Micro Machines (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Camerica's unlicensed 1991 racing game for the NES, Micro Machines.

The video shows the entire challenge mode played through as Spider.

Does anyone else remember the super-long special that the Home Shopping Network had to sell this game when it first came out? I watched it all day, and when I finally got the game I was completely obsessed with it. I'm kinda surprised the cart survived the number of times it got thrown by my 9 year old self - fantastic as it is, it'll do its best to test your skills before it gives up the championship trophy.

Micro Machines is a top-down arcade-style racing game that takes its cues from the likes of Super Sprint, Off Road, and RC Pro-Am, only instead of racing on streets, you race the famous miniature toy cars around all sorts of household settings surrounded by super-sized obstacles. In an extraordinarily neat inclusion for an NES game, the "surfaces" all affect your handling in appropriate ways as well - driving over a plastic ruler or a playing card will send you skidding, while trying to power slide across the edge of a sandcastle will usually leave you getting stuck in a clump of sand or a puddle. You'll get your wheels gummed up by orange juice at the breakfast table, or maybe you'll find yourself steering against the draft from a lawn sweeper. You'll use the pockets of a pool table to make a quick escape, and you'll try to bash your opponents into a bathtub drain as you dodge rubber duckies. It's all really cool to see - it always reminded me of World 4 from Super Mario 3 in how it plays with proportions to fun effect.The super-blippy, arpeggio-filled soundtrack is also awesome, sounding far more like a C64 game than your typical NES title. It also leaves little room for doubt that the game was the product of a British developer of 80s computer games.

Who can say no to chiptune renditions of Smoke on the Water, anyway?

Micro Machines actually came in two forms on the NES: the original cartridge (the color depending on the region) and the Aladdin Deck Enhancer version (which is all but identical, save for the title screen copyright message). And though it was distributed in North America by Camerica, the game was entirely the work of Codemasters. Yes, those legends.

While the start-up screen that proclaims the game as "Absolutely brilliant!" would be an embarrassing spot of hyperbole in most games, in this case, there really is no better way to put it. The game is absolutely brilliant. Codemasters wasn't an official Nintendo licensee, but Micro Machines proved that they could easily outdo most "official" publishers' works on the console. There's nothing about game that suggests words like "bootleg" or "pirate." It's easily on par with Konami and Capcom's best efforts, and it's still one of the best multiplayer experiences you'll find on the console.

*This video is a newly-made replacement for my original upload from 2014. This one displays a proper 720p60 picture, and my playing is a fair bit better here than in the original video. Hope you enjoy it!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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