MicroCircuit Review

Viex Games has provided the Palm community with a number of quality titles. MicroCircuit, their newest foray in the Palm market, is no exception. With pick-up-and-play gameplay, strategic thinking, and unlimited replay value, for those that like to retrace previously beaten courses, Viex has delivered a product that you aren’t likely to put down for some decent amount of time.

MicroCircuit is easy to pick up and play from the start. There really isn’t a learning curve, as the game focuses around a strategic path for the cars on the game track. Cars will be dispersed from what we will call car ports. Streets criss-cross, forcing you to switch them, like you would on a railroad track. Your goal is to reach the car port with all your cars, using a route designed by you.

Only your stylus is used in this game. Simply touch an intersection with the stylus, and it will switch directions. The stylus will be used to navigate menus, along with perform the basic task of switching the intersection. There’s nothing more to it than that, so even inexperienced gamers can get used to this without a flinch.

The main problem I had with MicroCircuit was the difficulty level that was taken on just a few courses into the game. If you get stuck, you’ll be forced to either revert to previously beat courses, or completing the track that you’re on. The way you ‘die’ is by having cars crash, which obviously ends the game.

Once the initial reaction of, ‘hey, this is pretty cool’ wears off, you probably won’t play much of this game. For me, it was the steep difficulty that had me put the game away, before I threw the Zodiac against the wall. MicroCircuit works well, and has a neat concept that I’m sure Nintendo wouldn’t mind having on their DS, but in the end, I can’t forgive the difficulty.