Revisiting Your Childhood In Micro Machines World Series

Micro Machines has been part of our childhood, whether we owned a toy car or played the classic on the Sega Mega Drive. Now, Codemasters are bringing it back from the dead with Micro Machines: World Series, reinventing it along the way to take advantage of online multiplayer, both as a casual bit of fun and something competitive.

But why now? We asked that question of Game Designers Gavin Cooper and Stuart Campbell.

“More than anything, I think it’s because people had been asking for it for a while,” Gavin said. “It’s probably one of our fondly remembered franchises and we just so happened to conduct our own user research into racing games. To do this, we laid out various game box art for game ideas and Micro Machines was the top choice and our users would immediately start talking about that It’s the type of game that we’re always asked about.”

“It doesn’t matter what Codemaster games come out,” Stuart added, “people always ask about Micro Machines.”

Going hands on with a nice selection of the game’s available modes, we went back and forth between online and offline play. There’s Elimination, Free-for-All and standard races, all of with were fidgety, fast-paced, but short games, place across a number of creatively designed tracks. Beyond Micro Machines, some of these tracks contain other Hasbro toys and references, from Hungry Hungry Hippos to GI Joe, giving the game a consistent playroom feeling.

So many years after the advent of online console gaming, it’s a little odd to be considered a marquee feature, and yet it is a major new addition to Micro Machines: World Series. Offered up to us was the online battle mode, featuring Capture the Flag, Free-for-All and Skirmish, shifting away from the out and out races and elimination modes of local play.

Gavin said, “We’ve thought about how people approach games these days. Online play wasn’t even a thing back then and so we wanted to play the game with these cars. That’s forgiving and sympathetic, but competitive and inclusive. This is why we introduced the battle modes in the game because they’re team-based but in a competitive environment. People don’t have to feel like they need to be perfect to play. If I’m playing as a cop car, I can call out targets and when I’m the ambulance and healing but still contributing to my team’s success.

“It’s all about that balance because the local-play elimination is pretty cut-throat and that’s fine if you’re playing with friends side by side for quick gaming sessions but that can be quite off-putting to new players so we just wanted to make sure the online space gave the player a range of things to do.”

These game modes allowed for a good variety of team play, while being competitive and balanced with the perks on each of the 12 vehicles. These vehicles handle differently based on the terrain or material on the track. On top of that, each of these vehicles has an ability that buffs other players in some way, which can ultimately lead to the success or failure of your team. Vehicles are also voiced as characters and some of these vehicles belong to renowned characters such as the tank that belongs to G.I. Joe – so there’s room to be silly with each other in the game too.

The game has more than a few other Hasbro toy references too, with Hungry Hungry Hippo and a Ouija board featured on race tracks – this is actually when I learnt that Ouija boards are a Hasbro product. A more obvious inclusion comes from having Nerf weapons as collectable power-ups. The consistency of the game with other Hasbro products makes the game that much more accurate in the way that it feels like you’re in a child’s playroom.

“They’ve been really good, actually,” Gaving said of Hasbro. “They basically said ‘Look, this is all our stuff – what do you want to use?’ We used things we felt would be in our own bedrooms at a young age, things like Hungry Hungry Hippo.”

Stuart revealed that, “We actually got to create our own Nerf weapons exclusive to the game too. Like you don’t have a Nerf Cluster Bomb – but you do in Micro Machines, that’s for sure. We also have a Nerf Hammer and Hasbro allowed us to design that too.”

The other weapons are extremely effective in races, with a combination of tracking missiles, machine guns and Nerf-inspired weapons. They do feel quite balanced, but can sometimes be very cut-throat. In my time playing the game, I never felt cheated, though that might just be because I won on a few occasions.

With twelve playable cars, five smaller skirmish arenas and ten tracks for racing, there’s not an overwhelming amount of content, but it fits the bill of a budget release that will come to £20 on PS4, Xbox One and PC. It’s a sweet price point for a game that you can easily pick up and play whenever.

It’s without question that it’s great to have Micro Machines making a return, and there’s a window here for casually picking this up and playing it with friends for a bit of simple but competitive fun, whether you’re sat right next to them or playing online.