Tiny Tires picks up the legacy of the classic Micro Machines racing series
Something I played when I was young and am therefore fond of if blissfully ignorant of their actual quality
The legally distinct Cheerios in Tiny Tires, the upcoming miniature racing game that looks to be a loving homage to Micro Machines, have their own physics. This delights me. So does the milk, actually, leaving trails on the checked linoleum tablecloth as the infinitely minute driver tries to compensate for its skidding effect on those titular Tiny Tires. There’s pool balls, too! And floppy disk ramps! Floppy disks were probably still useful the last time anyone thought about Micro Machines, but now I’m reminded of it, I’m suddenly very excited again!
Tiny Tires was first announced a few weeks back with a trailer you can check out below, and brought to my attention by SkillUp. There’s no release date as of yet. Here’s that trailer:
My main memories of the Micro Machines series of racing games were playing them when I was very, very young, and then several years later playing one at house party in between irresponsibly massive glugs on £3.50 bottles of White Lightning, as was the style at the time. If you’re outside the UK, White Lightning is ‘cider’ that came in 3L bottles and tasted fairly similar to licking an actual Micro Machine car, and also like vomit.
My main memories of actual Micro Machines involve the Star Wars ones they used to sell. I nagged my mum to buy me as many as I could get my hands on, even the ‘battle damaged’ ones which were effectively just factory rejects with a bit of silver paint where the machines had chewed them up. Pure immersion.
If your nostalgia is as piqued as mine, you can Wishlist Tiny Tires on Steam, and it looks like a potential Steam deck classic. Hey, solo developer Jon Kristinsson, get Valve on the blower! You could do one of those crossovers but instead of just Gordon Freeman’s crowbar for the billionth time it's someone’s bedroom floor strewn with Steam Decks you have to jump over. Call it Steam Deck Valley or something. You could have one being played by a massive human you have to irritate by skidding across the touchpad just as they’re about to beat Elden Ring’s Melania. Homages are ripe with potential for further iteration, and those old games were massively lacking in annoyed humans deployed as actual hazards.