Micro Maniacs Racing

released on Apr 07, 2000

Micro Maniacs Racing is an unofficial sequel to the Micro Machines racing games and features a similar 3D perspective to the previous game, Micro Machines V3. As with previous games, the racing environments are based in real-world locations such as kitchens, laboratories and gardens, played "zoomed in" due to the miniature nature of the racers The 12 character choices (some of which are unlockable) are differentiated by various unique attack moves. Instead of racing with vehicles, the Micro Maniacs race on foot.


Released on

Genres


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

Over in Europe it's just 'Micro Maniacs' rather than the weird and un-necessary foxkids.com bit. Plus the box art looks better.

ANYWAY

This thing is great, played it a bunch growing up, and i wish they'd went back to this concept.

Shrunk down super-heroes running around bedrooms and backyards in a foot race.

It's really quite creative, every level is memorable and unique, the retro one in particular where you get sucked into a 8-bit space-frogger type game mid-race is a stand out. But all are really cool and worth seeing.

The characters are distinct, each with their own style and ability types. And the music is fantastic.

I understand that the nostalgia here is strong for me, but i genuinely think this is a hidden gem for the PS1.

My only experience with this game was going over to a family friend's house where they and my older brothers played this while I watched. I never saw this game again after that, despite visiting that house several times afterward, but the memory of seeing this game always stuck with me for some reason. All I remembered was the most prominent character on the box art and watching all 4 racers run right into a knife and get their heads chopped off. That sounds like it would be the kind of thing I remember because it was scary, but this is just one of those memories where you wonder why you retained this specific moment in your brain for so long. Like, how many names has my brain removed from my memory for the sake of remembering Micro Maniacs Racing?

It wasn't until today, the day I decided to revisit this foggy memory of a game, that I realized this is meant to be a part of the Micro Machines series, which makes it even more of its time than it already was. This generation of consoles saw a lot of strange attempts to keep series that started on the NES/Arcade relevant by going into 3D. Pac-Man is a 3D platformer now, Break Out has an adventure mode and the bar has eyes and friends now, several puzzle games, several puzzle games create a "3D mode" that is much less fun than the actual normal game. But all of these examples still feel reasonable for their series, or the series is such a blank slate that you could apply anything to it and have it fit, whereas Micro Maniacs just screams late 90's/early 2000s in its attempt to make "fucked up Micro Machines". Now instead of little cars, it's little fucked up X-Men type guys who run around and kill each other, but not too violently because we need that E rating.

This game has a whole backstory you can read where all these characters were shrunk down by a guy planning to shrink down all of humanity to solve world hunger, and he needs to find the strongest warrior that can begin this program, and every character has their own lore; as I said, it's all extremely of its time. The cast even has the mandatory "This guy JUST came out of the INSANE ASYLUM and is here to KILL" character that strangely kept showing up in things. I kind of admire how much effort went into this very dumb idea, and while I'm talking about everything besides the gameplay, can we talk about this game's NTSC title? "FoxKids.com Micro Maniacs Racing"? As a kid, I assumed this was a Fox Kids show and that's why their name is in the title, it would certainly fit right in with what was airing at the time, but Fox Kids just sponsored this game, I mean who wouldn't it's obviously a gold mine. It's not even "FoxKids.com Presents Micro Maniacs Racing", just "FoxKids.com Micro Maniacs Racing", truly one of the titles of all time.

The game isn't great to play, there's no getting around it. It's like Micro Machines but if your car was slippery and could jump. The controls and movement are mostly fine but the slipperiness becomes a problem due to how cramped the stages are. Each stage is some sort of everyday location, but now it's huge because you're small. It's a fun theme that's been in other Micro Machines games, but as the game goes along stages feel like they're only one character-wide, and any deviation from the path is immediate death. This is made much worse by the fact that the game will not let you off the path of the course at all. Trying to cut a corner or make a shortcut will send you back, and this is very odd considering how easy it is to slip off the main path. Trying to get back on will often just kick you further back into the track. If the game wants you to not get off the track so bad, why not put up walls? Or make you go slower when you go off course? Since the A.I. is actually pretty brain dead, and will often fall for traps on the courses several times in a row, the bad traction and course design are what will kill you. So yeah, not actually fun to play, but not like, awful. I can see a kid earnestly having fun with this, there's a lot of variety in stages, to the point where some will have you using different vehicles instead of being on foot. Also, one of the stages does this buck wild shit. If I was stuck with this game as a kid, yeah I would probably clear the challenge mode and unlock the characters, but I would very much have to have no other options for games.

Why did I write this much about FoxKids.com Micro Maniacs Racing? I think I just need people to understand this weird thing that's been occupying my brain for too long. I think I've heard zero people ever talk about this game in all my time of being online. It is now your turn to think about FoxKids.com Micro Maniacs Racing. Your turn to think about this weird man.