Jimmie Johnson’s Anything with an Engine

Jimmie Johnson’s Anything with an Engine gets its best joke out immediately: you are racing bizarre motorized machines, from bathtubs and concrete mixers to WWII bombs, and treating the whole thing with the rough-and-tumble attitude of a kart racer. That silliness gives the opening races an easy pull, especially when a close finish becomes a scramble for fan votes, weapons, and a well-timed nitro burst.

The trouble is that its strongest ideas are familiar ones. Mines, missiles, rams, track traps, and weapon upgrades make races lively, but the fan-vote system has to carry much of the game’s personality. If you want a lightweight, chaotic racer with a deliberately odd vehicle roster and several race-rule variations, it is worth a look; if you want deep driving or a more polished competitive racer, its novelty may wear thin.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few races have a pleasingly scrappy energy. You are not simply trying to take the cleanest racing line; you are running over green and yellow fan switches, building votes through your performance, and trying to turn that support into a weapon advantage. That extra objective gives you something useful to do when you are not in first place, and it makes the pack feel more volatile than a straight circuit racer.

The weapons are familiar kart-racing tools—mines, missiles, and a ram—plus nitro, but the vote-based leveling gives them a sensible reason to matter. Build enough support and your attacks become more dangerous, so there is a constant temptation to chase votes instead of merely defending your position. Traps placed around the tracks add another layer of opportunism: hit one at the right moment and racers behind you can pay for it. It is a broad, confrontational style of racing, not a precise driving game.

Career mode does more than string together standard races. Regular events sit alongside figure-eight Matador races, solo Time Trials, Elimination contests, and Endurance events that award points at the line. That variety is important because it changes what you focus on from event to event. Do well across a cup and you earn a head-to-head chance against Jimmie Johnson for the cup, a clean little goal that gives the progression some shape. Single Event is the straightforward place to pick a driver and track, while multiplayer lets the chaos play out against other people online.

Graphics

The behind-the-vehicle view keeps the strange machinery front and center: bathtubs, concrete mixers, and engine-equipped WWII bombs are the kind of racers you notice immediately. The themed courses move from modern tracks to rural roads, and the figure-eight format promises the clearest visual setup for incoming traffic and sudden collisions.

Story

The game’s context comes from competition rather than a plotted adventure. You enter cups, accumulate results, and work toward the chance to race Jimmie Johnson head-to-head for the trophy. It is a simple framework, but it suits a game built around short, aggressive races.

Jimmie Johnson’s name gives the career goal a recognizable finish line, even as the vehicles steer the tone far away from serious NASCAR simulation. That contrast is the joke: a licensed driver is attached to a contest where a concrete mixer can trade missiles with a bathtub.

Do not expect the cups to carry emotional weight on their own. Their value is practical: they make each race result matter and give the changing event types a reason to keep coming. The game is at its most convincing when you treat that setup as a brisk excuse to get back into another ridiculous race.

Overall Experience

Anything with an Engine is easy to understand: get votes, improve your attacks, use whatever is available to get ahead, and survive the retaliation. The fan-vote hook is its smartest touch because it ties racing performance and item power together instead of leaving weapons entirely to chance. When the field is bunched together, that can make a simple race feel wonderfully unruly.

Its limitation is equally clear. Much of the moment-to-moment action rests on conventions kart-racing fans already know, so your enjoyment depends on whether the eccentric vehicles and vote system are enough to freshen that familiar formula. The range of event types helps, particularly when you need a break from conventional laps, but it does not turn the game into a deep driving sim or a radically new racer.

Give it a chance if you want an uncomplicated competitive racer with goofy machinery, direct combat, and a career that mixes up its race rules. It is best with friends or rivals who appreciate a little disorder, and it has enough structure to keep a solo run moving. Just go in for the absurd racing brawls rather than expecting the Jimmie Johnson license to deliver a traditional NASCAR experience.