Hot Wheels Unleashed | Xbox Review

I never knew this, but the first line of Hot Wheels branded cars rolled off the assembly line way back in 1968. A couple of those original cars are featured here in Hot Wheels Unleashed. Growing up I had my fair share of Hot Wheels cars, though I wouldn’t call myself a fanatic by any means. But still, I appreciated them and always loved seeing their commercials when they interrupted my Saturday morning cartoons with the slogan, “Hot Wheels Lead the Way.”

Though mostly known for their racing simulators like the MotoGP series and, of course, Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame, developer Milestone forgoes the simulator to make a fun and fast-paced arcade racer. They even manage to do so without sacrificing the detailed car models typically exclusive to the racing sim genre. Seriously, these cars look good! So why was I chomping at the bit to not only play, but also review Hot Wheels Unleashed, despite my passive fandom? There’s one specific reason which I’ll get to shortly.

Lead the Way

Although Hot Wheels Unleashed certainly isn’t the first game to utilize the license, this is the first I’ve played and I can still say it’s the best at capturing the spirit of the iconic brand. First off, the developers wisely kept the cars and tracks to their true 1:64 scale. In previous games with the Hot Wheels moniker, the scales were mostly kept one-to-one with their environments, making them nothing more than generic racers full of wasted potential. 

In addition to standard quick races and time trials, Hot Wheels Unleashed does have a campaign mode of sorts, called City Rumble. It’s here you’re presented with an overhead map of Hot Wheels City, and you navigate through it all by completing races or finishing time trials. The city map itself reminds me of those road map rugs we all had as kids that we’d play on with our toy cars; you know the one. Advancing through the levels in City Rumble is how you’ll earn coins and gears to unlock tracks and upgrade your cars. It’s also here where you earn opportunities to open blind boxes, more on that in a bit.

Small Cars, Big Fun

Right out the gate there are over 60 cars available to play at launch. There’s a large variety of some iconic (and some absurd) original Hot Wheels cars, along with licensed cars like Ford Mustangs and Dodge Challengers, which is great for those who don’t wish to drive cars shaped like a dinosaur. Finally there’s what the game calls fantasy cars. These are vehicular cameos borrowed from other IPs; including a Batmobile, the TMNT Party Bus, KITT from Knight Rider, and also the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future. This was the sole reason I wanted, nay…NEEDED to play this game!

Unfortunately, you don’t get access to all 60+ cars immediately. I mentioned blind boxes earlier; these work like loot boxes and it’s how you’ll predominantly be unlocking cars to add to your collection. These boxes are completely random, and you will get the occasional duplicate car or two. You can trade in any duplicate or unwanted cars for more coins or gears. But fear not, as I’m happy to report there are no microtransactions. All blind boxes are redeemed using the in-game currency earned by completing races and by, you know, playing the game…what a neat idea!

At first I was saddened to learn that I wouldn’t get to play as my beloved DeLorean right away. But I soon realized it meant that I had something to look forward to and it gave me a goal to achieve. This also meant that I was forced to try out different cars and get myself acquainted with their unique handling and speed. But when I finally unlocked my precious, by sheer luck of the draw from a blind box, I played as nothing else throughout the remainder of my time with Hot Wheels Unleashed. 

Right in the Childhood

There are about six different environments that you race through. These are ordinary everyday places like a school, a warehouse, or a construction site, but from the perspective of a miniscule Hot Wheels car, so they all seem gigantic. You’ll be weaving through the underside of a sofa, drifting in and out of bookshelves, speeding through tunnels made out of books, and driving on computer desks as tall as mountains.

In lieu of having those motorized launchers that shoot your cars along the tracks, this game uses a boost system to maintain speed and momentum. Drifting is the primary mechanic here and pulling off a good drift is one of the ways you replenish your boost meter, typical in arcade style games such as this. However, pulling off the perfect drift is practically an art form. It’s easy to learn but difficult to master. More often than not you will collide with a wall or two, or outright fall off the course resulting in respawning from a cold start. 

Not that any of that is a bad thing, I love a good challenge to “git gud” as the kids say. The trouble though is in the difficulty, in that it’s severely unbalanced. This is my only real gripe in an otherwise terrific racer. Easy mode is too easy; with minimal effort I’m able to gain a huge lead, leaving my opponents in the dust. The medium difficulty, however, might as well be hard mode. It’s pretty tough maintaining a respectable ranking, as I couldn’t get beyond 5th place in this mode. One miscalculated drift or one wall collision is all it takes to pretty much lose a race. I can’t even begin to fathom what playing on hard or expert difficulties must be like. Hopefully the imbalances can be fixed in a patch.

 

From the Toybox to Your Xbox

I already said it before, but I feel like I can’t emphasize it enough: the cars look great! The die-cast textures on the vehicle models really do look like they went from the physical world to the digital. If it were to be revealed that Milestone has invented a way to digitize objects with a laser à la Tron, I would absolutely believe it. After each race you see cosmetic damage like scuffed paint and fingerprint smudges, as if it were mistreated by a five-year old putting the car through its paces. The tracks themselves are highly detailed as well, right down to the grooved imperfections left behind by the plastic molds from the manufacturer.

Sound design is another feature worth noting. While the music is forgettable and is relegated to just being background noise, the sounds of the car engines themselves and the sci-fi inspired sounds they make when activating boost is really cool. Some of the cars even have their own specific sounds. Bringing up the DeLorean again for example, every time you activate boost, it makes the iconic sounds from the films when the DeLorean travels through time. I thought it was a nice touch, and again shows how much attention to detail is present in Hot Wheels Unleashed. 

Unleashed Impressions

I had nothing but a good time playing Hot Wheels Unleashed. The game looks, sounds, and plays great. Despite me playing on old hardware, I had no performance or technical issues and the game was still impressively detailed. It wasn’t 4K at 60 frames or anything, but at least it was consistent. I didn’t experience a single frame rate dip. This game truly is optimized for last generation users.

Playing this has actually made me want to consider collecting Hot Wheels cars again. I caught myself standing in the toy aisle at my local Target the other day, perusing their selection of Hot Wheels cars and looking at some of the elaborate playsets like I was six again. If you couldn’t guess by now, I obviously recommend picking this up as you’ll have one heck of a good time. There’s plenty of content here in both single player and online multiplayer modes. Those of you with a completionist streak will have fun trying to obtain all 60 cars, and it’ll have long-lasting appeal whether you’re five years old or forty-five years old. And did I mention the DeLorean?

This review is based on a purchased copy of Hot Wheels Unleashed for Xbox. It is also available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.