Micro Machines World Series reviews

I bought this based on my experience with the Micro Machines games on the Sega Mega Drive. I played it for about half an hour but got frustrated with how sensitive the steering is, I just kept turning around in circles.

Normally I wait until reading a number of reviews (or at least check out a games aggregate score on metacritic) before purchasing a game, but being such a fan of micro machines video games, I thought I'd preorder based on the fun I had playing previous versions. I will NEVER do this again. Quite apart from the $50 price tag for what is essentially a $5–10 bargain rate game, the gameplay has the following serious flaws at minimum: 1) there is absolutely no single player championship, only one off races against a maximum 3 CPU opponents. 2) there is no split screen option for local multiplayer. 3) the laps are ridiculously short (one took me around 10 seconds to complete) 4) Only steering option is using right joystick. I only played the game briefly, and yes it looks very nice, but what really makes an appealing driving game is fun, not graphical enhancements. Gone are the wonderful days where you drove 2 laps on a long, sprawling course, one course your a race car, the next a speedboat, the next a dune buggie. You had to preform well to progress to the next stage in the championship. Gone are the driving around a pool table, driving into a pocket and emerging out another. Now if you play mostly online you could well have a fantastic experience up against 12 other racers and this game could be worth its inflated pricetag. If you mostly game locally with a friend of family member, do yourself a favor and buy a $5–10 title like beach buggy racing, 15 race championship, split screen up to 4 players etc.

The one thing that everyone loved about the original Micro Machines was that you could have a normal race against your friends on one console. This option was removed from this version. Wouldn't have bought the game if I had known this would happen.

As a huge fan of the micro machines franchise on Sega Mega Drive I had unfortunately high hopes for this game. It's menu is hard to navigate, and the game lacks replay value. A short trip down memory lane with fumbly controls, great graphics and music later the nostalgia trip was gone, and I'm left with a sense of having paid too much for this game. Its over priced with a lack of single player content.