Although the Micro Machines V4 experience isn't gigantic, it certainly isn't Micro-scopic either . . .
From the main menu on Micro Machines you have four options. The first option is "Single Player" and this is where you will spend the majority of your time. Note that upon starting out for the first time you will be asked to create and save a profile, but once this is done you won't have to worry about it ever again. Anyhoo, the Single Player mode is where you will do all of your solo racing and within this mode itself there are another four options. The first option under Single Player is "Micro Tournaments", which is where all of the races are located. Once you select this option you will then be asked to choose the difficulty level you want to race at (Easy, Medium or Hard). Next you choose which division you want to race in among the four available choices. The first choice is the Learner Division which consists of the Battle Cup, Race Cup, Checkpoint Cup and Battle League events. The second choice is the Rookie Division which consists of the Battle Cup, Team Battle Cup, Race Cup, Checkpoint Cup and Race League events. The third choice is the Hero Division which consists of the TT Cup, Battle Cup, Team Battle Cup, Race Cup, Chase Cup and Battle League events. And the fourth and final choice is the Legend Division which includes the Battle Cup, Checkpoint Cup, TT Cup, Race Cup, Team Battle Cup and Battle League events. The length and difficulty of the divisions increase as you move up, to fully complete the game you have to win all events under each division in the game. Within each event there can be anywhere from 3-6 races, but it usually averages between 3-4 races I would say. So in terms of the general length of this game there are almost 80 races you will need to complete in total.
I mentioned the various event types above so now I will explain how they work. The Battle Cup is probably one of the most frustrating. In this type of event you race against one other competitor and in the upper left corner of the screen there is a gauge filled with 8 coloured dots. Four of them will be filled with your colour, the other four filled with your competitor's colour. You then begin the race and when one of the cars gets a fair distance ahead of the other the race will pause momentarily and the car in the lead will gain a point, taking over one of his competitor's coloured dots. The first racer to fill the gauge entirely with his or her colour is the winner! This race can take a long time as there is no lap total to go by and the momentum always seems to ping pong back and forth.
The Race Cup is the simplest, most traditional type of event in the game. You compete against three other opponents in a 3 lap race, whoever crosses the finish line first wins.
The Checkpoint Cup is one of my favourites and you actually compete in it all by your lonesome. It is a 2 lap solo race where the course is divided up in to a number of sections called checkpoints. You have a certain time limit in which to make it between each checkpoint and if you fail to do so, you lose. Make them all over the 2 laps and you win.
The TT Cup basically stands for Time Trial Cup. It's another solo race, this time for just 1 lap. You have a pre-set time limit that you need to complete the lap in and if you do so you win, if you finish higher that the time limit . . . try again!
Next is the Chase Cup and it is a pretty fun event. You compete in a 3 lap race against just one opponent, your opponent getting a slight head start. All you have to do over the course of the 3 laps is catch up to your opponent once and bump in to him to end the race. Lotso' fun!
The Team Battle Cup event is very similar to Battle Cup, the difference being that you have two opponents to deal with instead of just the one. And basically it acts as a 2 on 1 too, they will work together to defeat you. You're on your own in this one!
As for the Battle League, this event isn't a series of one-off races, it acts more like a points title. You earn points for each race depending on what position you finish in, and the competitor with the most points after all races are completed is the winner! As for the races themselves, they are similar to Battle Cup and Team Battle Cup, but not exactly the same. In Battle League you race against three other competitors instead of just one or two. And instead of a shared gauge, everybody has their own personal gauge (containing 12 dots, not the usual 8) that they must fill completely to win the race. The difference in this mode is that the top two finishers in each segment of the race receive dots whereas the bottom two finishers are docked dots. Very frustrating!!
The last event is Race League and the structure is the same as Battle League, it is a points title won by the best finisher overall after all races are complete. As for the races themselves, they perform exactly as described above in Race Cup.
As you win races you will unlock playable vehicles individually and also as various types of box sets, depending on the race won. To help you through each race there are a number of pick-ups to watch out for. There are quite a number of weapons pick-ups to choose from, here is a brief description of each. The dice pick-up is a container of 4 explosive dice that you drop behind that other cars will run in to. The disciple pick-up is a single missile that will seek out the race's current leader and deal him some damage. The machine gun pick-up should be obvious enough! The daisy cutter pick-up gives you 2 explosive barrels that you can drop behind for a nasty little surprise. The cremator is a backwards firing flamethrower and the pea shooter is a backwards firing cannon. The plasma gun is a laser that you can fire repeatedly or charge up for one big blast. The hammer pick-up mounts a ginormous hammer on the roof of your vehicle that you can use to crush enemies directly in front of you. The shocker pick-up electrocutes all those within a certain range of your vehicle. The iron rain pick-up is a cluster missile that drops death from above. The sonic boom is another area effect weapon that gives all those within a certain range of your vehicle a destructive quake from below the ground. And the missile pick-up is a 3 pack of front firing, non-homing missiles.
