Hot Wheels Unleashed review: Toy-tal mayhem

In my Hot Wheels Unleashed review, I shrink myself so I can fit in cars measured in inches and then drive across wooden flooring while going very sideways.

If you loved cars growing up, Hot Wheels was probably part of your childhood. The mini diecast replicas and bizarre creations such as the Bone Shaker seen in Forza Horizon 4, or the circuits you could make loop-the-loops and ridiculous jumps out of – all of it was awesome.

And in charge of turning toy maker Mattel’s 53-year-old Hot Wheels legacy into digital awesomeness is developer Milestone, the ladies and gentlemen behind MotoGP 21, Ride 4 (comparison here) and MXGP 2020.

Hot Wheels Unleashed review: Weaponless racing

Hot Wheels Unleashed, available from the 30^th of September 2021 on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S, is an arcade racer where you race diecast toy cars on toy tracks in life-size settings such as a skatepark.

That means going upside on the ceiling one second and blitzing across sofas and wooden floors the next as you get to the finish line as fast as possible. There are no Mario Kart-esque weapons here – only various floor panels that either recharge your boost gauge, speed you up or slow you down.

As a result, success in Hot Wheels Unleashed comes from learning the tracks, knowing when to boost, maintaining speed and drifting round all but the easiest corners. Because skidding, playfully displayed in centimetres or inches at the end of a race, recharges your boost.

Initiating a slide is done by braking, the job of the left trigger, and steering the way you want to go. Simple. However scrubbing off enough speed and committing to full sideways action ahead of an apex takes practice (and bravery). Particularly as you unlock some of the faster 68 cars available at launch.

Hot Wheels City Rumble

Speaking of which, cars are unlocked either directly in certain challenges in the main Hot Wheels City Rumble mode or you are given a Blind Box or few (thankfully only purchasable with in-game gold). These give you random cars, which you can sell or dismantle for more coins or upgrade points respectively. Or, you know, drive them.

One thing I noticed, having completed most but not all of Hot Wheels Unleashed for a reason I will get to later, I found myself getting the same car four times and another twice. Not ideal within the space of ten Blind Boxes.

Fortunately, it is also possible to buy from a selection of five ever-changing Limited Offers. Here you can, for example, buy the Koenigsegg Jesko, Batmobile and a Le Mans car wannabe with impressive stats that I turned into the Batmobile. The vehicle list changes every few hours.

Intentionally or unintentially, you can sell some cars for at least as much as you paid. Sometimes a lot more. This is either a glitch or perhaps a hint that I will never be able to get the epic Tanknator again.

While you may not be able to use projectiles in Hot Wheels Unleashed, there are things that will lob projectiles at you such as a spider. Getting caught in its web means a noticeable time penalty, even if you boost back up to speed after.

Even worse, later on you get stuck in mini tornadoes and you have to choose which path on a circuit to take based on whether the path is blocked by a dinosaur’s mouth or dragon fire.

These obstacles add a layer of intensity to races, which are already intense because the AI racers at higher difficulty levels are ruthlessly fast. Plus there are all those lovely opportunities to misjudge a jump, fall over the edge or take a corner too fast.

Basement & livery editor

As you progress in Hot Wheels City Rumble, you are also awarded items to customise your ‘basement’. This includes living room, kitchen, cup space and hobby space areas. But, thankfully, not a parent (or two) who keeps telling you to move out and get a job.

The level of customisation here is impressive. Each material surface can be given a different colour such as the teal I have in my real-life man den office thing. This helps emphasise the trophies and random objects you find along the way. Despite being a purely aesthetic element of Hot Wheels Unleashed, it is a nice touch.

Also very much a nice touch is the Livery Editor, which gives you a wide selection of car materials, colours and sticker options to make each vehicle unique. It really is possible to make something beautiful or hideously distasteful. Just like my absurdly purple Fiat 500 creation.

Once done, you can share your designs online. Being able to choose a name and two categories helps you and other players narrow down your livery search.

Hot Wheels Unleashed: What else do you get?

Hot Wheels Unleashed also has a split screen mode for local multiplayer and online multiplayer for racing against players around the world. In addition, there is Quick Race and Time Attack for those who just want to jump in.

You can choose from 41 circuits spread across five different settings: Basement, Skatepark, College Campus, Garage and Skyscraper. Each one big on detail, personality and fun. I particularly love the circuits where you have to rotate the car mid-jump to land on the ceiling.

