Hot Wheels Unleashed Review

When you were a kid playing with Hot Wheels who didn’t picture racing the cars around your house? If you didn’t then you have no imagination. I’m just kidding, maybe I just had an over-active one. So when I saw the announcement trailer for Hot Wheels Unleashed I was very excited. It felt like it was bringing my childhood imagination to life, so I knew that I had to check it out. Finding people to play split-screen multiplayer with me was easy, my sons who love playing with their toy cars, wanted to try it out too.  

In the base version of Hot Wheels Unleashed you start off with a tiny collection of three cars; one a licensed Fiat 500, and two real-life Hot Wheels original vehicles. There are multiple versions of the game, each one with its own assortment of vehicles. The base game has an inventory of 60 vehicles, but if you want to expand your collection you can purchase DLC packs that will feature themed tracks and different vehicles.

The map consists of races and other challenges like time trials and boss battles. Some of the time trials require you to beat a set lap time or other times it switches it up and has you complete a full race in a set amount of time. When you complete one of these challenges, you unlock other races on the map and you also earn money and gears that you can redeem towards new hot wheels cars or blind boxes that will randomly give you a car. I would rather know what I am getting so I just go to the shop and purchase the vehicles I like. My son loves the idea of blind boxes, sometimes he was super lucky and got a rare car. Other times he got a super slow car like a bumper car or a burger car. Sure a burger car looks cool, but man it is slow. Luckily you can sell most of the cars if you really don’t want to keep them then save up for something you want more in the shop. I found a few of the cars to be very overpowered like the Bad to the Blade car. It is ridiculously fast compared to others so I’m curious to see if Milestone, the game developers, will nerf some of these vehicles in a future patch.

The physics in Hot Wheels Unleashed are very interesting, you have to remember it is simulating driving a small toy car, so it is very easy to get thrown off the track, flip if you are taking a corner too sharp or miss a big jump if you don’t have enough speed. If you happen to get off course, there is a button you can hold for a couple seconds to reset your car right-side-up on the track to continue the race. To catch up to the pack of other cars or just pull ahead your hot wheel has a turbo meter that allows you to boost while racing. To fill this meter, drift around corners by lightly hitting the brakes. As you play the game and earn money you can work on upgrading the cars in your collection. You can upgrade each car multiple times to keep increasing it’s overall speed, acceleration, braking power, and handling. Once your car speed stat hits max it hits Legendary status. Starting out at the beginning the first thing I boosted was my speed. I thought that would help me out the most for the time trial challenges.

If you happen to need a break from racing, then head over to the basement to do some interior design. There is a huge amount of things that you can customise and make your own. From wall colours to posters and flooring you can really make it unique. The best part, when you race in the basement it will be set in the basement that you decorated. It was so cool to see your creation incorporated into the game.

The other fun feature in Hot Wheels Unleashed is the ability to design your own tracks. When you begin there are only a few different pieces available to use like launchers, boost pads, cones and ramps. You will get to unlock things like the T-Rex Escape starting gate, loops and even a robot. Your track can be built in any of the six stages available. The Basement, Garage, Skyscraper, College Campus, Track Room and the Skate Park level can be built in. I can’t wait to see what other themed stages will be coming out as DLC comes out.

Hot Wheels Unleashed allows you to give paint jobs and makeovers to any of the Hot Wheels that you have in your collection in the Livery mode. You start right from the base model of the car, primed and ready for paint. Not only do you get to choose the paint colour, but you also get to choose the type of finish you want the car to have. Choosing from an opaque plastic material to a lacquered metal finish can really change the look of the car. Once you have the tyres, interior, chassis, exterior and rims designed, add on a coat of metallic paint giving it a glittery look (if you like) and you are ready to share your design online with the world. You can also download creations from other players too to add onto your cars. Some people have some crazy designs, like a McDonald's themed car that I just had to have. 

The other area I haven’t touched on yet is the multiplayer aspect of Hot Wheels Unleashed. The game supports local split-screen or cross-platform online multiplayer which is really nice to see. I’m always excited to be able to play against opponents to matter which platform they are on. This game is not full of crazy power-ups like a traditional kart racing type game. It actually feels more along the lines of a Forza Horizon 4 type of racing game, so a lot more realistic than you may expect, just on a much smaller scale.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is full of everything you could ever imagine. With gorgeous looking visuals, great music and challenging gameplay I feel like this is a must play game for anyone who loves Hot Wheels whether the licenced ones or the “fake” cars or just racing games in general. The amount of customisation in this game is impressive. I’m sure there is still a lot more that I have yet to discover. There is a lot of value for the cost of the base game. Plus who doesn’t want the chance to get the DeLorean from Back to the Future, a dinosaur themed vehicle or Snoopy's dog house from Peanuts to race around in?