Micro Pico Racers

Genre: Top-Down Racing

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Adrenaline Collection Pack, along with Future Aero Racing S Ultra, Green Phoenix, and Skyland Rush. It is also included in Zerouno Games Collection Pack 1, along with all of the above games plus Bleep Bloop, Defentron, Joe Jump: Impossible Quest, and The Flea Evolution.)

Micro Pico Racers is a Top-Down Racing Game released on PC in 2018, ported to Nintendo Switch in 2020, and then ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2022. This game clearly aims to evoke classic games in the genre like Micro Machines and R.C. Pro-Am.

The presentation here is decent, but feels a bit off-target. The vehicles in this game use a 2D pixel art style, but the tracks themselves don’t. I do appreciate that this game allows players to change the camera to a faux 3D, though the way everything including the vehicles remains flat can look a bit odd. These visuals are joined by energetic but forgettable synthesized music, and a voiced announcer.

While I may have minor issues with the presentation, my main problem with this game is the gameplay. Your vehicles’ turning radius is absurdly stiff an unwieldy, basically forcing you to drift around every turn, and the drift physics are not especially great either. This is true even for vehicles with the highest-rated turning capabilities, which are easily outpaced by AI-controlled opponents. These opponents maintain consistent speeds around the track, turn instantly on a dime, and are unaffected by hazards like oil slicks.

Add to this races where you are required to finish first, and you can’t help but feel like this game was designed to set you up for failure. Some of this could perhaps be forgiven with a well-crafted multiplayer mode, but of course this game has no multiplayer whatsoever.

Despite its under $5 price tag, I absolutely cannot recommend that anyone play Micro Pico Racers. The terrible controls, unbalanced enemy AI and unforgiving game design, and complete lack of multiplayer make this a Racing game that is simply not enjoyable to play.

tl;dr – Micro Pico Racers is a Top-Down Racing Game with a retro-style look, but terrible controls, absurdly unbalanced AI, poor game design, and a lack of multiplayer all add up to make this an absolutely miserable experience. Do not buy this.

Grade: D

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