There are a few other pick-ups to look out for, and most important of these are the health pick-ups! There is a full heath pick-up that will recharge you 100%, and then there are others that just top you up a fraction. A very interesting pick-up is the equalizer. When you grab this one it averages out and redistributes all of the players' combined remaining health. Basically when you have a lot of health remaining this is a bad pick-up, but if you are low on health it can be a saviour! There is also an ammo pick-up which will give you a full restock of ammo for the weapon you currently have equipped, and lastly there is a double damage pick-up which simply helps you kill your competitors faster. Note that on most race types in this game you can never truly "die". If you lose all of your health your vehicle will just re-spawn at the next stoppage in the race. But taking damage slows you down, and in this game once you lose time it's hard to recover.
Well, that took longer than I thought! Anyhoo, the second option under Single Player mode is "Practice" and it contains two different options, the first of which is called "Quick Battle". All you do here to get out and racing quickly is set the frequency of pick-ups, choose your number of opponents, set the difficulty level, choose the race track you want and you're off for a single race event. The second option is called "Time Trial". All you do here is choose your track and you're off for a 1 lap race to see if you can set a speed record.
The third option under Single Player is "Garage" and is where you can view all of the vehicles you've unlocked in the game. There are a total of 750 vehicles in this game and they are split up in to 25 different categories! When you enter the garage you can select these different vehicle categories and view all of the unlocked vehicles and their performance stats within them. Now, one curious thing about this game is that when you race you don't get to select your vehicle, the game chooses it for you. Each race in this game has a pre-set category of vehicle that applies to it, and your vehicle will automatically be taken from that category. When in the garage you can set your favourite vehicle in each category. From that point onwards that favourite vehicle will be the one chosen from that category on any applicable race. Strange, I know!
The fourth and final option under Single Player is "Profile" and is where you can manage your Micro Machines V4 game profile. Here you can save your profile, toggle the autosave feature on/off, change profiles, engage the PlayStation 2 datalink, and view the game's unlockable content.
Finally back to the main menu the second option from there is "System Share"! If you have a friend physically present who wants to play with you, this is where you go to do it. I don't have any friends so I can't give you an opinion on this mode either way!
The third option from the main menu is called "Wireless Multiplayer". This is where you go to race with other people around the world over a WiFi internet connection. I wasn't able to try it out because there haven't been any games going on, but I'm sure it would be pretty fun. The coolest part of this mode though is that you can host or participate in other people's trading sessions. When you unlock vehicles in this game you can get duplicates, so to get rid of your doubles and fill out your collection you can trade with people over the internet! Awesome fun. Too bad there's nobody out there doing it though, I've only unlocked 270 cars so far . . .
The final option on the main menu is of course . . . "Options". Here you can adjust some of the game's options including SFX/Music volumes, the camera function (dynamic, classic, retro), and memory card management. You can also view the game credits here.
As for the game controls, they are quite simple. The directional buttons you of course use to steer your vehicle. The X button is used to accelerate, the O button is your hand brake, and the square button is your normal brake/reverse. To use a pick-up you press the R button. If you don't like the pick-up you've got equipped however and want to drop it so you can pick up another, press the L button. That's all there is to it!
The game's presentation is pretty good, but not outstanding. The sound is just OK but the graphics are better, especially the backgrounds/race courses. I found the actual vehicles to be lacking in detail a bit, but maybe that's simply a side effect of them being so small . . . or Micro, if you prefer! But I thought the backgrounds were pretty well done, well detailed for the most part, and pretty colourful. Most important though is that the controls respond really well, the vehicles move just as you think they should. And the camera function is also really well done. Every once in a while if you get too big of a lead on your competitors really quickly the angle can lag a bit, but it's not a big deal. This doesn't happen enough for it to be an issue anyways!
In terms of the game's pros and cons, they are pros for the most part. Micro Machines V4 has a pretty high fun factor and a ton of unlockable content. 750 unlockable vehicles is pretty ridiculous! And the other really good thing about this game is it's length. It's not a game that you'll finish over a weekend or two, it takes a good while to beat it. As I said earlier there are almost 80 races to complete in the Micro Tournaments mode and most of them are not easy! As for cons, I only have two of them. First, the lack of polish graphically on the vehicles is not really a big deal, but for some reason it bothered me. My other con is something I can't even explain! To me this game just seems to be lacking a little something, I just don't know what it is. It seems . . . incomplete almost. I really can't explain it!
There are a few good tips and tricks I will offer any future players of this game. First, when starting out on Micro Tournaments mode, make sure that with every race you compete in you make an effort to get to know the layout of each track as well as the various types of pick-ups offered. The racing in this game is so close and tight that knowing what kind of turn is coming up next is key, as losing even a small bit of time is enough to send you from first to last in a heartbeat. Also, get to know each pick-up and what it does. I found that I only really liked about a third of the weapon pick-ups in this game. The others I used only to variable effectiveness. So get to know which pick-ups work for you and where they are located. If you get one you don't like, drop it, because if you don't and then pass by one that you really like, you won't get to use it as you can only equip one weapon pick-up at a time. Lastly, after you complete a set of events in this game, go to your garage and look at what vehicles you've unlocked, then pick a favourite for each category. If you don't choose a favourite you will continue to race with the default, stock vehicle in each category and only make your racing experience that much harder. Picking a favourite vehicle that has even a slightly higher performance rating will make things go that much smoother in future events.
So, this game is solid enough, although compared to a lot of other racing games out there it pales in comparison. But it is fun for what it is, and being a huge fan of Micro Machines when I was a kid the nostalgia factor definitely hits home for me. A fun experience overall, just make sure you pay a fair dollar for it.