Remember when you were a wee nipper with tiny Dinky Toy and Matchbox cars? Remember how much fun you'd have driving them round the breakfast table while your mum desperately tried to get you ready for school? Back in the early '90s, Codemasters offered us all the chance to regress and do it all over again in a videogame.

Micro Machines was a triumph of game design and graphic artistry. It was only a driving game where each of the four players raced toy cars, viewed from above, round a variety of tracks - including breakfast tables - but it was its innovative multiplayer mode that made it such fun to play. When told to go, all the players zoomed off and the first to reach the screen border would win and turn one of the lights in their light meter to their colour. The last player each time would lose a light and it was this, and the superb handling of the various vehicles in the game, that made the game so darned addictive. Long before it was popular, groups of twentysomething males would be seen locked in alcohol-fuelled Micro Machines tournaments that caused many a girlfriend to strop off to bed. The game was successfully translated to various formats and spawned three sequels, most of which met with success.

Codemasters are currently working on the latest addition to the range, Micro Mania. Basically, the premise is the same but instead of driving little cars around, the player will be able to run the little drivers around, which sounds like it should be a giggle. We take our hats off to the game that started its own mini-genre and managed to dominate it, though. Take a bow, Micro Machines.