Cars 2: The Video Game is a racing game based on Cars 2, released in 2011 alongside the movie. In a departure from the three games based on the first movie, Cars 2 eschews the realistic arcade-style gameplay for more Mario Kart-esque gameplay, with weapons that players can pick up from item pods and use against their opponents. The plot is also much more simplistic, with the entire cast simply competing in various spy simulations for the sake of it, rather than the more involved storylines of previous games.
Cars 2: The Video Game contains examples of:
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Console versions
- Adaptational Badass: In the original movie, only the spies and Mater had any sort of weaponry. Here, just about about everyone in the Cars universe can use machine guns, missiles, bombs, and all manner of other weapons to take each other out.
- Adapted Out:
- Lewis Hamilton and Rip Clutchgoneski are the only WGP racers who don't appear in any capacity, likely because of the former being based on a real-life person (down to the name) and the latter having an extremely minor role in the movie.
- Despite having a semi-prominent role as the reason Lightning takes Mater on his world tour, Sally is once again absent without mention, just as she was in Mater-National and Race-O-Rama.
- France is the only country visited in the movie not to have any tracks representing it in the game.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Some characters have unlockable variants that give them a different appearance but otherwise play identically, such as Radiator Lightning, Materhosen, or Team Lightning Luigi and Guido.
- Ascended Extra: In the movie, the Lemons' helicopter appears in a single scene just to capture McMissile. In the game, they and Professor Z will always appear together in every cutscene they're in, with Z using the helicopter as the primary means of transport.
- Back from the Dead: Rod Redline, who was killed by the lemons in the movie, is fully playable in this game as if he never died.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- As usual, Guido speaks in un-subtitled but accurate Italian.
- Chuki and Daisu Tsushimi both speak entirely in Japanese, which isn't translated for the player's benefit either.
- Bragging Rights Reward: Getting all the crests in the game unlocks Young Professor Z, a variant of Professor Z with glasses, a combed roof rack, and a bowtie. He plays no differently from regular Professor Z, and by the time you get him, you'll already have done everything in the game.
- The Bus Came Back: After being absent in the base game, the DLC brings back Ramone, Flo, Sheriff, Chick Hicks, and the Delinquent Road Hazards as playable racers from previous games.
- Character Roster Global Warming: The base roster only has three Heavy class characters: Mater, Fillmore, and Miles Axelrod, plus unlockable variants for the former two, in comparison to the wide array of Medium and Light characters also present. The DLC would later address this by adding several more Heavy characters like Rod Redline, Ramone, Flo, the Queen, and several more Mater variants to the playable cast.
- Collection Sidequest: One of the unlockable crests requires the player collect 20 pieces of C.H.R.O.M.E. intel, with each track and battle arena having one hidden somewhere on it. Obtaining the crest unlocks Midnight Francesco as a playable racer.
- Downloadable Content: The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions got various characters and skins added as DLC.
- Excuse Plot: The plot is significantly more barebones than in the previous games, with the closest thing to a story coming in the opening cutscene, which primarily exists to justify why everyone is doing spy missions. Mater, Finn, and Holley are training in the C.H.R.O.M.E. simulations while Lightning and Francesco watch, with Mater then inviting the other WGP racers and Lightning's pit crew into the base to join them. The mission descriptions and cutscenes do try to establish a story revolving around another one of Professor Z's schemes, but only a handful have a sense of interconnection.
- Forced Tutorial: Before you can play the main game and unlock the majority of the content, you must complete New Agent Training, a series of short tutorial missions that teach you about the game mechanics and a few easy races.
- Fragile Speedster: Light characters, such as Luigi, Guido, and Professor Z, are extremely fast but also very light, meaning it's easy for them to get knocked around by heavier racers. They are also much smaller than the other cars, making it much harder for them to hit others with weapons.
- Go-Karting with Bowser:
- Several villains, such as Professor Z, Grem, Acer, and Miles Axelrod are fully playable among the primarily heroic cast. Given that the game primarily takes place in C.H.R.O.M.E. simulations, it's implied they're actually simulated versions rather than the real deals.
- The DLC adds in Chick Hicks (the Big Bad of the original movie), and the Delinquent Road Hazards as playable cars. And unlike the villains of the second movie, it's implied they actually are the real deals, with Chick specifically joining C.H.R.O.M.E. to one-up McQueen.
- Jack of All Stats: Medium characters, such as Lightning, Finn, and Holley, have well-rounded stats that don't excel in speed or weight.
