Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem released at the beginning of the month for PC and Meta Quest platforms. The idea of bringing the excitement of racing toy care into the realm of VR sounds like an exciting one, especially when the possibilities of mixed reality are considered. Unfortunately, this is not the case in practice and the result is a disappointing experience that can’t even be saved by relying on nostalgia.
I was initially planning to compare the game to a tech demo you would have seen in the very early days of VR, but I actually think that those were more fun than this is. Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem is a game that never quite seems to find its footing, despite having multiple attempts. It instead flounders and fumbles across multiple different modes, with none of them ever being truly fun.
Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem is out now and is available on Meta Quest via the Meta Store and Steam.
Instead of feeling fun and exciting, it ends up feeling clunky and dated, and not dated in the nostalgic 1990’s way you might be romanticizing, but disgustingly dated, like finding an old satsuma lying behind the fruit bowl after it has gone fluffy and blue, or clearing out your grandparent’s rancid old sock drawer after they’ve kicked the bucket.
Frankly, it is actually quite baffling to witness just how badly WIMO Games messed this up. The concept of a VR experience reminiscent of Hot Wheels Unleashed meets Lego Bricktales VR should have been a slam dunk success. While playing this thing for review, there were multiple occasions that I found myself scratching my head and wondering; “how is this not more fun?”
So I am going to do my best to explain why this title is no fun. First and foremost is the slot car racing approach to gameplay that Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem chooses to take. This means that the player has little control over the action unfolding before them, other than deciding when to accelerate and decelerate in order to navigate the track laid out before them.
While this may represent a more realistic simulation of what it feels like to play with Micro Machines in reality, it is an extremely poor design choice in the context of a 2024 video game that is supposed to be engaging for players. This gameplay design decision makes the whole thing feel extremely restrictive. Why they would opt for this sim-like experience over an arcade racer in the style of Hot Wheels Unleashed is beyond me.
Beyond the bad game design choices that WIMO Games made when designing Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem, it also feels restrictive and constricted in terms of its control scheme. If you go into this title expecting smooth, immersive controls like those seen in Lego Bricktales VR, you are in for a rude awakening.
The control scheme in general feels cumbersome and antiquated, but the reliance on a teleportation system as the only means to move around within the game world makes this feel like something from the original PSVR. It feels so much like a fossil from another era that it results in a feeling of player disconnection with the game world.
Naively, I was still holding out hope for the mixed reality mode; building virtual racetracks in your own living room has got to be fun, right? Well, not really as it turns out. Again, this mode is bogged down by limitations that don’t allow it to ever feel like an engaging track-building experience. The clunky controls get in the way of player creativity, meaning that your creative potential is curbed by the game’s limitations.
Even if you do manage to build something cool or interesting there isn’t much point. This is due to the fact that there is no online functionality in Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem. Not only is there no co-op or competitive online racing, but there aren’t even any community tracks that you can check out, nor is there anywhere to share your own creations.
In a landscape teeming with detailed and immersive VR titles, Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem fails to justify its existence. This game fails to do anything clever, it is as if it has two brain cells and they are both fighting for third place. The most remarkable thing about it is how it manages to take a concept that should have been a blast and turn it into the most restrictive, milquetoast experience that you can imagine.
Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem – 2/10
Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem was reviewed on the Meta Quest 3 with a code supplied to FandomWire by Stride PR.
