Collection essentials #85: Micro Machines (NES)

Micro Machines is a brand of toy vehicles that debuted in the mid-1980s, and British video game developer Codemasters decided to make a video game based on these toys. You may notice this cartridge looks a little different than normal NES cartridges. That’s because this is an “unlicensed” game, meaning it was made without Nintendo’s consent or approval. After Atari failed in part because of saturating the market with too many lousy games, Nintendo developed a security chip for their games so that not just any old person could simply make and release an NES game without their knowledge, and that gave them quality control over the market. However, some companies learned how to bypass the chip and therefore bypass going through Nintendo for the release of their game, and Codemasters was one of the companies that took advantage of this. Luckily, just because a game is unlicensed doesn’t mean it’s bad, and Micro Machines certainly is not.

As for the game itself, it is unsurprisingly a racing game, but it does not play from the usual perspective of behind your racer. Instead, you play from a top-down view as seen in the screen shot. The concept with Micro Machines is that you’re racing with a variety of toy vehicles in real-life settings such as a breakfast table in a regular family’s household. It’s a great idea for a game. There are a variety of vehicles and some of them play differently. There’s even a tank that has a gun you can fire. The game can make for a very fun two-player experience. Because of the perspective, though, it does suffer from the flaw of sometimes not being able to see and react to what’s coming without already knowing what to expect, so the game feels a bit too much like trial-and-error at times.

This isn’t the best version of the original Micro Machines, as future versions would include four-player support, improved graphics and improved sound. But this NES release is essential because of a nostalgia factor for me. The first time I remember playing this as a kid was at my neighbor Jason’s house. I remember one year he had rediscovered his old NES after it had been stored away for years and was really excited to play it again, and Micro Machines was one of the games he had, so I got to play it with him. Jason was surprised at how well he remembered the tracks after not playing the game for so long! Then, a few years later when I finally got an NES of my own, I was happy when shortly after my mom found me the pictured Micro Machines cartridge at a yard sale.