When I had seen the announcement that Mattel and Milestone had been working on a new Hot Wheels game, I was extremely excited. It’s been a decade or so since a new title had been released and with current-gen hardware, these awesome toys really have a great chance to be brought to life.

Luckily, Hot Wheels Unleashed met my expectations in most cases and exceeded in others. These cars and tracks are just as fun as I had imagined, bringing out the child within me. But while I had a fantastic and addicting experience, it does have some issues worth mentioning that hold it back from perfection.

Gameplay

To keep within a child-friendly focus, Hot Wheels Unleashed takes great strides in making things easy to pick up and run with, sort of. It’s boiled down to a campaign, quickplay, multiplayer, and editor selections. As designed, most are easy to pick up but with some caveats that I’ll get into more as we work through each one.

The campaign is your chance to learn the ropes of what the game has to offer as well as reap the rewards within it. You’ll cruise across a map with different challenges set up for you to complete in order to beat the game’s five bosses. There are two different kinds of challenges to take part in that will slowly create a path for you to move along in order to defeat these bosses; time trials and races.

While these two types of races make up the bulk of the game, I really enjoyed myself thoroughly throughout my playthrough. This is in part due to the great craftsmanship that’s gone into cultivating these tracks. There are so many different track types and pieces added to each one that makes them just as wondrous as they are difficult. That’s even before you add in the other drivers who just bring another level of anxiety.

It’s so cool to see how a track starts out and stretches with different pieces like boosters, magnetic upside-down loops, and ramps that send you across a room just like a Hot Wheels car in real life. The game really does a great job at translating what it feels like to be a driver in the little cars I used to send for a ride.

Driving has its own rush factor itself due to the drift-heavy focus of the game. You’ll find yourself driving at what feels like hyper-speed as you rip and drift your way through these tracks. It’s kind of cliche to say but, it’s an absolute rush. There’s really no racing game on the market right now that makes me feel as excited as I do when I’m playing this title.

Upon completing challenges, you’ll move along the board from challenge to challenge with rewards in-between such as gold coins, gears, cars, and a whole lot of customization pieces for your profile, basement, and tracks. Aside from rewards, you’ll also discover “secret” challenges as you make your way through the map. These are unlocked by completing certain challenges in a specific way.

Unfortunately, these “secret” challenges became a nuisance pretty early on in my playthrough as once you get to a certain point, you cannot progress until you complete one. The only thing is, they don’t really give you any clue as to what you need to do in order to complete them. I think that it’s pretty safe to say that a child would have a hard time figuring this out and it may actually deter them from continuing at that point.

The most fun challenges in HWU are the boss races. Here, you’ll race a pack of cars as the track throws some curveballs your way. Each boss has a power that is used in order to make the already difficult tracks seem impossible. There are things like ghosts, tornados, and even ice patches that really do a great job at shaking things up big time. What’s also cool is that once you beat a boss, its piece is up for use in the Track Editor.

Quickplay and Multiplayer are pretty bog-standard but it’s great that they’re there. I can totally see online multiplayer jumping-off once this game fully releases. It’s such a fun experience and I feel most would agree, making matchmaking easy to connect in. Split-screen is an obvious win for anyone really as it gives you a chance to kick back and play with someone on your couch instead of wading through a lobby of randoms.

When it comes to utilizing the benefits that the game throws at you, there’s so much to choose from. While you’re given many cars throughout your playthrough of the campaign, you’re also given blind boxes which can be purchased via the in-game store as well as daily cars.

These blind boxes contain one car that is randomly chosen and range from “common” to “super treasure hunt” in rarity. The coolest part of these though is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any traces of players being able to purchase more coins with real money, which is a plus to me. I miss the days when unlocking things in video games came down to the time you put into them and not the money in your wallet

Each car has its own set of stats which can be upgraded only once which I found to be very user-friendly as it doesn’t try to be a racing sim by any means. Going a little further though, you can actually create a fully unique look for your cars by utilizing the Livery Editor. It’s pretty chock-full of some awesome styles and stickers to choose from and became one of the daily activities I enjoyed with it. These edits can be uploaded or downloaded via the game’s cloud and it’s very interesting to see what other players come up with.

Aside from editing your cars, you can also fully decorate your own basement for which you can race cars in. I like the level of customization that Milestone has thrown into HWU as it allows for kids and adults to connect with the game on a real level. Who doesn’t want to race Hot Wheels in their own room?

I think the game’s biggest weakness sometimes though is its lack of instruction. Nowhere is this more prevalent though than in its Track Editor. The editor does have everything the game offers as far as tracks or pieces go but it’s just a bit hard to actually understand. I tried doing the tutorial and at a certain point, hit a wall that the game just wouldn’t guide me through. I think either a more clearly written tutorial or a simpler setup would’ve made it easier for me to connect with.

Audio and Visuals

I have to say, I wasn’t expecting too much from HWU visually speaking but was pleasantly surprised by just how much of a looker it is. Cars are especially beautiful as their different materials are detailed in such a great way. Doing customization on them is your real chance to see all of the work that the devs put into this title.

The sound design is well done, effectively giving cars a nice beefy sound when necessary or a high buzzing sound if more appropriate. Everything culminates together perfectly to make the game feel lively even in its downtime.

Replayability

Beyond its initial release, Hot Wheels Unleashed will receive new DLC, expansions, and season passes to create even more opportunities for racers to come back. I think that this title in particular has a lot of chances to add some pretty iconic Hot Wheels vehicles and track pieces that weren’t available in the base game.

What it Could Have Done Better

Hot Wheels Unleashed doesn’t suffer from performance issues or from shortcomings in its actual gameplay. Where the game lacks is in its instruction or lack-there-of. If the devs could clearly convey what they want from the player, then this could have been a perfect title throughout.

I also don’t appreciate the fact that these “secret” challenges invade the flow of the campaign. These seem more like extra offers that shouldn’t be used as a roadblock to make the game unnecessarily difficult.

Verdict

Hot Wheels Unleashed is hands-down the best arcade racer I’ve played in years. It matches the high-velocity racing of my favorite racers and marries it beautifully with insane tracks and beautiful cars to drive. Even after beating all five of the game’s bosses, I couldn’t seem to peel myself away from playing. Mastering its tracks and unlocking its more elusive cars is what really made it effortless to sink hours upon hours into it.

I also really like the aspect of it appealing to adults and children. This is the perfect game for parents and kids to bond over as it’s not a dumbed-down movie tie-in and actually takes great care of its source material. This is the new standard of what should be expected from family and kids games going forward.