- Limit Break: If you have a full boost meter, you can spend it all to go "In the Zone", a special mode that gives you a heavy speed boost, damages any opponents you run into, and protects you from one attack while it is active.
- Mighty Glacier: Heavy characters, such as Mater, Fillmore, and Miles Axelrod, are very slow and heavy. While they struggle to keep up with other racers, they can deal heavy damage by side bashing them and can also take a lot more damage before being blown up.
- Multi-Slot Character: Unlike in previous games, all character variants are now treated as separate characters from the originals without exception, such as Materhosen (Mater wearing lederhosen) being separate from vanilla Mater, and Radiator Lightning (Lightning in his Radiator Springs getup from the first movie) being separate from vanilla Lightning.
- Named In The Adaptation: The tie-in game officially names the spy agency Finn and Holley work for as C.H.R.O.M.E..
- Old Save Bonus: Back when the service was active, players could sign into the game with their The World of Cars accounts to get some extra spy points and unlock both Guido and Professor Z early.
- Reimagining the Artifact: Backwards Driving in the original THQ-era Cars games was always more of a novelty and gimmick than a useful mechanic, with the only in-game benefit being that it gave the player extra points (in the first game only) while reversing their controls, largely being a novelty thrown in because of the backwards driving scenes in the first movie. This game gives it a new purpose by having the player regain Nitro whenever they use it and also featuring backwards driving strips to regain more nitro, turning it from a joke option to a full Difficult, but Awesome technique for races.
- Suddenly Voiced:
- After being The Voiceless in all of the previous Cars games, Guido now has full dialogue (albeit entirely in Italian).
- Several of the WGP racers who never spoke in the movie - Sho Todoroki, Carla Veloso, Max Schnell, and Nigel Gearsley - now have voice actors and full dialogue.
DS/3DS versions
- Adaptation Expansion: The DS and 3DS versions of the game expand on the World Grand Prix by adding races that take place in France (which only had one scene in the movie) and Germany (which didn't appear at all). In addition, each of the WGP racers corresponding to one of the five countries gets some focus (and dialogue) as the main opponent for that area.
- Adapted Out:
- Leland Turbo and Rod Redline don't appear, though the former is alluded to during Finn's oil rig levels.
- Sarge, Fillmore, and Guido do not appear as part of Lightning's pit crew in this version.
- Jeff Gorvette, Miguel Camino, Lewis Hamilton, and Rip Clutchgoneski don't appear in the WGP.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Each of the playable characters has unlockable paint jobs called "themes" that are unlocked by completing certain C.H.R.O.M.E. missions or progressing through the story. Most characters have two or three each, with the exceptions of Lightning (who has 11) and both Grem and Acer (who don't have any at all).
- Company Cross-References: One of Raoul CaRoule's unlockable paint jobs is a "Lil Chef" theme that paints him to look like Remy from Ratatouille, another Pixar movie.
- Fragile Speedster: The three tilt-ability characters (Francesco Bernoulli, Shu Todoroki, and Finn McMissile) are among the fastest cars in the game... provided they're driving on asphalt. On dirt roads, their speed drops like a rock until they can get back onto solid ground again.
- Funny Background Event: The final turn of the France 1 track has, for some reason, Mater being chased in circles by Grem and Acer in the background.
- Jack of All Stats: The four jump-ability characters (Lightning, Nigel Gearsley, Carla Veloso, and Holley Shiftwell) have decent speed across the board and don't slow down on asphalt or dirt roads. They also have the powerful jump ability, allowing them to jump over certain obstacles and get a slight speed boost.
- Mighty Glacier: The six ram-ability characters (Mater, Max Schnell, Raoul CaRoule, Professor Z, Grem, and Acer) are all fairly slow to start and move on asphalt, but they can ram through certain obstacles on the track and gain a massive speed boost if driving on dirt.
- Non-Standard Game Over: One level has Mater desperately searching for coolant after consuming wasabi (that he mistook for pistachio ice cream). If the player runs out of time, they are treated to a short cutscene of Mater overheating (complete with smoke coming out of his hood) and passing out.
- Reformulated Game: The console versions are a standard kart racer that takes place after the movie, while the DS/3DS versions are a mix of racing and stealth-based gameplay that follows the movie's events.
- Socialization Bonus: In the 3DS version of the game, several of Lightning's themes (and one of Mater's) can only be unlocked by using StreetPass with other players who have the game.
- Stealth-Based Mission: The DS/3DS versions of the game have several missions where your character has to sneak through an area without being caught by searchlights or the nearby lemons.