PS3

Days of Thunder: NASCAR Edition

RacingArcade

Overview

Days of Thunder (known as Days of Thunder: NASCAR Edition on the PlayStation 3 and Days of Thunder: Arcade on the Xbox 360) is a stock car racing video game produced by Paramount Digital Entertainment and developed by Piranha Games for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released in February 2011 and is a spin-off of the 1990 film Days of Thunder in which the player is a rookie driver coached by Rowdy Burns, the antagonist from the film. The game received very little critical feedback; those that did review the game had generally negative commentary. Reviewers felt that the cars handled unrealistically, but one reviewer noted that some issues could be fixed with a patch.

The PlayStation 3 version of the game includes 12 NASCAR sanctioned tracks, among them Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, and more than 12 select NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, including Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart. All versions feature the Days of Thunder characters Cole Trickle, Rowdy Burns, and Russ Wheeler. The Xbox 360 version does not feature NASCAR branding or drivers, but still features fictional drivers from the film.

A video game adaptation of the movie from 1990 was announced in 2010, firstly as NASCAR Edition for PlayStation 3 in June and later an Arcade version for Xbox 360 in October. In an interview with producer Jeff Dickson, the history behind the game was revealed. The game was created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Days of Thunder film. The NASCAR Edition is intended to be a union of NASCAR and the film, and features drivers from the movie as well as NASCAR drivers from the past and present (Hendrick Motorsports was actively involved in the film during 1989 and 1990 filmings, providing cars and technical support; also the film's storyline was based on a former Hendrick driver). Both versions of the game were designed with arcade-based gameplay.

Days of Thunder received very little critical reception, with only one review published for the PlayStation 3 NASCAR Edition and very few published for the Xbox 360 Arcade version. Of the reviews published critics gave generally negative reviews. The PlayStation 3 version single GameRankings score comes from the reviewer from PSNStores, who gave the game a 3/5. The critic gave high marks for the PlayStation 3 version's inclusion of real-world NASCAR drivers, but was disappointed in the lack of customization. Two scores were reported at GameRankings for the Xbox 360 version, from the US and UK editions of Official Xbox Magazine.