I personally got into the series during the Playstation era with Micro Machines V3. The game used the same isometric racing as the earlier games, but with more tracks, vehicles, modes and a multitap support for up to 8 players on a single track. It was phenomenally fun, and ranks up there as one of my favourite racing games on the system.
*Spoiler Warning: I will be spending much of this review comparing World Series to V3*
It was with much surprise then that a new instalment, world series, was being released on current gen consoles, seemingly continuing the wave of reviving PS1 classics like Crash Bandicoot and Wipeout. So, at the cheaper price point of €30, I bought it and gave it a weekend of play.
And I feel quite disappointed with the end result...
First off, if you bought World Series for a solid single player like the older titles, you are in for a rude awakening. The game has no structured career mode of the sort, with only local skirmishes being the mode to play. You can choose between a meagre 10 tracks for racing, or a new battle mode that features a similar track count. Compared to V3's 48 tracks over 7 unique areas, a time trial, one v one and V3 challenge, it is scant pickings for the single player.
The appearance of the menu for xbox free members single player
This is a game aiming for an online audience, and it does accommodate its audience with quick play, special events, and a ranked playlist once you progress to level 10. There are standard races, battle modes in the arenas, and the classic Micro Machines game mode, elimination. Having six racers drive to the corner of the screen while knowing nothing of whats ahead is a staple and its very well done here. The screen even zooms closer in as time elapses, creating tense and more difficult driving if there are two neck and neck racers.
Thankfully, the racing controls at the core of the experience are exactly whats needed out of a Micro Machines game. The cars handle corners loosely, the weapons used are faithful (despite obnoxious NERF product placement) to the V3 formula, and the tracks are designed with 90 degree turns at the end of long straights, making for an unpredictable racing experience during your first few races. The AI is surprisingly difficult, and the environmental hazards are done just as well as their predecessors. A buzzsaw and moving billiard balls actually improve on the hazards in this respect, more than mere pitfalls off the edge of tables.
The fundamental concept of the vehicles in World Series is that instead of having every player in the same car, this time all of the cars have the same driving speeds, with differences in how the cars behave in battle modes instead. It is not a wise move, as it removes the unique quirks and stats of each vehicle in racing. F1 cars would be uncontrollably fast, tanks would have the ability to shoot at players, and only hovercrafts and boats could navigate the pond tracks in V3. Here, any vehicle can make the daring jumps and skillful drifts. Its interesting to give each vehicle four different abilities in battle modes, but it feels like it is made for a different game, one more in line with modern action shooters than Micro Machines.
However, a lot of tracks lack much of the creativity of the earlier games. While V3 had the blind turns beside the edge of tables, it also had long curved sections, crossovers and much more jumps than seen here, likely from having a jump button given to the vehicles. V3 also had races where you would use a lily pad as a makeshift ferry to cross a pond, a house of cards to jump over, boat racing, driving off a ramp to turn into a boat for the pond sections, shrink to microscopic size to race in a microscope, even TELEPORTATION!
But World Series online modes are limited compared to its contemporaries and previous games, and it brings me to the big frustration I have; There is just not enough here on day one in the game. Yes, the core racing is as faithful to the older games as it gets in 2017, and it is fundamentally more fun to play than say Super Toy Cars, but there is a severe lack of tracks, modes and vehicles for even the €30 asking price. If the developers had an extra few months reusing their current assets to create more tracks in the same environments, and a few single player modes to satisfy even basic gamer needs in a Micro Machines game, it would have done the game wonders. As it is, it is barebones, and a short shot of nostalgia with little meat on the bones to return. I guess getting Brian Blessed in for the voice overs must have blown the budget...
