This game has some fun in it, but that little bit of fun isn't worth all the frustration that comes with it.
Micro Machines 2 was a fun game about 10 years ago on the PC, and it got pretty good ratings. Since then, none of the games have been too great; there have been a couple new ones on the Playstation, Playstation 2, and Xbox.
Well, now the folks at Codemasters have made a new Micro Machines game called Micro Machines V4. Now, it is available for Playstation 2, and Playstation Portable, but the version I reviewed was the PSP version. When I first started the game, the first thing I appreciated was the nicely set-up menus that you can navigate quickly. This quick navigating is especially important if you ever hope to look at all the 750 cars that are in the game (more on them later). There are three different ways to race. You can either play a Quick Game, which will put you right in the action in a few seconds. The other two are Tournament races and Multiplayer (Wi-fi and System Share). The Wi-fi multiplayer is only Ad-hoc, so you can only play against your near-by buddies. The System Share Multiplayer allows two people to play the game on one PSP. The way that System Share works is pretty different. One player uses the buttons on the right side of the system to control his car (x, square, triangle, circle), while the other player uses the directional buttons. I haven’t tried this, but I am sure it would make for some interesting gameplay. J Now onto the main career mode of the game, the Tournament racing. When you start the Tournament mode, you first pick from easy, medium or hard levels of difficulty. Then you have four different divisions: Learner, Rookie, Hero and Legend. In these races you basically do three races in each kind of racing and you have to come in first in each race to be allowed to continue. The first type of racing is Battles, where you use weapons to destroy the other cars. Next up is Races, where you drive fast and use the weapons to help you get ahead of the other cars. Lastly is the Checkpoint races where it is just you trying to get to the next checkpoint ASAP. Once you have come in first in every one of these races, you can move on to the next division. Sounds simple? On paper it is, but the gameplay makes it extremely challenging, and not in a good way. Maybe frustrating is more of an accurate word. Before I start rambling my complaints, let me talk about the positive parts of the game. First, the graphics are just as good as the PS2 version, but since those weren’t anything great, that isn’t too big of an accomplishment. Second, the environments that you race in are extremely creative and fun. You’ll find yourself racing through things like kitchens, rooftops, and malls. The way that these environments are integrated into the racing is sweet. For example, to get from the kitchen table to the countertop, you jump the car off of the table, into an open drawer, which then takes you up to the next drawer up, which finally spits you out onto the countertop. Fun little things like this are the only redeeming quality of the races. The races themselves are so simple, it’s hard. Let me explain. The cars handle like they are driving on oil, so steering is hopeless. This can get to be a problem when falling off the side of the track and lose you the race. (No, you can’t practice drifting; the physics are too skewed for that.) Also, whenever you race, the AI players all have the same car as you, which makes 750 cars and unlocking new ones, completely pointless. This makes it aggravating to race because you are going the same speed as the AI. But, they have advantages. You start in the back, they start in the front. Plus, the computers rarely make mistakes and they know the tracks much better than you ever will, so catching up is only possible if you get lucky or get a really good weapon. (Though, by the time you get a good weapon, the AI cars are usually too far ahead of you, so you can’t use it on them!) One other small complaint about the races is that the camera views don’t help at all with the difficult racing, and navigating the courses is even harder. The Battle races are a little better, and easier to win, but they still are no pick-nick. In this mode, all of your focus is on the weapons, and annihilating the other players. You can also beat them by getting farther ahead of them so that they can’t see you. So, you can drive like it is a race, and win that way too. The checkpoint races are much better. No unfair AI, no weapons. Just you and the car, against the clock. These are more fun because you can focus on just insanely steering your car to try and make the next checkpoint.
So, all factors good and bad considered, this is probably not what a normal racing fan is looking for, but you knew that when you looked at the title. Instead, this game is best for people that want to have fun with Micro Machines again, or younger kids that want something they can mess around with for a couple hours. The core of this game is decent fun, but there are too many little annoying things to keep someone from really enjoying this game. – by Matt Maranowski –freewebs.com/subaruwrxfan