Parents' Guide to Micro Machines: World Series

If you can handle limited car options and a missing single-player mode, you'll find an entertaining game for racing fans. At under $30, it's considerably less than most other titles. As long as you don't mind the gratuitous product placement of many other Hasbro brands, you'll find this lighthearted racer a gratifying way to waste some time by yourself or with friends. Because of the frantic battles, specialized vehicles, and various maps to fight on, you might liken this game to Overwatch -- if you swap out Blizzard's colorful characters with miniaturized vehicles -- mixed with Mario Kart-like power-ups and weapons. For instance, the spy character is a car with cloaking abilities, the medic is an ambulance (as you might expect), plus there's a Cobra HISS tank, and others. On the downside, there aren't as many vehicles to choose from. In fact, there's only 12 cars to be found here. Another beef: There's no proper single-player mode, other than against driver AI, so it's too bad that there's no career mode or story-based campaign to choose from.

That said, the multiplayer modes offer a good variety, including fan favorites like Capture the Flag and King of the Hill, and another battle arena option where you try to drive a bomb into the opponent's base. Elimination mode is fun, too; in it, you pick up and use Mario Kart-style power-up boxes, which give you a variety of weapons and temporary boosts. Along with HD graphics, the locations are clever, such as driving over pieces of toast propped up like ramps, and steering away from the biting Hungry Hungry Hippos. Micro Machines: World Series is a decent-grade title that should satisfy fans of battle racers, and of Hasbro toys. If it offered more variety in solo modes and vehicles, it would score higher, but even as it stands now, it's an engaging game -- and the fact it's less than half the cost of other games doesn't hurt its appeal either.