Car Town

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.

Cie Games announced on July 29, 2014 that it would be closing the game on August 29, 2014.

As of August 29, 2014, Car Town was discontinued.

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. 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.
• Leaderboard and Tournament - a place where players can compete with friends to get to the top of the leaderboard and win prizes.
• Garage Value Leaderboard - 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.
• 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.
• Fast & Furious experience - a theme park modeled after the film series of the same name. Players can race opponents and restore cars here.

Discontinued prior to closure

• High Stakes Track - a location where players can bet and race for the money, closed on Feb 2011
• Who Rules - a feature similar to general elections where players can vote for their favorite cars.
• 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.
• 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.

Vehicles

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

• New cars (such as Fiat 500, Chrysler 300C, Dodge Charger, Chevrolet Sonic, Nissan 370Z, Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Lancia Delta, BMW 3 Series, Hyundai Veloster, Jaguar XF, Citroën DS3, and Ford Focus Mk3)
• Old cars (such as Chevrolet Impala, Ford Thunderbird, Nissan 300ZX, Lamborghini Diablo, DeLorean DMC-12 and Ferrari F355)
• Classic cars (such as Aston Martin DB5, Chevrolet Bel Air, Lincoln Continental, Cadillac El Dorado, BMW M1, BMW Isetta, Pontiac Bonneville, Volvo P1800, Jaguar E-Type, Lamborghini Miura, Ferrari 250 GTO, Ferrari 308 GTS and Datsun 240Z)
• Trucks (such as Toyota Tundra, Dodge Ram, Chevrolet El Camino, GMC Syclone, Ford F-Series, Ford Falcon Ute and Chevrolet Silverado)
• SUVs (such as Chevrolet Suburban, Toyota FJ Cruiser, Ford Escape, Cadillac Escalade, Land Rover Defender, Range Rover Evoque, Lamborghini LM002 and Nissan Juke)
• Minivans (such as Dodge Caravan, Toyota Prius v, Ford Aerostar, Mercedes-Benz B-Class and Volkswagen Type 2)
• Muscle cars (such as Plymouth Superbird, Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Chevelle, Dodge Charger, Dodge Coronet, Pontiac Firebird, Ford GT40, Buick GNX and Oldsmobile 442)
• Hybrid vehicles (such as Toyota Prius, Fisker Karma, Honda CR-Z and Ferrari LaFerrari)
• Import Tuners (such as Honda CR-X, Honda NSX, Acura Integra, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Nissan Silvia, Nissan 350Z and Toyota Supra)
• Convertibles (such as Ferrari California, Dodge Viper R/T10, Chevrolet Corvette Convertible, Shelby Cobra, Mazda MX-5, Lotus Elise, BMW Z4 and Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class)
• Supercars (such as the Ferrari 458 Italia, Enzo Ferrari, Lamborghini Aventador, Lamborghini Reventón, McLaren F1, McLaren MP4-12C, Pagani Zonda Cinque and Pagani Huayra)
• Grand tourers (such as Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Bentley Continental Supersports, Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, Ferrari FF and Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren)
• High-performance cars (such as Ford Mustang SVT Cobra, Ford Shelby Mustang GT500, Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, BMW M3, Ford Focus RS, McLaren F1 LM and Pontiac Firebird Trans Am)
• Concept cars (such as the General Motors Firebird, Ford Bronco Concept, Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, Scion FR-S Concept, GT by Citroën, Mazda Furai, Toyota Prius c Concept, BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics and Citroën Survolt)
• Racing cars (such as the McLaren MP4-12C GT3, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT, Pagani Zonda R, Jaguar D-Type, Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, Ferrari 412 P, Dodge Viper ACR-X, Mazda 787B, Ferrari FXX, Mitsubishi Racing Lancer, BMW Z4 GT3, Ford Fiesta RS WRC and Mitsubishi Lancer WRC)
• Police cars (such as Dodge Charger Police Package, Chevrolet Caprice, Ford Police Interceptor Sedan, Ford Police Interceptor Utility and Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Polizia di Stato)
• Pace cars (such as the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS used for the 2010 Indianapolis 500 and the Chevrolet Corvette C6 used for the 2010 Brickyard 400).^[6]

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, never appeared in Car Town, due to most rights being not obtained at the time of closure.

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. As of February 28, 2014, Car Town EX was discontinued.

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. In 2014, an Android OS port came out on the Google Play Store released by Miniclip.

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 was available in:

• English
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• German
• Turkish
• French
• Japanese (EX)
• Korean (EX)
• Chinese (EX)

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

External links

• Official website
• Official site on Facebook