Days of Thunder

Reviewers felt that the cars handled unrealistically, but one reviewer noted that some issues could be fixed with a patch.

• Title — Days of Thunder • Developer — Piranha Games • Publisher — Paramount Digital Entertainment, 505 Games (PS3 version bundled with film) • Series — Days of Thunder • Released — PlayStation 3February 22, 2011 Xbox 360February 25, 2011 • Genre — Racing • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Platforms — Arcades PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

• Illustration — Days of Thunder was created to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the film. 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. Both versions feature a single player season and multiplayer support for up to twelve players. Days of Thunder has four different game modes: Quick Race, Time Trial, Career, with circuits of varying difficulty, and Derby Mode, where players are encouraged to deal as much damage as they can. Three basic vehicle types are available in the game: Accelerators are lighter cars with increased speed but are more susceptible to damage; Intimidators are heavier and more capable of handling damage, but have a lower top speed; and Regulators have a medium weight, medium top speed, and have average damage resistance. Sponsorships with racing teams can be earned by playing through the game and completing challenges. When a sponsor is earned a new paint livery is unlocked for the player to customize their stock car with. Players can have up to five different saved cars, and each car can feature a different paint scheme and sponsorship. The sponsorship benefits are cosmetic only. Matthew Newman, Producer at Piranha Games stated that the game "is not a simulation, we chose to let the player unlock all the sponsors and race for whichever sponsor they choose in single player and multi player".

• Illustration — Michael Rooker, who played the character Rowdy Burns in the film, returns to voice the player character's crew chief. 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. During development trailers fictional drivers had liveries coinciding with Paramount Pictures and Days of Thunder, as well as other Paramount Pictures films such as Top Gun, Transformers and Iron Man 2. At release only the Days of Thunder, Paramount Pictures, and other fictional racing liveries/sponsors remained. Michael Rooker returned to voice the character Rowdy Burns in the game. When asked why the game would not be a simulation, Dickson replied: "Well, we wanted to stay away from that because the games that are out there that do that do it well". Developer Piranha Games wanted to ensure that players spent most of their time on the track, so aside from visual modifications, the ability to customize cars is limited, as Dickson said: "We don't want you to spend lots of time outside the game, we want you on the race track". The AI drivers in the game were designed to adapt to the player's typical racing style in which Dickson remarked: "If you're kind of an aggressive driver, they're gonna drive aggressive against you". A retail version of the PlayStation 3 version was bundled with the Blu-ray of the namesake movie, released on June 7, 2011. Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows versions were planned, but eventually cancelled.