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davidnExile isn't really that bad when you have broadband. I ordered the full version of MMF2 this morning (£74, but I think I owe it to Clickteam after mooching off the demo version of 1.5 for so long). During the wait for its arrival, I've found other ways to pass the time until I hear again from the embassy, and one thing that caught my attention was Micro Machines V4. I think it's been just over eight years since an MM game was last released, and I downloaded the demo hoping that Codemasters still had their touch.
The concept of the games is simple - drive miniature cars around normal-sized household environments (kitchens, desktops and the garden being three classics), racing against opponents while attempting to blow them up or shove them off, while they try to shove you off or blow you up. The gameplay is a tribute to the simpler days of games, and I'm surprised that it survived intact without major updates.
Before I actually get in to mentioning the game, a word about the menu. Codemasters were infamous for including "console-style" name entry screens in their 1990s games, and after a decade of experience, it seems they still haven't learned. I could type in my initials in just under a picosecond, so why do I have to traipse around a letter grid to pick it out?
But once that sticking point was passed, I was most impressed with the game itself. Like I said, the game hasn't changed much since the third version, bar a graphical update - both the interface and playfield look clean and simple. There still doesn't seem to be a straight racing mode - instead, races are a series of small runs around the track, with points being added or deducted depending on how far ahead or behind a car gets.
The kitchen level was the first track that I tried, and it comes complete with the old favourite obstacles such as a cooker top going at full blast and a sink (which becomes a lake of death passable only by ferrying across on a sponge if you happen to be a model car), along with a couple of new ones such as the collapsing ironing board. As an added self-referential touch, the radio is playing the menu music from the third game. At first the speed of it took me by surprise and the cars felt like they didn't have any grip at all, but soon I got used to it and was sliding around like a maniac and shouting at the computer players as if it was 1996 all over again.
The idea of weapons has stayed from the third game, but oddly, there didn't seem to be any lasers or Tom and Jerry-style mallets this time - instead, a variety of firework-style explosives feature. It's a strange move, and almost makes the game feel like Supersonic's modern series Mashed, but it's still very satisfying to score a direct hit with a rooftop bomb while driving backwards at full speed.
The demo also comes with two new environments - a chicken farm and a set of rooftops. The only thing that's new apart from the scenery is the way that debris is scattered around some sections of the track - it's pushable, so crashing into them isn't exactly fatal any more. Some obstacles are, however, such as the circular saw on the roof that I unwittingly drove into, only to see my car fall in half. It then hit me with a Demo Timeout. Bah humbug.
I've never really felt inclined to buy many modern games, instead set on hoarding as many retro classics as possible on my hard drive, but this tribute to the old series could change that yet (especially with the inclusion of a track editor - a huge attraction for any game back in the mid-nineties). Even though the list of changes since the original might be as small as the cars themselves, I think that this is what games should be like.
The concept of the games is simple - drive miniature cars around normal-sized household environments (kitchens, desktops and the garden being three classics), racing against opponents while attempting to blow them up or shove them off, while they try to shove you off or blow you up. The gameplay is a tribute to the simpler days of games, and I'm surprised that it survived intact without major updates.
Before I actually get in to mentioning the game, a word about the menu. Codemasters were infamous for including "console-style" name entry screens in their 1990s games, and after a decade of experience, it seems they still haven't learned. I could type in my initials in just under a picosecond, so why do I have to traipse around a letter grid to pick it out?But once that sticking point was passed, I was most impressed with the game itself. Like I said, the game hasn't changed much since the third version, bar a graphical update - both the interface and playfield look clean and simple. There still doesn't seem to be a straight racing mode - instead, races are a series of small runs around the track, with points being added or deducted depending on how far ahead or behind a car gets.
The kitchen level was the first track that I tried, and it comes complete with the old favourite obstacles such as a cooker top going at full blast and a sink (which becomes a lake of death passable only by ferrying across on a sponge if you happen to be a model car), along with a couple of new ones such as the collapsing ironing board. As an added self-referential touch, the radio is playing the menu music from the third game. At first the speed of it took me by surprise and the cars felt like they didn't have any grip at all, but soon I got used to it and was sliding around like a maniac and shouting at the computer players as if it was 1996 all over again.The idea of weapons has stayed from the third game, but oddly, there didn't seem to be any lasers or Tom and Jerry-style mallets this time - instead, a variety of firework-style explosives feature. It's a strange move, and almost makes the game feel like Supersonic's modern series Mashed, but it's still very satisfying to score a direct hit with a rooftop bomb while driving backwards at full speed.
The demo also comes with two new environments - a chicken farm and a set of rooftops. The only thing that's new apart from the scenery is the way that debris is scattered around some sections of the track - it's pushable, so crashing into them isn't exactly fatal any more. Some obstacles are, however, such as the circular saw on the roof that I unwittingly drove into, only to see my car fall in half. It then hit me with a Demo Timeout. Bah humbug.
I've never really felt inclined to buy many modern games, instead set on hoarding as many retro classics as possible on my hard drive, but this tribute to the old series could change that yet (especially with the inclusion of a track editor - a huge attraction for any game back in the mid-nineties). Even though the list of changes since the original might be as small as the cars themselves, I think that this is what games should be like.
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Date: 2006-07-04 05:28 pm (UTC)The Amiga was still good, but the homework desk tracks were impossible becauseif I can do it this time around.