Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged review

Lazy sequel or another loveable dose of toy-based arcade racing? I aim to answer that as part of my Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged review.

As a big fan of Micro Machines games of ye olden times, Hot Wheels Unleashed was a welcome dose of nostalgia. Racing tiny cars in human environments, dangerous jumps and satisfying old-school arcadey handling – no wonder it was one of my favourite games in recent years.

So here we are with Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged, the inevitable sequel I previewed at the end of June. In short, you get five new environments, new vehicle types, a new upgrade system, new game modes, new track power-ups and new vehicle abilities.

That all sounds spiffing though the reality is that Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged is mostly familiar. Win races, score points and enjoy fast-paced, drift-heavy racing against a noticeably rubber-bandy AI. Nothing too dissimilar to its predecessor for better and for worse.

Most notable is the ability to jump and double-jump, allowing you to clear gaps in the circuit, avoid pesky barricades and hop over walls. While this new gameplay mechanic adds some variety and complexity, it does appear to have come at the expense of those awesome ludicrous shortcuts.

You can also do a sideways dash to bash your opponents, which could be lethal in multiplayer. Both abilities require some boost gauge to use. Meaning, you will need to refrain from boosting constantly unless you want to fall to your doom or get side-smacked first.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged: Biker Bros

Then there are the new vehicles, which include quad bikes and motorbikes. The handling can be a bit janky when you boost, resulting in tipping over or flying into space (an issue with thinner vehicles in general), but it is mostly fun to ride a red toy Ducati.

As for the environments, it is dinosaurs galore in the Museum. While the other four areas (Gas Station, Mini-Golf, Arcade and Backyard) are also lovely to look at, distinctive and fun to drive in.

Loop-the-loops, tight corners and huge jumps are never boring and it is here where Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged claws back points. It is a thrilling ride and by no means easy despite its arcadey accessibility and handling.

Effort has also been made to make the career mode look better. Though the new cartoony cut-scenes for progressing the ‘story’ are clearly aimed at younger players. Inoffensive at best, forgettable at worst.

Still, it is nice that there are new game modes to enjoy as you progress round the Hot Wheels career map though some are better than others. Elimination means avoiding being last at the end of each countdown or you lose.

This is a bit hectic as the AI rubber-bands hard, making it frustratingly easy to lead for an entire race with flawless driving. Only to make one tiny mistake and the AI blasts on by and you have to retry.

AI is definitely a weakpoint overall as no matter how well you drive there is usually at least one opponent nearby. On the flip-side, mess up and a couple of boosts is usually all it takes to blitz through the pack back to first.

Toy-tally Predictable?

Thankfully, the new waypoint mode is more enjoyable as you get to explore each lovely environment in its entirety. Hello, dinosaurs and escalators! Here, tactical boosting and jumping are necessary for the best times.

Unfortunately, the AI does not race you in waypoint in the career mode. Nor can you see how your times stack up against the world on a leaderboard, which is a wasted opportunity.

Thankfully, there is still 20 to 30 hours of gameplay to be had as you try to beat each of the scores or times per challenge. Plus there are five boss battles, which involve consistently hitting signs on a track until the boss becomes a smoking mess.

Finish everything and bonus challenges are unlocked, which are substantially more difficult to beat than anything else in the game. Those huge drift scores and blistering time trials in particular will take serious practice to beat.

Also new to Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged is vehicle type. These range from cumbersome ‘heavy’ vehicles such as a school bus and the awesome-looking Volkswagen Drag Bus to ‘drift’ machines for going sideways and ‘rocket’ for going fast with reduced control.

You can feel a difference between types though less so with closer variants such as ‘rocket’, ‘swift’ and ‘balanced’. Especially as the shiny new vehicle management feature lets you unlock skills to, for example, improve handling while boosting, boost regen and improve the class from ‘stock’ to ‘powered’ to ‘ultimate’. Gaining better stats in the process.

These skills are consistent across all vehicles regardless of type, meaning you can add the obstacle-thwarting skills to anything and never have to worry about those bloody spider webs.

Vehicle Management

Just be aware that some races and challenges specify a particular vehicle category, tuning level or skill. This can be annoying if the skill only makes the challenge harder and more frustrating for an already sub-optimal vehicle type.

Also not so good is the speed at which you collect vehicles. After 20 hours and almost total completion I had a mere 62 of 157, mostly purchased from the ever-changing shop selection and some slot machine tokens earned during the career.

So infrequent are the vehicle-based rewards that I was surprised when I was given the Volkswagen Beach Bomb and Duck and Roll. I can understand the logic because it emphasises what you have as opposed to what you do not and it prolongs the ride.

In reality, however, it seems like Mattel and Milestone have missed a trick in not having themed races for particularly special vehicles, with a snippet of the real-world history. This would have been more rewarding than sheer luck and time invested.

As for the bolstered Mattel catalogue available, many older classics are missing. Sorry, die-hard die-cast fans. It is fair to say the collection leans towards more modern offerings.

You can, however, unlock many customisation items to customise your player profile if you can complete the newly added challenges. Buy a certain number of vehicles, win a certain number of races – that sort of stuff.

These rewards are not so useful unless you play online, admittedly, nor do I like that the sheer number of them makes their completion largely uneventful.

Meanwhile, those costly and largely criticised season passes are back, which is unfortunate if you cannot or do not want to afford. Its predecessor was expensive to play everything. It appear to be the same story for the sequel.

Track Builder is another addition from the first game, though unfortunately previous creations are not carried over. Still, you can make epic tracks using default parts and whatever else you unlock in the career mode.

Much time can be spent in this part of the game, whether that is building your own creations to share online or enjoying what others have created.

As for multiplayer, it is great to see a party option for up to 10 players is now a thing. There is also split-screen multiplayer for up to two players.

Worth buying, then?

Basically, if you want more of the same arcade racing goodness with a little extra tactical depth, many awesome Mattel vehicles and some general refinement, I doubt Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged will disappoint.

Just about enough has been done to provide tens of hours of frantic entertainment, especially if new to the series. Even longer if you let the online multiplayer and track editor hook you, both of which can be greatly rewarding.

It is just hard to ignore that Milestone either played it too safe or was too greedy. Neither a lack of environments and tracks from its predecessor and a general lack of creativity and innovation do Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged any favours.

As a result, issues still present from the first game are felt more prominently and are less forgivable. AI rubber-banding being one of the most obvious and most frustrating.

Ultimately, with nothing especially new, basically the same career mode, relatively little innovation and fewer hilarious shortcuts – the end result, though still a solid and likeable racer, is less ‘sequel’ and more ‘expansion’ in all but the price.