Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament

released on Nov 01, 1994

Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament featured cars that require different handling techniques for each course and also hovercraft and helicopters. There are different playing modes including "head-to-head", in which each player earns points by driving a full screen ahead of the opponent. TV presenter Violet Berlin features as a playable driver. The MS-DOS version featured a track editor. A selling point for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version was the J-Cart, a cartridge including two control ports, thus eliminating the need for a 4-player adaptor. It also included a 'pad-sharing' feature which allowed 2 players to share a single joypad; thus it enabled 8 players to compete simultaneously, on certain tracks.


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This is a tremendous game for multiplayer but in single player it's hugely frustrating. The only way to balance against the insane speed and high difficulty of the AI drivers is to learn every single track by heart.

I wanted to be a pilot as a kid, but I gave up on that dream when I realized that I had absolutely zero sense of direction and flying a plane was extremely demanding in that regard. A quick google search tells me that a flight from LA to Rome will end up in Tunisia if it's just one degree off course!

This game is that 'fun fact' illustrated in visceral and brutal terms. It takes the worst parts of the worst track designs in the first game and builds its entire repertoire of tracks with those design principles - narrow snaky tracks, 'death' pits everywhere, and an abundance of cul-de-sacs you can get stuck in. The vehicles are noticeably faster but handle far more slippy and slidey than in the previous game, and the AI drives nearly flawlessly every time, which makes the entire thing an exercise in frustration.

A real shame, as there are some improvements in the general format here - the game allows you to move on to the next track whether you place highly or not, and there is a time attack mode which lets you practice specific tracks that you might be stuck on. I also think it's pretty cool in a game of this age that there seems to be no rubberbanding and there seems to be some level of random variance to the finishing positions of your opponents. This shows that the devs were probably aware of some of the issues with the first game and tried to take steps to correct them but THE TOILET BOWL LEVEL WHAT WERE THEY THINKING

The course design improves so so much on the first game. Not only are there more imaginative themes (Micro Machines did a pinball and music track before Mario Kart), but the use of elements from the themes are so much better implemented, like riding a sponge.

It feels a lot faster, which is complimented by an actual braking feature. Unfortunately the screen size still makes it near impossible to play without knowing the tracks beforehand. Not helped by the insanely buffed Ai in single player modes.

I think this game would feel amazing to master, but for someone just trying to get a rush of nostalgia, it can be a bit of a frustration trying to compete with perfect Ai on courses that move way too fast for you to react.