to see how Sarge is doing and pulls up to his Supply Hut. Lightning asks him how his obstacle course is going and Sarge gets the wrong idea and thinks Lightning wants to run his obstacle course.

You have to work your way through his course on a dirt road. The road just runs across the screen. It doesn't turn or anything. You control Lightning and Lightning doesn't stop or slow down. You just move him up and down trying to miss the obstacles that are in the way. Pressing the mouse button allows Lightning to jump over some obstacles while other obstacles are to big to jump so you have to weave through them. There are holes, rocks and tired that Lightning can jump. There are barrels and barriers that he cannot jump. Also as Lightning is on the road, you see the landscape of Radiator Springs going by.

Drive In and Out

Lightning drives up to the drive in and wants to see a movie but he is supposed to meet Mater later. He tells himself that since no one is there, he can get out on time. Of course as he pulls in, more cars pull in and you have to help Lightning get out of the drive in lot.

This game requires a little thinking. The game screen looks like the lot but kind of like a grid. It's a puzzle with cars in the grid and you have to clear a path for Lightning to get out. You make a path by moving the cars left, right, up and down. So you have to move the cars around until there is a way for Lightning to drive away. You can also move Lightning out of the way as well to be able to move other cars out of the way. But then you have to move Lightning back in the pathway once it is clear.

Luigi's Fantastico Fun

When Lightning pulls into Luigi's shop to check on him, Luigi asks Lightning for his help to clean up the tires in his shop.

In this game you control Guido (Luigi's little blue helper) back and forth to catch falling tires. You move him from side to side and pressing the mouse button to catch the tires. Don't catch anything that isn't a tire. It's about time in this game. You have to move Guido under the falling tire and click the mouse button at the right time for him to catch the tire. When you let go of the mouse button, the tire automatically gets stacked up. This game is a little frustrating for my daughter. I have also played through these games (although I have already seen them all) before I wrote my review and it is frustrating for me!

Radiator Springs Curiors

Lightning once again goes to check on someone else and he stops at Lizzie's shop. Lightning wants to buy fun things to put in his racing headquarters. Lizzie tells him she needs help finding everything since she forgets where she put everything.

This game is about memory and matching things. When this game starts, you see all these bumper stickers and license plates on the wall. You have to try to remember where they went because a lot of them are the same size and you don't get any clue where they go after they are gone. After you are ready and hit start, all the items are gone and they are at the bottom of the screen. You have to drag them back into their original spot before your time runs out. As you progress in the levels the more items you have to replace. If our daughter forgets, she just keeps dragging them up until something stays!

Tow the Line

Of course by what this game is called, you probably guessed where Lightning headed next. He pulled up to meet Mater at his Tow Yard. Mater is practicing his towing skills by towing all his cousins.

In this game, you control Mater. Mater doesn't stop or slow down. You just have to control him. Mater drives up to a car and the car automatically gets added to the tow line. If you see a car that blinks red, you have to drive around until you see a hook that Mater can pick up, and then you can go back and get that car. Now this may seem simple enough but it can be a problem when you have a long line of cars behind you and makes it harder to turn. If you hit the fence or hit one of Mater's cousins on the line, you have to start over. This one cracks me up though because in these games, the cars talk. I love the way Mater talks and when looking for a hook, he will say "Where's that dang hook?"

Tractor Roundup

Of course you probably know what this means too. Tractor Tipping! Lightning drives up and sees Mater at Frank's Field. Mater talks Lightning into Tractor Tipping and Lightning tells Mater he couldn't believe he talked him into it again.

This one is a lot of fun and our daughter really likes this one. This game actually had me laughing! The object of this one is to keep the tractors in the field. You have to tip over as many as you can before they get out. You tip them over by clicking on them and drawing a circle around them. Don't bump into the tractors or run into the fence. You alternate between controlling Mater and Lightning each round. This just kills me because when Mater comes out he will say "I got this one!" He will also say "Woohoo!" or Yeehaw!" and say "Tractors are so funny." and chuckle to himself after they tip over. Lightning will come out saying "Don't worry Mater, I got 'em." He will also say "Oh yeah!" or "Fire it up!" and revves his engine when he tips them over. It's funny when they tip over too. They do the same thing as they do in the movie. They tip over, make a funny noise and smoke comes out of them! This game is really funny and fun to play. What makes it even more fun is that the tractors are moving the whole time and you have to catch them.

