Codemasters released Micro Machines on various consoles back in 1991, but the version I played and loved was for the Sega Mega Drive. Being such a huge fan of the toys when I was a kid, when I saw this on the shelves at my local video games store I couldn't wait to get it. Good job I had all that birthday money saved up!Micro Machines was a racing game for up to two players in its original release and came in its very own uniquely shaped cartridge. Later sequels were adapted to allow two controllers to be plugged directly into the cartridge, which I always thought was pretty cool.The game features cartoony visuals and is played from a "top-down" perspective giving you a great view of the level designs which are full of character and themed obstacles. You get to drive a range of miniature vehicles on breakfast tables, the beach, on school desks, in bathtubs and on my personal favourite; the pool tables. I love the use of playing cards for ramps, pockets you drive down and the ability to knock your opponent off the table with a looney tunes style puff of smoke as they fall to their death.In single player you have two modes to choose from which are "Head to Head" and "Challenge". The first offers a simple one-on-one gameplay style where you must beat your opponent to the edge of the screen. Doing so rewards you with a point, until one of you wins by filling them all in your colour. It's quite different to the usual rules in racing games of winning laps and the "stop-start" style of this mode may not be to everyone's tastes. It can take a little bit of getting used to and for single player, this isn't my preferred choice.In challenge mode things feel a little bit more familiar where you complete laps and must finish in first or second place to qualify for the next race. Coming in third or fourth means you lose a chance and have to try again. As you only start the game with 3 chances, if you lose them all it's game over.The game starts off fairly easy and get progressively harder as you would expect. However, each opponent has a different driving style, with some being easier to beat than others, so you do have a chance for some tactical advantage if you're familiar with the game and its characters.Coming in first place for each race in a round also allows you to partake in a bonus stage which grants you an extra chance (which is essentially a continue) if you manage to complete it within the time limit.This is all very nice, but where this game really shines is in its multiplayer! Remember the part where I told you about the head-to-head mode that possibly sounded a little bit boring? Well, not if that opponent is your friend! For a quick pick-up-and-play competitive game with friends, Micro Machines is some of the best fun I've had on the Mega Drive. In fact, whilst recording this gameplay footage with my friend Kev, we were in tears of laughter as we cheekily nudged each other into obstacles or off the track entirely to our doom! There are plenty of opportunities for foul play here which can make this game hilarious.One thing to note here though is we did encounter a few glitches where the better player who was on the track sometimes lost a point to the other person way off, but with a few beers and a good attitude, this just added to the laughs we had.In terms of music there isn't much to talk about here beyond the introductory theme tune, as during the races there's only the engine noises and sound effects to listen to. This didn't matter too much as to be honest, I didn't really notice the absence of music, but I felt it was worth noting.If you find it cheap, I'd say it's definitely worth picking up and keeping an eye out for the other games in the series. They also released Micro Machines v3 on the PlayStation 1 and v4 on the PS2 which are great fun as well and I'll no doubt cover these in the future.

Hello everyone!I just thought I'd give you a quick heads-up that tomorrow (23rd June) I will be doing a special Sonic stream to celebrate this occasion, with a few prizes to give out.You'll have the chance to win these games:

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Sonic 3D Blast
• Sonic CD
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 1
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 2
• Sonic Adventure DX
• Sonic Adventure 2
• Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
• Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed
• Sonic Generations
• Sonic Lost World

The stream starts at 8pm  (UK time /GMT+1 BST) on https://www.twitch.tv/mygamerxpYou can keep up to date with all info at https://twitter.com/MyGamerXPI look forward to seeing you there! :-)

Theme Park is a management simulator developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive back in 1995. The game made its way to many systems such as the Amiga, Super Nintendo and Sega Saturn, with the best version arguably being on PC or the PlayStation 1 thanks to a few enhancements like the ability to walk around your park in 3D.This port in particular is the one I played growing up. I only had the cartridge with no manual unfortunately as I purchased it pre-owned, so for me the learning curve was pretty steep! I still got a lot of enjoyment from it though, which I'll go into more in this review.You start the game in the United Kingdom with just a small handful of rides and shops to choose from. Over time, investing in research allows you to build more exciting attractions, meaning you can jack up the price and hopefully make a substantial profit.Don't let the cute and cartoony visuals fool you! Theme Park isn't about making the most wonderful place on Earth, oh no. It's about making as much money as you possibly can!One common example that illustrates this well is with the french fries and cola stands. If you increase the quantity of salt in the fries it will make your visitors thirsty, causing them to buy a drink. You can increase the prices of these and put more ice in your cola too.This game is full of simple micro management opportunities to fine-tune your park; such as adjusting the speed and duration of attractions, reducing the chances of winning prizes, and increasing the amount of sugar and caffeine in products to cause your visitors to zip round faster, run out of money, and get more people in through the gates. There's also strategies with the placement of shops and "one way" systems to maximise sales.There is of course the freedom to play Theme Park the way you want to. I always used to focus on visitor happiness and a great layout back when I younger, but always ended up in debt. However, that could just be because I wasn't very good at the game. Personally now I try to strike a bit of a balance between making a good profit, getting the price of admission just right and keeping a clean and tidy park. I do hire a lot of staff to keep things running smoothly and with this method I've managed to make progress.During gameplay you will receive plenty of tips along the bottom of the screen to help you with your pricing and let you know how well you're doing. There's also a happiness meter and various graphs to help delve deeper into financials and borrow more money if you need to. Every now and then you'll also play a small mini-game where you must negotiate supply costs or staff wages before the biscuits run out.The Mega Drive and Genesis version of Theme Park is slightly more simplified when compared to the PC MS-DOS original. I feel they did an excellent job though with the limitations of the system. A few of the rides and features are missing plus the graphics are different, but I actually really like the art style! The music on the other hand isn't the greatest. I can tolerate and enjoy a few of the tracks, but it seems most people I've spoken to don't feel the same. I guess it can get quite repetitive.In terms of controls and user interface, they did a pretty good job here. It's mostly easy to use and understand even without the manual. The only real problem for me was when it came to laying down the tracks for water tubing and the roller coasters. This was a nightmare to work out!For those wondering, you bring up the menu and press "B" on the rides instead of "A", then you select the water tube and only then does it allow you to place the track instead of the entrance.One other slightly frustrating issue is when you've researched something only a light bulb appears in the bottom left of the screen and you have to cycle through the rides, shops and additional features to find out what you actually have. It would have been nicer to receive a text alert alongside it to tell me what new thing I could add to my park.

