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No, the world's favourite overhead racing game hasn't notched up version no. 3 just yet. Micro Machines '96 is a stop-gap until next year's Micro Machines 3, and is best regarded as an upgrade to the second version of the game.

Micro Machines 2 has apparently shifted a quarter of a million copies since its release, and this new hybrid is the result of twelve months' research into souping up the formula. The Micro Machines experience is an abject lesson in no-nonsense gameplay, beating flash graphics hands down. You have control of a tiny car which bombs around various rooms in the Micro Machines house.

Choose your speed machine from an array of trucks, cars and even jet planes on offer, negotiating everything from gas stoves and bunsen burners in your mission to complete circuits of table tops ahead of your competitors. Aerial views of the 65 tracs highlight forthcoming obstacles and your rivals' efforts to sneak ahead of you or nudge you off the table altogether. Of all the tweaks and extra features, Micro Machines '96 presents, perhaps the most exciting is the new 'construction kit' facility - a customisation tool allowing you to design your own tracks and save them for future use. So, without further ado, let's lower the chequered flag for a whistle-stop tour of the latest Micro Machines' new features...

The third in this innovative series of table-top racing games.

Navigate your tiny car/truck/jet around fiendishly difficult courses composed of household objects.

Micro Machines '96 features 65 new levels, and amongst these are eight brand new scenarios. The most entertaining see you negotiate such outlandish menaces as flaming bunsen burners, barbeques and exercise machines.

1. BBQ Burnoff
   If you don't scale the barbeque quick enough you fry along with the sausages.
   

   Science Lab An imprompu games of frogger across the laboratory sink. Ah, brings back memories.

   3. Jet Joust Start the engines, point your plane in the right direction and keep your fingers crossed on this screen.

   4. Go Karts Stuck on the running machine, you and your fellow go-kart drivers face an eternity of gameplay with all the breaktaking variety of OutRun.

The most innovative feature of this new Micro Machines is the customistion kit. Choose your vehicle, tailor its speed capabilities and, most importantly, design your own track. Lay your own road over a background of your choice (concrete, grass, sand and so on) and then add obstacles of your choosing. As long as you have an uninterrupted loop of track, you're free to clutter the course with whatever rubbish you like!

1. Speed King Choose your mode of transport from the array of jalopies on offer.

2. Making Tracks Select curved or straight sections of track and assemble them into a loop of any description.

3. Scenic Route Decorate your creation with selected bric-a-brac like giant tin cars and marauding water pistols.

4. Behind The Wheel Assuming everything you're devised makes some logical sense, regardless of how brutal it may be, then you're ready to go.

5. Road To Hell You zoom in to experience your nightmarish driving experience in all its sodden and windswept glory.

Micro 2 is one of the best games on the Megadrive so this definite improvement should be a totally essential purchase, non? Personally, I'm a big enough fan of the game to want to have this as well as Micro 2, but there'll be quite a few people who won't.

This is mainly down to the fact that a fair amount of the tracks are taken from the last game. Admittedly, they're the best ones, but some people still won't feel too happy about buying exactly the same tracks again.

Anyway, forget 'em because the new tracks and vehicles are great, the massive number of new play modes make the four-player option even better and the track editor is essential. Big Micro fans shouldn't even think twice about buying this, even if they've got the other two games.

The best just got better - there's no dispute about that. The only debate lies in whether you're going to want this if you've already got Micro Machines 2.

Well, I reckon this is a pretty essential purchase, and here's why. Whereas the new scenarios like the gymnasium, the camp site and the science lab are good fun, they're simply variations on themes we've seen before.

The construction kit, on the other hand, lends a whole new dimension to the game, and being able to save tracks means my masterpieces of modern art motorways are going to keep me busy at least until Micro Machines 3 rolls along. Who'd have thought town planning could be this much fun?

Graphics 86%
P. Typically workmanlike, with an almost solid feel to some sections.

Animation 84%
P. Super smooth, with the ever-entertaining exhaust phuts.

Music 84%
P. A raunchy new rock 'n roll soundtrack.

Effects 80%
N. Pretty much the same as before, really.

Playability 91%
P. Uncommonly addictive, with one of the best multi-player modes (and facilities) ever seen in a game.

Lastability 93%
P. We're still playing Micro Machines 2. This will last longer.

Overall 92%
New twists, new features, same superb game.