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Micro Machines V3 for PlayStation 1
Micro Machines V3 for PlayStation 1 sends toy vehicles racing across pool tables, through a garden and among the equipment in a laboratory. From a high camera angle, you steer tiny vehicles past edges, spilled liquids and other obstacles. Cars, tanks and speedboats bring different kinds of racing together. The three-dimensional setting makes ordinary household objects large enough to form an entire course, while you watch both corners and opponents.
On your own, you can work through groups of courses, race against the clock and collect prize cars. Competitive races often revolve around building enough of a lead to leave the others off-screen. That earns points, after which the competitors reappear together on the track. Weapons and power-ups can wipe out a lead. Taking a good inside line through a corner can therefore help as much as saving a weapon for a narrow passage.
With Player Share, two players share one controller: four participants use two controllers, without a Multitap. For six or eight participants, you need three or four shared controllers respectively and one PlayStation Multitap. Vehicles accelerate automatically in this setup. To keep your progress, insert a memory card beforehand and save your character when you first select it. Allow one block per character and later also confirm that the results should be updated.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 1 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
The manual is missing from this copy of Micro Machines V3 for PlayStation 1. That is why the product title says “No Manual”. You receive the game in its box, without the instruction booklet. This makes the contents clear before you order.
The original printed manual usually contains at least English and often around six European languages. The languages vary by edition; Dutch is not always included. This information describes the original booklet and does not mean that it comes with this copy. A copy with a manual is offered separately when available.
The history of Micro Machines V3
Codemasters brought Micro Machines V3 to PlayStation in 1997. The series was already known for racing small vehicles through everyday places; V3 gave that idea a three-dimensional treatment. The original PlayStation credits name Andrew Graham as lead programmer, with Mark Coombes responsible for special effects and tools. Toby Eglesfield led the graphics work. The game retained its clear camera perspective, but now built the objects and tracks as three-dimensional environments.
A Saturn version was also being developed at the same time. Graham later explained that it required a separate team and was not a straightforward conversion. Saturn programmer Nick Pavis described how rendering the world and several vehicles caused performance problems. That project was cancelled. These recollections show how much work was involved in building the same miniature concept for different consoles. This description therefore takes the released PlayStation edition as its starting point, not the unfinished Saturn version.
V3 linked winning races to a collection of prize cars. Keepsies then let you stake those cars against friends, giving a saved character more to hold than just lap times. Sharing controllers also gave competitive races a distinctive social format. Micro Machines 64 Turbo later appeared on Nintendo 64, while Codemasters used Micro Maniacs to move small-scale racing towards characters on foot. The Platinum reissue offered here remains the original PlayStation game, with its own controls and memory-card saving.
Similar games for PlayStation 1
Micro Maniacs adopts the household obstacles and shared view of Micro Machines V3, but has tiny characters race mostly on foot. Jumping and personal attacks therefore receive more attention. V3 keeps vehicles and collecting prize cars at its centre. Both let players share controllers; eight participants using four shared controllers need one PlayStation Multitap. The main choice is whether you want to negotiate corners with toy vehicles or with an eccentric runner.
Circuit Breakers likewise combines small racing cars, a clear camera perspective and weapons that can turn a result around. Its courses focus on pronounced changes in height, sharp bends and roller-coaster-like structures. Micro Machines V3 builds its routes more explicitly among recognisable household objects. Circuit Breakers treats the chosen cars as equal, while V3 lets you collect and stake prize cars. In both, you need to learn to read the track before a weapon can really provide an advantage.
Crash Team Racing shares the short races, weapons and search for a fast line through corners. Its camera follows your kart from behind, making drifting and carefully built-up boosts a major part of handling. Micro Machines V3 shows the action more from above and can interrupt a round as soon as someone takes a sufficient lead. Crash also connects its solo races through an adventure world, bosses and additional challenges on familiar circuits.
Speed Freaks also offers caricatured competitors and weapons for catching a rival. Its karts race through fully developed worlds with the camera behind the vehicle. Micro Machines V3 emphasises the relationship between tiny vehicles and large objects. The shared screen and battle to drive someone out of view give its races a different rhythm. In Speed Freaks, you instead spend longer working on your own lap and the boosts you have collected.
RC Revenge likewise lets you race toy vehicles and obstruct opponents with collected weapons. Cars and boats travel through theme-park-like settings, and a track builder lets you create your own routes. Micro Machines V3 uses household environments and devotes much of its attention to prize cars and races on one shared view. RC Revenge chooses a camera closer behind the vehicle and divides the screen into separate halves when two players race against one another simultaneously.
