Developer: Autumn Games

Platform: Xbox 360

Other Platforms: PS3, Wii

Release Date: November 22, 2011

Jimmie Johnson is a well known NASCAR driver that loves to play video games with his buddies on his off time. One of his favorite games to play on the road is Mario Kart which helped him come up with the idea of Jimmie Johnson’s Anything With An Engine. The two games share similarities in the racing and humor aspects, but Jimmie Johnson wanted to make a game for a bit of an older crowd, not necessarily a more mature one though. The Game has a variety of crazy vehicles such as a bomb with wheels, a rocket and even a lawnmower. All the drivers have corky yet humorous aspects to them which makes the game fun to play because everyone has their own personality.

Just like Mario Kart, your character collects items to progress though the races. You collect a number of colored markers which build up your power bar and allow you to perform things like nitro boosts and side bumpers (for bumping opponents out of the way). All the characters have a customizable forward and rear shooting weapon to drag players off the road.

Another cool thing about this game is that the game places short cuts for you depending on where you are in the race. So let’s say you’re falling into last place and there’s little hope for a win, new short cuts will guide you through the map and give you a second chance at victory. Each track has a number of environmental obstacles, some are always there and some are triggered by the player. These can be used to your advantage to take out other players in your way. When your kart receives a large number of damage, you can head on over to the pit stop to fix it or re-load your weapons to get back into the race.

Graphics

The graphics of the game are pretty good. Not what I would call groundbreaking, but for the type of game it is, the graphics should not bother anybody.

Gameplay

The gameplay for Jimmie Johnson’s game is what you would expect from a driving game. Typical driving controls make it easy to catch on quickly. The button layout is nicely placed and I found no problem controlling my characters. The weapons are easy to deploy and easy to catch someone with.

Replay value

One thing you might have expected from this game is that it gets old pretty quick. Once you have played with all the vehicles and all the maps, there is just not much to expect anymore. Although the online races are really fun, it can get a bit boring after a while.

Final Thoughts:

Jimmie Johnson’s Anything With An Engine is overall a fun game, it features up to 8 player multiplayer online and up to 4 players split-screen making this a perfect game to play with friends and family. The controls are easy to follow for anyone of any age. The wild characters and their rides will keep you entertained for a good amount of time but it can get repetitive and annoying after a while. Bottom line is, if you enjoy childish racing games like Mario Kart you will enjoy this one, but if you’re the type of gamer that enjoys more realism in games than humor, maybe you should steer clear of this one.

Final Score: This game gets a 7 out of 10