Speed Trap

Lightning pulls up to Sheriff sleeping on the side of the road. He wakes him up and Sheriff tells him he was resting for the hot rods to come flying through town. Lightning says he didn't think that would happen again then all the sudden, they go flying down the road. Lightning say "I stand corrected."

Now you control Sheriff and he has to chase down the hot rods. You move faster than they do but they have a head start. There are obstacles in the way that you have to avoid because if you hit them you stop and slow down. The screen is a moving road. Sheriff doesn't stop. You just move him back and forth avoiding the obstacles. Sheriff’s sirens are going the whole time. All you have to do to pull the hot rod over is to stay behind him after you catch up to him. Sheriff will automatically pull him over. There is also a meter at the side showing you how close you are to the hot rod. I had difficulty with this because Sheriff is going so fast and I hit the obstacles all the time. My daughter was laughing at me because she doesn't have a problem with this task.

Now onto the Legends Race option:

This is where you race against other cars after completing so many activities. You can start the Legends Race by racing a tractor after playing through Tractor Roundup. Then you find out that cars Legend Secret . Each car has a Legend Secret . To race Lizzie, you have to beat Tractor. After beating Lizzie, you can race Flo. So on and so on. There is also Luigi, Mater, Sarge, Ramone, Sheriff, Doc, and finally Chick Hicks. I'm not going to tell you the cars' Legend Secret . They are secrets after all!

Now off to the Lightning McQueen HQ option:

Here you have Options; music volume, effects volume, captions (on/off), and story mode (on/off). There are High Scores that keeps track of all scores for each game, and Players.

You also have a Customize Cars where Lightning can change his paintjob. There are 10 different ones that you have to unlock by beating your highest score in each of the activities. They look pretty cool. I have never seen Lightning in so many colors! It also changes the way he looks in the game. You can also create Photos by unlocking backgrounds and all the other cars to make a photo. To unlock the cars and backgrounds to make photos, you have to beat your time in the Legend Races. The cars are the same cars that you race and the racing unlocks the corresponding car.

There are Movies you can unlock. They are movie clips from the movie. There are 4 different ones. To unlock those, you have to finish all 10 Activities, unlock all 10 Paint Jobs, win all 10 Legends Races, and unlocking all 10 photo options.

My opinion

My daughter loves this game! There are so many things she can do with it! She sometimes asks for help so that she can unlock some of the things. Her favorite games are with Mater. I love this game also because our daughter is autistic and with her disability, she learns things differently. She learns things by doing things hands-on and as long as she can see the information, she doesn't have any problems. With these games, she can learn skills that she doesn't have. Her memory is great but when it comes to thinking and problem solving, she has major problems. These games help with that and it's a way that she learns without being frustrated and has a lot of fun at the same time. The character's voices are authentic to the movie too and that is what makes it even more fun to play. She will play for a long time. We usually have to make her stop playing for a while!

Price/Availability

We bought Cars Radiator Springs Adventure at Wal-Mart for $9.99. You can also buy it at Best Buy and Target for the same price.

System Requirements
For Windows
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 256 MB RAM, Pentium 3 800 MHz or better, 500 MB disk space, GeForce 2/ATI 7500, 32 MB VRAM minimum, 16-bit DirectX 9 and above, 8x CD.

We have Windows Vista and the game still works without any problems. The video had to adjust but it still plays just fine. We used to have a problem with our computer being to old. Now we have a problem playing older games sometimes now!

For Macintosh
Mac OSX 10.3, 256 MB RAM, G4 1.2 GHz or better, 500 MB disk space, GeForce 2/ATI 7500, 32 MB VRAM minimum, 8x CD.




THQ
Ages 4 years and older
Rated E for everyone