On the track the handling is a little bit too slippery for my tastes and does take some getting used to. Also, the focus seems to be more about the battle matches than the actual races, with the number of race tracks available seeming quite limited.
The focus here is very much about multiplayer, which is to be expected as racing against your mates was always what Micro Machines was about, but the overall package feels pretty thin without a career mode or even just the opportunity to play an offline championship.
Ranked Match mode opens up when you get to level 10 (presumably to keep non-serious players out) and, finally, Special Events which are more races and battles but only available at set times. However, here there are fewer tracks and weapon options than in the online multiplayer mode. Skirmish allows up to four local players to also have races, battles and elimination matches. The main mode is Quick Play which offers online matches against eleven randoms (with the AI filling in any gaps) and here you get Race (which are pretty standard affairs where the camera is just focused on you), Elimination (where the camera is focused on the race leader and if you fall far enough behind you get eliminated from the race) and Battle (which is a straight up arena deathmatch). However, firing up the game initially feels a little stark. The series has always captured the essence of a child’s imagination and World Series continues that theme. The true joy of Micro Machines is that rather than putting you on an endless series of boring race tracks, the environments here are things like pool tables, a kid’s bedroom, a DIY workbench and other domestic locations. It still stands up as I found out when and friend and I had a few races last week on the SNES version. It took the slightly awkward format we knew from the likes of Super Sprint but made it special thanks to its clever track designs and brilliant multiplayer mode. When it comes to top-down racing games, the original Micro Machines was, for the longest time, the standard to beat.
Jin PS4 tagged driving / micro machines / nostalgia / racing / retro by Richie