The team at Codemasters knew the tide was turning. It decided to target nascent racing genres – namely, those ostensibly popular with Brits in the late 90s – such as TOCA Touring Cars and Colin McRae Rally. They were great games, to their credit; the two new franchises retained a thin line between arcade and simulation, which at that point still meant just being a bit more serious with the brake (compared to V3, you actually used the brake button). You could also drive a tank around a volcano in TOCA, which showed the developers’ sense of humour was still under there somewhere. But Codemasters wasn’t done with Micro Machines; the developers were just firing up the JCB to make a nice, deep grave for the series. – and ripped the heart out of Micro Machines Super Teeter (May 1999). "Micro Machines 64 Turbo". GameFan. Vol.7, no.5. Shinno Media. p.41 . Retrieved 8 November 2020. All in all, MMV3 is frantic, brutal, and a lot of fun. It’s a nice diversion from typical racing games, with a unique take on the genre. Extensive multiplayer options and excellent 3D graphics should please beginners and experts alike. Two thumbs up! While fond memories of V3 remain, the true final nail in the Micro Machines coffin may come with the release of World Series in June 2017. It’s a release that seems to be an expanded version of a Chillingo-produced mobile game port – ironic, really, considering V3 itself runs with ease on a mobile emulator and delivers five times the enjoyment of its current money-grabbing counterpart available “for free!” on app stores. Table Top Racing - a similar racing game involving racing toy cars in household environments, released for iOS in 2012.

a b c d e f Rignall, Jaz (9 January 1998). "Micro Machines V3". IGN. Ziff Davis . Retrieved 7 November 2020. Schneider, Peer (24 March 1999). "Micro Machines 64 Turbo Review". IGN. Ziff Davis . Retrieved 7 November 2020. In the Studio". Next Generation. No.36. Imagine Media. December 1997. p.24 . Retrieved 30 March 2021. Gran Turismo’s PlayStation double-header in 1998 and 2000 wasn’t just bad for daft, multiplayer-oriented racing series like Micro Machines – more traditional arcade racers suffered, too. The ever-competing Need for Speed and Test Drive franchises, and even casual yet genuinely enjoyable start-ups like Total Drivin’, were obliterated by the simulation’s success. But it was still worse for lovable intellectual properties like Micro Machines; they’d always survived, even in the face of racing sims gone by (with admittedly poor, procedural graphics). Gran Turismo put an end to that. Codemasters conformed

Sadly, Codey never did properly return to the franchise, and three years later, the once-coveted Micro Machines was as good as dead. This month, surprise reboot Micro Machines: World Series is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. It could revive the series, or bury it for good. Given GameTripper’s rules, you’ll find out my opinion on it in five years, if it’s any good. Until then, it’s important to understand V3’s unstoppable fall into relative obscurity. Something old, something new Shea, Cam (April 1999). "Micro Machines 64 Turbo". Hyper. No.66. Next Media Pty Ltd. p.69 . Retrieved 8 November 2020. But the ever-expanding capabilities of the new hardware – which, to be fair, weren’t even scratched by V3 – presented constantly evolving possibilities for rival game makers, and V3 was soon forgotten in the franchise development frenzy of 1998. The drive to push boundaries forced even Codemasters to temporarily abandon its biggest hit to create completely new games to compete. Four-Eyed Dragon (June 1999). "Micro Machines 64 Turbo". GamePro. No.129. IDG Entertainment. p.108. Archived from the original on 28 September 2004 . Retrieved 8 November 2020. Maybe it will. I hope it will. But maybe my (limited) maturity has made me cynical, and I’ll never be satisfied by it. Perhaps growing up, as a gamer, is largely irreversible – in the way that GoldenEye is basically unplayable now, or how I can’t bring myself to enjoy Oblivion because of just how poor and simplistic it is in comparison to even the original Skyrim, never mind its remaster for the current generation. I’m not saying it’s fair, I’m just saying it’s a fact of life for me.

Hsu, Dan; Davison, John; Hager, Dean; Boyer, Crispin (April 1999). "Micro Machines 64 Turbo". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No.117. Ziff Davis. p.122 . Retrieved 8 November 2020. a b c Bad Hare (March 1998). "PlayStation ProReview: Micro Machines V3". GamePro. No.114. IDG. p.95. Edge staff (June 1998). "Micro Machines V3 (PC)". Edge. No.59. Future Publishing. p.97 . Retrieved 7 November 2020.

About The Game

It was a turning point for the PlayStation: racing, and to a wider extent gaming, really didn’t feel like it was for kids any more. Just a few weeks earlier, I was fannying around on a pool table and flattening my mates with comedy mallets. By the time I’d turned 13, I was racing for cash, selling countless Mazda Demios from Sunday Cup victories just to afford something better than a second-hand Mitsubishi FTO, and painfully scraping through licence tests just to have the privilege of driving something better than a car with a shagged engine that I couldn’t tune because, well, I was 13.