Cars

Lightning McQueen zips around a sandy corner, dust kicking up across the screen, and I realize this little Game Boy is capable of more than I expected. Cars on GBA isn't for the demanding crowd, but for anyone who had Tetris in their backpack in the nineties and later the Game Boy Advance, it was solid fun for the road.

It's a racing game based on the first Pixar film. You drive little cars around tracks inspired by scenes from the movie — deserts, cities, mountain roads. The goal is clear: finish first. There's no deep career mode, no car customization. Just races one after another, gradually getting harder, with film props as backdrop. More or less, that's it.

The controls are straightforward — acceleration, braking, drifting. The game gives you space to learn the track and get a feel for the handling. The AI of your opponents isn't pathetic, but it's not a major player in how the race unfolds either. Your mistake will drop you back, but it's not so brutal that you feel destroyed. Just frustrating enough to want another go.

The graphics are solid for GBA — you recognize the cars, the tracks are readable, the color palette works. It looks good and plays without the major stuttering that would drag on forever. It's not a graphical revolution, more that the developers knew what you were capable of and worked with it sensibly.

I remember it as a game I took on a trip and played on the bus. It wasn't something that would blow my mind, but it killed time and was pure, uncomplicated fun. Today you can play it in a browser or emulator and it'll be the same — predictable, comfortable, no big surprises. Veteran gamers won't waste time on it, but they'll never forget it as something that should have been better either.