Souped up road monster or broken roller skate?
So I’m left, a wasted and shattered shell of the gamer I was, with the task of summing up my thoughts on Micro Machines V4. After the last two pages, I feel I should start with the good points, so here goes.
That it’s an easy racer to get into is undoubted. Its simple controls are intuitive and very easy to remember… I mean, apart from the arrow keys doing the obvious thing, it’s just A,S and D to remember. Easy. Next up is its ‘dipping’ nature. You can load this up, have a quick race and boot back out with no problems at all. There’s no story to get you hooked and the track and league progression is very simple. Complete one race to advance to the next. Again, easy.
The multiplayer aspect is Micro Machines V4’s biggest boon, as the single player, as you’ll see in a minute is a tad lacking to say the least. I’d recommend getting hold of the PS2 version, as four mates crammed around a PC screen isn’t the most practical, comfortable or likely way of racing. Either that or get online and race. I can see this being a minor hit at LAN parties, just as TrackMania: Sunrise still is. As always, the best thing about multiplayer is being able to abuse the losers, which is why I reckon the PS2 version with is the way to go.
Now the negatives. Taken on their own, I reckon I could live with each of Micro Machines V4’s shortcomings. So what if there’s some texture issues on a few levels? So what if the AI is equally brilliant and stupid? So what if the game engine is unfairly weighted to the AI? So what if the camera is rather good at shielding you from the action behind the scenery? So what if the physics seem to make you vulnerable in collisions? If all that was wrong with Micro Machines V4 was just one of these things, I could quite happily live with it.
But even though all of the above only occasionally rear their heads, the sheer number of problems which you have to deal with puts a major dent on the enjoyment of the game. If it isn’t the AI drivers suddenly screaming off into the distance you can bet that one of them will decide to turn left on the straight, ramming into you and sending you off the track. But if you happen to make it clear of the pack the camera will likely move into a position which obscure your car from view on a hairpin corner… If by some miracle you make it around the corner the game will wait at least 10 seconds to make sure no-one is catching you, during which time you’ve got about 4mm of track in your view ahead and if you so much as clip a corner an AI car will come hammering by and suddenly win even though he’s hurtling off the track and should be out of the race!
So I’m afraid I can’t recommend Micro Machines V4 on the grounds of the single player game. It’s just too bloody annoying by half. And no, I don’t mean frustrating, I mean annoying. The only thing I can liken it to is trying to erect a frame tent in the dark with no instructions while speaking Swahili to a bunch of Mexican helpers. Jack Thompson is worried about violent videogames making people violent? Sorry, but getting up from a session of Micro Machines V4 left me in such a bad mood that my wife didn’t speak to me all evening, knowing that I was in a flaming bad temper. A game shouldn’t do that. That’s what frame tents are for.
Pros
Dead easy to get into
Simple controls
Great multiplayer if you’re in the same room
Cons
Graphical glitches can obscure your car
Camera angles can obscure your car
The AI is equally stupid and clever
The game engine seems weighted towards the AI
Poor collision system
Get the dev boys on the phone, you need to patch this and fast!
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HEXUS Where2Buy
Micor Machines V4 is available now, click the following links to order:Play.com