Daria Plays RPGs is a new YouTube channel I discovered recently through this particular video, which I was extremely impressed by.The topic grabbed my attention as whilst I'm a fan of old turn-based RPGs, I haven't played many of them from the 80s. I'm really interested in the history of video games and feel that even if you're not into RPGs, this is still a video worth watching!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spwVRZ63pQkAfter watching this, I must say I'm really looking forward to the 1990's video. You can tell a LOT of time and effort went into making this. Capturing all that footage, writing the script, the editing and presentation. It's crazy that Daria has under 1000 subscribers, so if you enjoyed this video, please be sure to subscribe to her channel.Check out her other videos too such as retro RPG reviews for games like Landstalker on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive (another game I need to add to my own collection!).

Recommend Community Content

If you have a recommendation yourself or would like to let me know about your own videos, you can get in touch with me via the contact form or on twitter. 

Super Smash TV is a game set in 1999, where television game shows have gone to the extreme of offering big prizes at the risk of being killed. You must make your way through various arenas, battling bad guys alone or with a friend, unleashing explosive violence in front of a live studio audience.

"I'd Buy That For A Dollar!"

The premise will feel awfully familiar to those of you who have seen "The Running Man"; a movie featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger where convicted criminals fight for their lives in a gladiatorial futuristic game show. Interestingly, the film was based on novel by Stephen King of the same name and published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman back in 1982.For those of you wondering why I chose to review the Super Nintendo version, it all comes down to the controls. The Sega Genesis and Mega Drive's three button layout just isn't well suited to this game. Sure, it works and you can eventually get the hang of it, but the SNES controller's four button layout feels much more natural. The D-Pad on the left controls player movement, whilst the A, B, X and Y buttons control the direction of fire and is much more faithful to the arcade original's dual stick control method.

"Big Money! Big Prizes! I Love It!"

In terms of gameplay it's fairly straightforward; you must battle your way through three stages, each with multiple rooms and a boss at the end. There are different paths you can choose and secret bonus rooms to discover which aren't shown on the map screen.Along the way you must fight hordes of enemies, picking up as many prizes as possible such as gold bars, VCRs and toasters which get totalled up at the end of each stage, comparing against your friend if you're playing co-op. There's also numerous power ups for your weapons, shield and movement speed to help blitz through them quicker, turning the bad guys into a fine paste.Graphically, there's quite a lot happening in such a small space. The sprites are small but plentiful and I was very impressed that with so many enemies on screen I never experienced any slow down. The action here is fast paced and the SNES version is very similar to the arcade original..In terms of music, it does the job, but it didn't particularly blow me away. I was pretty impressed with the digitised voice samples though and the sound effects. There's a lot of shooting and explosions, so I guess that's why the music didn't matter too much.

"Good Luck! You'll Need It!"

Super Smash TV is pretty tough on all three difficulty settings. The easy mode is just a shortened version of the game featuring only the first stage with a few less enemies, so you'll have to play on normal or hard to get the full experience.In all the years I've had this game, I've never gotten around to finishing it. In the arcades this was designed to make money, so the bosses in particular soak up bullets and take a long time to take down. There are cheat codes to increase lives and continues, but I do enjoy the challenge of trying to complete the game in the way it was intended to be played. Continues are shared with a co-op partner, so you'll definitely need to work well as a team to beat this.

Just a little heads up for all you Nintendo fans out there, that my next game review is likely to be for a SNES (Super Nintendo) game!I ran a poll on twitter, which from 67 votes resulted in the following:

• Game Boy = 16% votes
• Master System = 27% votes
• SNES = 36% votes
• Nintendo 64 = 21% votes

I was really surprised as for a while it seemed that the Game Boy or Master System might win. I'll definitely cover these in the future though.A few people have expressed that yes, a LOT of YouTube gamers cover Nintendo games, especially the 8bit and 16bit era, so what could I possibly bring to the table?Well, this weekend I hope to film a mix of gameplay footage, movie clips and record a tiny bit of "live action" work.. I will NOT be covering a major Nintendo franchise (such as Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc), so my aim is to provide you with something in my style, but also that isn't too predictable. Sega will of course still receive a mention and it should tie in nicely with my usual videos.I will be doing a lot more Sega Mega Drive in the future too, this isn't to say I'm moving completely over to Nintendo or anything like that. I just wanted to branch out to other consoles a little bit to provide some variety. I'm currently working on a couple of Sega videos. I just have so many games I love across numerous consoles.Anyway, as always, if you have any questions or comments, just let me know! I love to know your thoughts and hear your feedback.