Car Town

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Car Town

Developer(s) Cie Games
Platform(s) Facebook Platform, iOS
Release date(s) July 27, 2010
Genre(s) Simulation, Racing
Mode(s) Single-player with multiplayer interaction
Distribution Web browser

Car Town is a social network game developed by Cie Games, a same developer which creates Nitto 1320 Legends. This game lets users collect and modify virtual cars. The object of the game is to win races and to build a collection of cars, while the focus of the game is more on collecting them. It currently has 7 million active users, according to their Facebook page. Honda has been using the game to promote its CR-Z hybrid.[1] In addition, the Indy Racing League gave the game a license to include its racing cars as well as a “virtual museum” about the Indianapolis 500.[2] NASCAR also gave the game a license to include its racing cars as well as a race in Daytona International Speedway.[3] Universal Studios gave the game a license to include the DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future series,[4] and fully customized cars from The Fast and the Furious series. Pirelli World Challenge and National Hot Rod Association gave the game licenses to include their racing cars such as Funny Cars. Top Gear also gave a license to include their shows and videos.

Besides cars from NASCAR, Indy Racing League, NHRA Funny Car and Pirelli World Challenge, the game features cars from other famous motorsports around the world include 24 Hours of Le Mans, World Rally Championship, Formula D, Dakar Rally, FIA GT Series as well as one-make races such as Ferrari Challenge.

Gameplay

Players earn points by performing jobs or taking on challenges, they can build their own garages with service bays to do more jobs, hire and interact with friends in the game and buy cars – lots and lots of cars. Showrooms offer up plenty of eye candy and the prices are just tempting enough to have them washing cars, changing parts and delivering pizzas all day long to save up enough cash for their next purchase. Gameplay includes the ability to take part in races, take road trips, or make deliveries. Players also have the ability to customize most of their cars.[5]

Special Features

  • Showroom - a place where players can buy cars.
  • Junkyard - a place where players can restore the cars into their mint condition and keep them into their storage. There is also another variant of the Junkyard in Ferrari Experience called Classic Restorations, where players can restore classic Ferraris.
  • Leaderboards and Tournament - a place where players can compete with friends to get to the top of the leaderboards and win prizes.
  • Garage Value Leaderboards - a feature which calculates every players' garage and storage values.
  • Daytona Challenge, Indy Challenge and NHRA Funny Car - series of races where players can participate and compete in the NASCAR, Indianapolis 500 and NHRA Funny Car races.
  • Fast Five missions - based on the movie, the players can help completing the storylines by building the Dominic Toretto's Charger, race 3 pink slip races and complete Vault Heist missions. It was included in Fast and Furious Experience.
  • Ferrari Experience - a place where the players can visit the Ferrari headquarters for buying cars and viewing gallery. The aforementioned Classic Restorations is included in this feature.
  • Game Show - a place where players can win prizes by playing minigames.
  • Docks - a place where players can search a ship for cars that were sold out from Showroom, even supercars and racing cars priced at over 300 Facebook Credits.
  • Top Gear - a feature where players can watch the Top Gear shows and buy their featured cars.
  • Ghostbusters - a place where players can build Ghostbusters vehicles and catch ghosts.
  • Adventures - a feature built around a specific theme (like Europe and Route 66) where players can participate in road trips, race against various cars and collect prizes.
  • Fast & Furious experience - a theme park modeled after the film series of the same name. Players can race opponents and restore cars here.

Discontinued

  • High Stakes Track - a location where players can bet and race for the money.
  • Who Rules - a feature similar to general elections where players can vote for their favorite cars.

Vehicles

Below is a brief examples of cars, grouped into sections, including:

Some cars (including pace cars) such as the Nissan GT-R, Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics, Mitsubishi Lancer WRC, Mazda Furai and the DeLorean time machine, cannot be modified excluding performance. Some cars, such as the Lamborghini Reventon and Mazda Furai, were limited-buyable cars at start, but turned to permanent-buyable cars after recruiting with player's friends before being out of stock. A few notable car manufacturers, such as Porsche, Audi, Lexus, Maserati, Spyker,Saab, Koenigsegg and Bugatti, are absent from Car Town.

Related versions

In September 2011, exclusively to Japan, a version named Car Town Japan was released for the mobile phones. Its gameplay was similar to the Adventures section of the Facebook version, even though the latter was added one year later.

In July 26, 2012, 2 years after the original release, Cie Games released a standalone expansion pack version of Car Town, named Car Town EX with some features appeal to Asian players, while removing or changing some features such as some vehicles from the game in the beta testing period.

Also in 2012, a version of Car Town for iOS, called Car Town Streets, has been released. The game has similar gameplay mechanics as the original, but with different gameplay structure to cater the market.

Reception

Car Town has received moderate critical praise. One reviewer from Autoblog said that the game makes "non-car people become car people", calling it inviting and accessible to newcomers.[5] Bright Hub gave the game a rating of 3/5.[7] Car Town has been likened to the Forza Motorsport series in terms of customizing cars and liveries.

Languages

Car Town is currently available in:

Differences

Although they are similar, they have some differences in certain points. For example, the Volkswagen Gol is exclusively available only in Brazilian Portuguese version, and Honda Prelude is exclusively available only in Car Town EX versions.

References

  1. ↑ Schweizer, Kristen (August 23, 2010). "Facebook's Car Town Gains Honda Ads in Games Shift" (Press release). Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 28, 2010. 
  2. ↑ "Cie Games Brings INDYCAR and the Indy 500® to Fans with Car Town Facebook Game". Retrieved April 11, 2011. 
  3. ↑ "NASCAR, International Speedway Corporation and Cie Games Facebook Partnership Gives ‘Car Town’ Players the Green Flag at the Daytona International Speedway". Retrieved February 18, 2011. 
  4. ↑ "Back to the Future Blasts Its Way Into Facebook Game ‘Car Town’". Retrieved November 18, 2010. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Filipponio, Frank (July 27, 2010). "Car Town turns Facebook gamers into car people". Autoblog. Retrieved November 28, 2010. 
  6. ↑ Kelly, Paul (October 26, 2010). "IMS Cars Featured In Facebook Game Car Town". Indianapolismotorspeedway.com. Retrieved November 28, 2010. 
  7. ↑ Hartman, Michael (August 16, 2010). "Facebook Game Reviews: Car Town". Bright Hub. Retrieved November 27, 2010. 

External links

NASCAR video games
1980s
1990s
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2010s
Games based on the Indy Racing League
Video games
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