Hot Wheels Unleashed Preview: Turbo Racing At Its Finest

Hot Wheels Unleashed shows a wealth of potential with blazing fast arcade gameplay that should please racing fans and toy collectors alike.

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Major arcade racing franchises like Burnout and F-Zero have languished without a new entry, and few contenders have claimed the driver’s seat for the genre. This trend might just end in the most unlikely of ways with Hot Wheels Unleashed, a new take on bringing the beloved die-cast cars to the world of video games. In the grand tradition of Hot Wheels Turbo Racing, Unleashed has a surprisingly solid grip on the foundations of both the over-the-top car competition and the universe where it all takes place.

Hot Wheels Unleashed gameplay is similar to F-Zero. Each of the many classic Hot Wheels designs has different stats to consider, which includes two styles of boost meters. Cars either charge up boosts that last a set length of time or have a single meter that players can use at their leisure. Either way, charging the boost meter comes mainly from drifting and driving over specific patches on the track. There are also Mario Kart-esque anti-gravity sections and brief segments where players drive off the orange roadway with only traffic cones as their guide.

There’s a great sense of speed right from the start of each race. The AI is competitive throughout and car stats really matter in how drivers tackle each track. It’s a racing game that successfully captures the spirit of rubbing tires with opposing drivers without also shooting a turtle shell or worrying about a broken suspension. Once players select their car, their only concern is navigating the track to the best of their ability and outmaneuvering their opponent. It’s a breath of fresh air for car games in general, and that’s a credit to the developers at Milestone.

In Hot Wheels Unleashed, players collect and upgrade their favorite designs from a wide variety of different vehicles from across Hot Wheels history. Despite how that may seem, there are no game-ruining microtransactions, with collections growing throughout the campaign and in DLC expansions. Players can turn their unwanted vehicles into a currency to upgrade a single car through four stages of quality, from common all the way to Super Treasure Hunt. The rarest cars do have an advantage on the track, but races against the AI balance out to the chosen vehicle and never feel like a blowout.

There are four known environments for the tracks in Hot Wheels Unleashed, with two more yet to be revealed. From the Skatepark to College, each has distinct features seen in the background scenery and track elements. Some of the stages even feature authentic hazards from the toy line, although they can get in the way of a good race at times. Achieving a hard-fought first place only to drive through a spider web and watch every rival zoom past at the last second feels like it works against the rest of the experience’s highly tuned fun factor.

This can also be a problem with certain jumps and elements sending cars careening onto the sidelines with relative ease. Because this is Hot Wheels, the track’s raised barrier prevents cars from driving back on the road, so drivers have to rely on a reset button that sends them back to the next checkpoint. This happens while the rest of the pack speeds forward, making it extremely hard to catch up if it happens repeatedly. It’s a problem that feels plucked from the Nintendo 64 era, and it hasn’t aged well at all. The addition of an optional Forza-style rewind button in offline races while players learn the track layout would be a welcome one.

While there can be some trouble with track design, the overall presentation of these locales captures the feeling of blasting through a human-sized world in a toy-shaped vehicle. There are clever bits to each track as well, like a skyscraper stage that appears to house a blind jump into a cityscape just before the road rises up to meet each car. Speaking of, the Hot Wheels themselves are detailed, featuring copyright information etched onto the bottom of the car and proportions that match with the authentic toys. Anyone who collects these cars are going to have a blast racing them in Hot Wheels Unleashed. Simply put, the game brings the toys to life in a way not seen nowadays outside of Nintendo’s Amiibo.

For those who are just interested in racing games, don’t let the license make Unleashed feel like one to skip. If all goes well with the campaign and the collection mechanics, Hot Wheels Unleashed has the potential to reinvigorate the arcade racing genre. The team at Milestone has used years of experience working on franchises like MotoGP, Ride, and Monster Energy Supercross to create a racer that feels just as good as the old greats. There’s no need to worry about tuning the engine, changing out wheels, or shifting into gear. Just hit the gas, jam on the boost, and sail through a few loops on the way to victory.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/hot-wheels-unleashed-preview-turbo-racing/