Classic Moments: Micro Machines V3

» Platform: Playstation » released: 1997 » developer: Codemasters

Luke Albigés shares his favourite bits from Codemasters’ party racer

The anticipation upon loading up Micro Machinesv3 for the first time was palpable.

Early on in the Playstation’s life, making the leap from 2D to 3D was an hit-and-miss affair for popular franchises, and the near-perfection of Micro Machines 2 only made it seem all the more likely that a 3D follow-up would plummet off a dining table and explode into tiny pieces. Within mere minutes, though, all fears were laid to rest. Despite the dynamic camera and simple 3D vehicle and track models where once were sprites, the same tight controls and creative course design that won us over in the 16-bit versions proved themselves to be very much present and correct. Arriving shortly before the advent of the analogue controller was a blessing indeed for V3, with digital directional inputs making it easy to correct a slide (or a cheeky nudge from another player) and line yourself back up with the track to try and claw back a position or two. That V3 managed to capture the feeling of the 2D games so much better than pretty much any Micro Machines since is both impressive and a little disappointing – it’s still our 3D Micro Machines of choice to this day.