Remember the good old days? You were 8 years old, and all that mattered was how many Hot Wheels were in your collection. The towns were bustling with a car wash, parking garage, race course, and a LEGO-made restaurant. You'd play for hours and hours ... until you got bored and went back to video games.

Pocket Racers, a new pint-sized racer for PSP, looks back on our youth with tiny cars and oversized environments. Pop cans, DVDs, and toy blocks are a few of the real-world items you'll have to avoid. The vehicles you control are not officially Hot Wheels but are roughly the same size – so while you could crush a 24-pack of Pepsi with a Mustang GT, these toy hotrods can't even drive over one can.

The story goes like this: you're at a party, chillin' with friends and having a great time. Everyone is all smiles without a care in the world.

In a turn of events that could've been taken from a Sci-Fi channel special, a mysterious Soul Stealer shows up and turns everyone into small, Hot Wheels-sized cars. The Soul Stealer demands that you race him and his crew to restore the human status of you and your friends. Should you lose, all souls will be lost forever.

As confused gamers stare at their computer screens, someone asks, "Did you just make that up?"

Nope – that's the premise.

Race Around The (Play) Room

Cruise the inner-home streets of hallways, living rooms, and play areas. Dodge frequent obstacles like the aforementioned pop cans, as well as spray cans (because you can't have enough bug killer lying around the house) and other homey hazards.

The game consists of three-lap, four-car races. Any of the three single-player campaigns may be accessed: practice, time trial, and Soul Race. Ignore the first – it's unnecessary. Skip the second for the time being, as its options are dependant on your success in Soul Race. Courses that are unlocked in Soul Race can be played again in time trial. But as you know, all this mode does is rank your best times, and will only be exciting to those who couldn't get enough of the competition races.

Soul Race sounds like a unique and uber-cool mode, but is really just another name for "circuit race." There are three medals to obtain: bronze, silver, and gold. No point totals are given – each race is individual. Medals are divided into five races, and first place must be achieved in each to complete each circuit. Certain competitions can reset some of what you've accomplished by taking your soul, but that's about as different as this game gets.

Pocket, But The Same

Pocket Racers may be portable, but it's not unpredictable.

Power-ups: check.

Turbo boost: check.

Cheesy graphic effect that accompanies turbo boost: check.

Same-old layout with shortcuts that are mostly obvious: check.

Controls and course designs – the two make-or-break elements of a racing game – are not standout in their quality or lack thereof. Steering is tight but not tight enough; the courses have a few interesting moments but very rarely demonstrate anything memorable. Most of the courses are short, which might've been Ok by 1995 standards – the era this game seems to have been based on. As a 2006 PSP racer, they aren't too fulfilling.

Among the 15 environments are fantasy lands with giant pipes to drive through. I like the idea of controlling a toy car (even if the game doesn't call them that), but none of the courses are noteworthy to that theme. The layout, structure, and graphical aspects aren't particularly exciting.

Pocket Racers isn't a kiddie game (the Soul Stealer intro is a bit darker than most with an E-rating), but that's the market this title is best suited for. Anyone who was old enough to pick up a controller when the PSone was released is likely too old for this game. Young kids, on the other hand, have not yet been exposed to this kind of experience – at least not as many times as the majority of us have. Kids should drive away with a little satisfaction, but the rest of you will eject the disc and search for something better.

Gameplay: 6.2
A little of this, a little of that, a little too dated to really impress the player. Pocket Racers’s decent controls prevent the game from losing playability, but what’s the use of playing game if it isn’t fun? This is the kind of racer you’ve seen a million times before during the PSone and PS2 eras.

Graphics: 3.0
Pocket Racers looks like a low-quality PSone game with a slightly improved resolution. The backgrounds and car models are crisper than most PSone titles, but all other visual aspects are seriously lacking in depth, eye candy, and detail.

Sound: 3.0
Repetitive beats that don’t go anywhere.

Difficulty: Easy
Would be a bit of a snore if it wasn’t cheap. A statement like that could make its cheapness sound like a good thing – it’s not. Shortcuts are often the difference between a win and a loss. Speed boosts also make a difference, but power-ups – which cause race positions to be changed frequently – do not.

Concept: 6.0
Micro Machines meets Mario Kart with mixed results. The game isn't bad, but it's a 10-year-old experience with analog controls that aren't very intuitive.

Multiplayer: 6.0
Temporarily entertaining multiplayer (ad hoc only; up to four can participate).

Overall: 6.0
Not worth much more than a rental. Kids with no expectations might find it thrilling, but if they’ve already played a couple of racers for PSP, the likelihood of Pocket Racers holding their interest has shrunk.