Hot Wheels Unleashed Reviews
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.
Hot Wheels Unleashed feels less like a cohesive racing experience and more like a framework where more and more Hot Wheels branded content can live as the months go on. This comes through not only in the lackluster presentation but in the currency system that robs players of any sense of urgency to complete missions. It doesn't feel satisfying to go through an hour of races and grind up currency to get a single box that contains a duplicate of an already-unlocked car.
Hot Wheels Unleashed starts off blazing fast but ends up as a shallow kart racer.
On the track, there's a decent little racer in Hot Wheels Unleashed. Everything else feels like a bit of a letdown.
Even with an outstanding Hot Wheels license to work with, Hot Wheels Unleashed's generic and uninspired execution coupled with lower presentation qualities makes it a below average racing title.
Hot Wheels Unleashed -- in all caps and bolded letters -- is a passable arcade racer that sticks out from other middle-of-the-road racing games thanks to its devotion to nostalgia and some great ideas that are unfortunately not completely realized due to obvious budgetary restrictions. If you're desperate to get behind the wheel of your favorite Hot Wheel, it will scratch that itch, but not much else.
HOT WHEELS is an ambitious game, but the lack of sufficient and diverse elements made it tend to be a commercial game intended to target a specific audience interested in HOT WHEELS cars only, although there are some positives in it, but its negatives of repetition or lack of any challenge overshadow it as a game.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a decent arcade racer with some great nostalgia that wears off after a few races. Unlocking a themed car, such as the Party Wagon from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, gives temporary relief from the monotonous gameplay, but much like any form of nostalgia, the short-lived fun of reminiscing eventually turns into sadness if there’s no substance backing it up.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is really nice to look at and sometimes fun to play, but I’m not sure who it’s for. The in-game currency model is unnecessarily convoluted and annoying most of the time. The difficulty is unbalanced to the point where I was forced to play on easy and swallow my gamer pride. The online multiplayer is where the most enjoyment is, but expect to invest hours trying to pull a car that can compete with some of the rarer racers. If Unleashed were a contender in a race, it would place 12th, like I did many times.
Hot Wheels Unleashed doesn't have much to offer, and as an arcade racing can only be entertaining for a few hours before fading to the bottom of your game library.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Hot Wheels Unleashed gets its racing and assortment of cars so very right, but the way you go about unlocking more content is unfathomably restrictive and leads to frustration.
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.
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.
I enjoyed playing Hot Wheels Unleashed a lot. The racing is straight up fun thanks to a top notch handling model that really makes the most of some impressive powersliding mechanics. But I can't help but wonder what could have been had we not got a game brimming with DLC and tied, to its detriment, to uninspired track environments.
Hot Wheels Unleashed feels like a missed opportunity to make Mattel’s brand relevant in the gaming scene. Players will have fun playing it but other similar games are vastly superior, so this might only be something for Hot Wheels collectors. Visually the game is fantastic and the track editor works wonders for replay value but the chance is high that the racing gameplay loses your interest.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is an okay racing game at best. If you want a much more enjoyable arcade-style racer with your favourite childhood toys then check out Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure which has its very own Hot Wheels Booster Pack DLC.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a fine casual title if you want to spend a few hours racing, but it has plenty of glaring issues.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
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
I’m still adamant that the best usage of Hot Wheels was the DLC pack in Forza Horizon 3, but that success only came because it was built into an already excellent racing game. This is a passable at-best racer, but it damn sure ain’t anywhere near Forza.