Jimmie Johnson's Anything with an Engine

Jimmie Johnson is the new face of NASCAR. He plays a lot of videogames in between his races – you know, the ones he's constantly winning – and a year ago approached a college buddy of his about creating a racing game of his own. Fast forward to today. Here comes Jimmy Johnson's Anything With an Engine, a quirky racing title for PSN/XBLA/Wii that's a far cry from what you'd expect from a career stock car driver.

Anything With an Engine is a kart racing game akin to Mario Kart, one of Jimmie's go-to games when he's on the road. It's not a NASCAR title, focusing instead on crazy, slapped-together vehicles that have no business on any road. Vehicles in the demo included bomb with wheels, a riding lawnmower, and an Indy sort of car, showing that the general vehicles live up to the Anything With an Engine name. It's inspired by real life too, as Jimmie spends his own time sometimes strapping engines to things like barstools and turning them into rides.

The one mode I saw during the brief demo was a pretty standard race. Eight cars lined up at the start, running through five laps in order to see who came in first. Winning, though, is only a small part of the fun, as the chaotic racing and battling for position is where Anything With an Engine hopes to draw players in. Starting with no weapons whatsoever, players run over triggers on the ground that grant them upgrades, including a bash ability that knocks opponents to their sides. Along the way they'll also gain access to other armaments like missiles and mines, giving them tools to wreak havoc on any player who wanders into range.

As if driving and battling wasn't enough, players can also hit red triggers throughout the courses that release traps. Traps might electrocute players ahead of you, or maybe trigger parts of the environment to surge across the track and wreck unsuspecting players. Players also have to dodge hazards that can wreck themselves, such as red arrows that sling you in the wrong direction – including off the track.

Kart racers are fun by yourself, but this downloadable title aims to sweeten the pot by supporting up to four players in local split-screen coop. If you and your buddies want to hop online and battle against the rest of the world, that's OK too; Anything With an Engine supports any combination of local and online players.

It doesn't have a release date other than "sometime in 2011," and there's still a host of details yet to be revealed (like other modes and racers), but Anything With An Engine could be a downloadable solution for racing fans looking for something outside of simulations like Gran Turismo and Forza. Sure, it might not have that many original ideas outside of the absurd nature of the vehicles, but the saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" for a reason. Or, in the case of racer Jimmie Johnson, "if it ain't broke, how about we mangle it, strap an engine to it, and have some fun."

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Jimmy making a racing game. Its gonna be a wild ride!

Looks sorta like Mario Kart.

A friend of mine says it's like Modracers?? or Mod nation?? something like that on the PS3. If it's like that he said it will be a sure buy. I hope we can customize in this game.