Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament

Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament continues the popular series of races with miniature toy vehicles, played out on kitchen tables, in sandboxes, on billiard tables, or among breakfast bowls. The player steers a tiny car, buggy, or boat from a top-down bird's-eye view and has to navigate a track full of hazards like pencils, puddles, or toys lying in the way. Whoever falls off the screen, which scrolls according to the best-placed player, explodes one lap later - the elimination system keeps the tension up until the final lap and forces players to go flat out from the very first second, with no room for cautious tactics.

The game's main draw is its multiplayer, which thanks to the special J-Cart cartridge technology allows up to four players at once without needing to buy extra controller adapters - on the Mega Drive this was a technically remarkable solution that got around the limitation of having only a single controller port. The controls are strictly arcade-style and very precise, and the tracks are short and intense, so even players who don't normally spend time with racing games can handle a round. The music and sound effects have a cheerful, playful character that reinforces the feeling of playing on a miniature playing field in the middle of the normal world, and every environment - from the bathroom to the garden - feels like its own small self-contained world.

At release the game earned praise mainly for its multiplayer fun and inventive tracks, and it became one of the most common reasons people lent their Mega Drive to friends for shared game nights. With this entry, Codemasters confirmed they knew how to make smaller but perfectly polished arcade games that get by without complicated mechanics and rely on a pure feeling of speed and tension. Even today Micro Machines 2 is valued as one of the best party titles of the 16-bit generation - short, catchy, and still fun lap after lap, holding its own even against modern party games and the party modes of current consoles.

Why play it: For fast, catchy multiplayer competition without needlessly complicated mechanics, Micro Machines 2 remains one of the best party titles of the 16-bit generation, holding up well even next to today's party games.