Hot Wheels Unleashed Reviews
Hot Wheels Unleashed nails it with an amazing track builder and car editor, great variety of unique cars and some great AI and tracks. Sadly, the unnecessary addition of lootboxes — even though they can be only bought with in game currency — drags the campaign down. It is still great fun with friends, be it online or split screen.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Keep an eye on Milestone's patch and update plans. If the company moves forward with customer-friendly moves, HWU may be a must-buy for arcade-racing fans. Until then, wait and see-unless the sales pitch of "Trackmania but prettier and more arcade-y" makes you want to immediately purchase. In which case, you'll have a good time.
I really enjoyed a great arcade-y handling model, but developers could have done a lot more to make the game more entertaining. It's charm depletes after a few hours.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The overall feeling of Hot Wheels Unleashed is that it is a huge win for nostalgia fans and racing fans alike. From the graphical detail of the world to the tracks to the cars everything is spot on with how you remember these cars looking. The control you have while racing puts Hot Wheels Unleashed right up there with some of the other AAA racing titles. This title will be launching on September 30, 2021, to PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC for USD 49.
Hot Wheels Unleashed delivers on what it promises, high octane toy car thrills, drifting and boosting around gravity-defying tracks set in high definition great looking environments. It just lets itself down when it comes to the structure of the solo campaign and there aren’t enough unique hazards or variations in the tracks to keep you coming back for more. It would have been nice if they went a step further and thought outside of the box with the designs of the tracks themselves, but at least it delivers a boost of nostalgia for the kid inside all of us.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is one of the best arcade racers to release on modern consoles in years.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a super fun yet sometimes frustrating arcade racer that is hindered slightly by some design shortcomings.
As of today, it's a bit difficult to judge Hot Wheels Unleashed. It's a solid product that has a chance to be something really cool. However, it all depends on whether the support of the creators will be something more than throwing cars as paid DLC from time to time and whether a community will be created around the game.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Hot Wheels Unleashed feels great and looks solid. It might not have a consistent performance across platforms, but the pure adrenaline filled racing is fun all around. With plenty of cars and creative tracks, Hot Wheels fans will likely enjoy what Unleashed has to offer. I look forward to seeing how the game adapts and evolves in future seasons, in addition to challenging people to races.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a game that tugs at my nostalgia for collecting these cars. I just wish the aggressive DLC plans and grinding for new cars didn’t sour that experience so much. When I was playing I was having a blast. The track design and handling are superb and when I got a new rare car I was super excited. Hopefully they tweak some of the requirements for unlocking cars and I hope the season passes are not overly priced for their own good. I would love to see this game flourish and become a staple of arcade racers. It feels like a renaissance of the genre, and I want Unleashed to be there for a long time coming.
Fans of the toy line will likely find stunning digital recreations of the cars they love here, whether now or in one of many content updates already on the cards, along with a generally competent racer to use them in. Still, said fans may find that the dedication to the brand here elevates the experience to a degree, although those with less love for Hot Wheels in general might just see this passable racer as more of a slightly cynical vessel through which to peddle pretend toy cars for the next few years. Shiny and on-brand, but nothing particularly special, honestly.
For fans of the toy cars, especially the crossover cars with other properties — which the game currently includes DC, Peanuts, TMNT and more to come — Hot Wheels Unleashed is going to be a must-play.
Whether you care about this game due to nostalgia or had no interest in Hot Wheels growing up as a kid, there is something inherently fun and addictive at play here. The single-player aspect is deep and entertaining, and the game caters to those who are looking for a challenge or playing to relive some memories. With a little bit of luck, Hot Wheels Unleashed should pop up in some "best racing game of the year" awards discussions, and that should be helped by Milestone's plan to keep rolling out new content over the next several months. This is an absolute must-have title for your rotation.
Does this break the overall experience? Its fun? Not really, but it definitely convolutes proceedings.
Hot Wheels Unleashed brings everything you could hope for: a digital version of one of the most legendary slot-car franchises of all time, with simple but very pleasant and responsive gameplay, a good level of challenge, and an audio-visual elaboration that is good for what it proposes.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Hot Wheels: Unleashed is a good game if you are a fan of the franchise and looking for a racing title that goes straight to the point without the need to master complicated techniques. The important thing here is to feel the speed and let your imagination fly.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
This is the kind of game a cheap uncle buys a kid for Christmas out of the bargain bin giving little thought beyond, “little Timmy likes cars so I’ll buy him this thing.” Sadly, it will only keep kids entertained for as long as it takes them to realise the odds are stacked against them. While some real passion has gone into the transition of some much-loved toys into digital form, the challenge of Hot Wheels Unleashed is just too great for its target audience. Without significant fixes, it will do little more than frustrate all who pick it up.
It's no surprise given Milestone's pedigree that Hot Wheels Unleashed is a mechanically sound and confident racing title as it boils down the true essence of Hot Wheels and puts on a showcase exactly why they're a beloved pastime. The bloated story mode does little to obfuscate the game's skeleton crew of modes, though I think the game will find resilience through a community of online racers and their wonderful, imaginative creations.