Micro Machines V3
Score: 80% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: THQ Developer: Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Racing
Graphics & Sound: I must say, Micro Machines V3 pushes the little Game Boy Color in ways I never knew it could be pushed. Yes, the graphics themselves are basic sprite-on-sprite, but there are some effects that are very, very nice. The tall 3D objects actually changing perspective as you race is a really nice touch, and the multilevel scrolling when you can see the edge of the screen is a big plus too. The maps are bright and colorful, which is important. The kitchen table races are a little confusing, as the Alpha-Bits clash pretty badly with the corn pattern, but it’s not an irrecoverable error. In general, the game looks quite nice. Sound... well, it’s a Game Boy game. What do you expect? The music is passable, but it’s nothing particularly impressive, and you’d find yourself turning down the volume if it weren’t needed for precise timing of the superboost at the beginning of the stage. It’s nothing you’ll remember, and nothing impressive, but it’s unfortunately pretty good for the awful sound system that the GBC has.
Gameplay: What MMV3 may lack in sound, it certainly makes up for in gameplay. It’s basically a port of the PSX game of the same title, and while the conversion has a few issues, in the end, it’s a solid romp through miniature-land. For those who don’t know the premise of the game, you participate in a series of races against other vehicles on fantastic (as in crazy) landscapes. As you’re racing Micro Machines, the tracks are miniaturized. You’ll find yourself zooming around a breakfast table, or a pool table, or a backyard pond. It’s a very cool idea, and it’s implemented well on the GBC. There are three main play modes, each with sub-modes of their own. In Single Player, you can choose to race against another opponent in Head to Head, do a series of courses in a Challenge tournament, beat certain times in a Time Trial Challenge, or race a single track in Time Trial. There are similar options for the 2 Player mode, and the Partyplay mode is more like Single Player with the Game Boy Color being passed between players and the best one winning. There are two major race mechanics in Micro Machines V3. The first is your standard beat-everyone-else racing, like you’d think, and the second is a sort of pass-them-up mentality. If you can get your opponent far enough behind you on the track, you gain a “point” and you both start at the same place. You can lose “points,” obviously, and the first person to get all the points wins. It can go back and forth pretty crazily, but in general, the best racer wins. The PSX version did this style for pretty much every mode, and it got pretty wild, but the GBC only allows two players at a time. And there are some problems with Micro Machines V3. The game doesn’t support the Game Link, so a maximum of two players can play at once -- and they play with a bizarre control scheme that gives one of them the D-Pad and Select, and the other the two buttons and Start. It’s tough, but both players are using the same method, so it’s fair. And the game has no battery back-up, meaning that high scores and whatnot are lost between plays. Passwords suck, folks, and we should have left them behind with the NES.
Difficulty: As with any good racing game, the difficulty comes from the courses more than the A.I. Since they go by so fast, it’s hard to learn the courses perfectly, but it’s certainly doable. Many of the courses are crazy convoluted, but some of them are pretty straightforward. As a general rule, the people who know the courses best are going to smoke those who don’t -- you don’t have as big a window of foreknowledge as you did in the PSX version. Give each player some time to familiarize themselves with the course before you play against each other.
Game Mechanics: The controls in MMV3 are absolutely spot-on, making it a cinch to put on the gas or slam on the brakes. Even the split-Game Boy controls are simple enough. The actual racing engine is solid, and each vehicle controls a little differently, mixing up the gameplay enough to keep it interesting through the many levels of play. There are a ton of levels, too, keeping the interest. The menus are easy to use and rather cute, using the same “drive around” paradigm that the PSX used. While it’s lacking a few things that would have made it stellar, Micro Machines V3 is still an excellent game. Like its older brother on the PSX, it can provide hours of enjoyable gameplay with friends and a not-too-shabby single-player experience. If you want fast racing action on your handheld, you can’t go wrong with MMV3.
-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon
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