As you progress further in the Hot Wheels world, you get increasingly more technical, more complicated and more punishing circuit designs. You soon find out it is possible to fall off a loop-the-loop and delicate braking becomes almost essential for time attack success.

Custom tracks are a thing?

Once you tire of the pre-made circuits, you can dive into the Track Editor and make your own. Initially, very few parts are available to you. However it is possible to unlock loop-the-loops, the web-slinging spider and even a dragon as you complete challenges in Hot Wheels City Rumble.

Being able to adjust not just the colour of the track, but the type of barrier (if any) and lighting, angle of the corner and pitch means you can be really creative. If I had more time I would have recreated Laguna Seca (corkscrew corner and all) – and it would probably be worth it.

It helps that, like with your custom liveries, you can share your custom tracks with everyone and play creations from other players. If this proves appealing to you, many precious hours will be lost.

How hot are those wheels?

Not only that, the Hot Wheels car collection is excellent. There is a good mix of random whacky racers such as the aforementioned Tanknator, Snoopy’s doghouse, Kitt from Knight Rider, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles van and even real cars like the DeLorean DMC from Back to the Future and the Audi R8 Spyder.

There is even a vehicle called ‘Buns of Steel’, which, given the child-friendly age rating of this game, is actually a van with a burger on the back and not… Well, you can work that out.

The lingering need to get every car in Hot Wheels Unleashed should not be underestimated. Especially as they all sound original, look epic and feature individual stats and boost amounts.

Hot Wheels Unleashed review: The visuals

What about visual performance? Well, Hot Wheels Unleashed looks amazing on Xbox Series X. Loads of detail, solid 60 frames per second smoothness and I love the juxtaposition of the realistic surroundings and the madness of the track layouts and car designs. I cannot, however, comment on other platforms but I would assume PS5 and a good gaming PC will do at least as good a job.

So what about the bad?

My biggest gripe in Hot Wheels Unleashed is that your progress in the City Rumble mode can come to an abrupt halt. Because it is unclear how to unlock any of the nine secret events that block your progress. I know I am not alone in thinking the clues are not so obvious.

Having completed every challenge I could get to with two medals, the best you can do, I assumed something was broken. That is, until the clues started to click. Completing a certain challenge in a certain car is one way to unlock these ‘secret’ challenges (my guide is here).

Also annoying is the speed at which it takes to look behind using the D-Pad, something you may have noticed in other Milestone games. In a fast-paced racer like this, you never do it for fear of crashing. Fortunately there is another button for instant rear-view checking (LB on Xbox).

Even worse, some vehicles are largely useless because they are so easy to tip over. Thankfully though, this is limited to taller, thinner vehicles such as the Fiat 500. On a similiar note, some cars are far better than others. This forces you to use the same few to be competitive.

It would also be nice if the City Rumble mode had more variety beyond time attacks and quick races. For such a visually creative game, a little more creativity in the gameplay would have gone a long way.

And less of an issue, more of a request really, would be to add in a global lap time for each circuit so you can see how you stack up globally.

Should I buy it then?

To be honest, the biggest problem with Hot Wheels Unleashed is that this well presented, well designed and well executed racer is over as fast as youth. Whether we get more free content remains to be seen, but at least three paid expansions have been confirmed. This is good because circuit familiarity kicks in sooner than I hoped.

Fortunately, the car collecting aspect prolongs the experience, such is the random nature of Blind Boxes, the speed at which you gain gold coins and how cool each vehicle looks.

As someone who missed out on the Hot Wheels Unleashed preview, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. But I have come away keen to tell you that this is a surprise hit of 2021. Regardless of whether you are long or short in the tooth.

If you want fast-paced arcade thrills in ridiculous cars that do the original diecast toys justice, with a view to maybe letting loose in the track and livery editors, then go for it. Just don’t forget to put your toys away after.

Hot Wheels Unleashed review: Toy-tal mayhem

Verdict

Big on arcade action, stylish visuals and some of the coolest cars ever seen in a game, Hot Wheels Unleashed keeps you far busier than you expect, especially if the track and livery editors hook you.

The Good

Fun gameplay

Excellent presentation

Solid track editor

The Bad

Clues could be better

Apparently 30FPS on some platforms

Track variety

The Score

The Pretties