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Cars Race-O-Rama for Nintendo DS
Cars Race-O-Rama for Nintendo DS puts Lightning McQueen on the track for his own racing academy. Chick Hicks brings a rival team and tries to help his students win. You drive through settings in the Cars universe, from urban routes to beaches and desert terrain. The familiar cars talk and react to one another while races determine how the story progresses. Racing dialogue appears as on-screen text. You control the car with the buttons and try to find space without ending up against every wall.
Wrenches along the way unlock extra content. Sometimes it therefore pays to take a different line from the one you would choose for a normal fastest lap. Drifting, boosting and alternative paths add variety to the races. Lightning also gains special abilities that let you reach new passages. There are minigames referring to Mater's Tall Tales as well. A race for first place therefore alternates with a smaller task or a search for something you drove past earlier.
Two to four players can race through local wireless play. This works with one cartridge through DS Download Play or with each participant's own copy through Multi-Card Play. Everyone needs their own compatible DS system. Additional systems and cartridges are not included. This Nintendo DS release uses a local connection for multiplayer, without a link cable or online account.
Region and language
Our Nintendo DS games are European editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
With Cars Race-O-Rama for Nintendo DS, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of Cars Race-O-Rama
Cars Race-O-Rama appeared in 2009, after the first Cars game and Cars Mater-National Championship. The films gave the games a world in which cars themselves are the protagonists, with Lightning McQueen and Mater as familiar faces. THQ released Race-O-Rama on several systems. Tantalus developed its own handheld branch for Nintendo DS and PSP, while another team made the home-console versions. Tantalus had previously made Cars Mater-National for DS and could therefore build on its experience with this racing world.
On 12 October 2009, the developer reported that Race-O-Rama was ready for the American DS and PSP markets. In the same announcement, Tantalus scheduled the European release for 30 October. The new conflict between Lightning's and Chick Hicks's racing academies provided a reason for additional opponents and locations. The game thus expanded the Cars world with a separate racing story, instead of merely going through the first film's events again.
The handheld adaptation focused on individual races, unlockable content and local multiplayer. Minigames tied into the short animated stories of Mater's Tall Tales. Elements from the wider Cars series therefore appeared alongside the familiar film characters. On Nintendo DS, these parts received their own presentation with two screens and wireless connections. This cartridge represents that portable release, with its own tracks and game structure.
Similar games for Nintendo DS
Cars Mater-National Championship shares the main characters and racing around Radiator Springs on Nintendo DS. Its focus is Mater's international racing festival, where you meet competitors from other countries. Race-O-Rama moves the story towards the rivalry between Lightning's racing academy and Chick Hicks's team. Finding routes and unlocking extra content remains familiar, while new opponents and Lightning's special abilities give the races a different purpose and form.
Mario Kart DS likewise offers colourful races with familiar characters on Nintendo DS. Collected items change the competition there, for example by hitting an opponent with a projectile. Cars Race-O-Rama builds its variety around the Cars characters, alternative paths and wrenches that unlock content. Both ask you to read corners and rivals, but Cars connects its races to Lightning's racing academy and events in his own cartoon world.
Diddy Kong Racing DS also lets you travel through a recognisable fantasy world and open new races on Nintendo DS. Diddy collects Golden Balloons in an island adventure and switches between kart, hovercraft and plane. Cars Race-O-Rama keeps its protagonists on wheels and builds the conflict around two racing academies. An extra route or collected item can help you progress in both, but the vehicle controls and structure of exploration differ.
Like Cars Race-O-Rama, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing uses Nintendo DS characters already known beyond the racing game. Sonic and his rivals visit tracks from different SEGA worlds and have their own All-Star attacks. Cars keeps its setting within one connected universe of talking cars. The difference is therefore not just who is behind the wheel: SEGA puts more emphasis on item-based battles, Cars on Lightning's racing story and unlockable content.
Asphalt: Urban GT 2 shares cornering, boosts and the search for a faster route on Nintendo DS. Its vehicles carry real brand names, and races take place among traffic and police. Cars Race-O-Rama instead uses cars as story characters and has you collect wrenches in a world from the animated films. Where Asphalt sends money into a garage of vehicles and parts, Cars links its extra content to progress in Lightning's racing adventure.
