Total Game Boy
28th May 2000
Publisher: THQ
Machine: Game Boy Color
Published in Total Game Boy Issue 08
Microwaves, microchips - now it's the Micro Machines!
Micro Machines 1 & 2: Twin Turbo
One of the biggest success stories of classic UK games factory Codemasters, Micro Machines has become a classic videogame, practically creating a genre of its own. And, unlike many other great racing games, the wheel-spinning, gut-wrenching racer is just as at home on the tiny screen of the Game Boy as it is on bigger consoles.
Any self-respecting games fan must find it impossible to hold their head up without at least one Micro Machines title in their collection. However, if you are one of the folk who has managed to resist the allure of racing your way through nuts and bolts or plates of jelly, now is the time to give in; Micro Machines 1 and 2: Twin Turbo has arrived for your colour console!
Everyone must know how the game works by now. You are a quite disturbingly small driver placed in your tiny Micro Machines car, and you have to race through numerous brilliantly-created domestic tracks in order to beat your compadres and fight through to win the cup. You might be speeding along the beach, avoiding crazy crustaceans and shells, or battling your way around a messy tabletop, trying not to get stuck in the split ketchup or bump into any rogue peas. It all makes for one of the most imaginative and entertaining racing games ever - but this time you get to have double the fun!
Those lovely folks at Codemasters and THQ have somehow managed to cram both incarnations of Micro Machines into one deceptively compact cart. Not only can you master the original Micro Machines game, with its abundance of game options, tracks and vehicles, but the entire second game as well, with some familiar faces, plus even more options and added bonuses.
The original Challenge game on one-player is the main part of the gameplay, and a nail-biting, hackles-raising fight it is too, on both games. Once you've qualified, every crazy course makes the possibility of winning just that little bit harder, and soon you'll be throwing the entire console halfway across the room as it becomes ridiculously tricky... but you know you'll be coming back for more!
Even though the toughness of the Challenge mode will keep you grinding away at both games for a long time to come, everybody wants to share the thrill of the race with their friends, don't they? And that's exactly what you can do in the simplistic but brilliant Head-to-Head two-player mode, which is excellent fun. The Game Boy is split down the middle, so each player can control the vehicle left or right using the A and B buttons or the D-pad. In the second game, this is made even more attractive, with a huge selection of vehicles and tracks, plus even more game options for single players.
Everyone with any sense knows that Micro Machines is one of the ultimate racing challenges, and now those people who struggle to get past level five are in four double trouble. Why put two cartridges into your machines when you can just buy Twin Turbo?
Second Opinion
Ever since Codemasters won a battle with Nintendo to produce games for the NES console and released Micro Machines, I have been hooked on this amazing game.
This new version for the Game Boy Color is basically the first two NES games in one package, but time has been very kind to Micro Machines because it's just as devilishly playable today as it was way back when.
If you haven't played Micro Machines before, grab yourself a copy of this today - you won't regret it!
Verdict
Graphics 100%
Watch out or that egg!
Sound 80%
Doesn't provoke migraines.
Playability 80%
Difficult but tantalising.
Lastability 100%
You'll be playing it with your grandkids!
Overall 93%
Quality racing action - top, top value!