Hot Wheels Unleashed Reviews
Carefully detailed, highly customisable, and buoyantly uncynical, Hot Wheels Unleashed is a surprising and brilliant arcade racer.
More enjoyable and captivating than a first glance suggests, this arcade-style racer is fast and fun
Hot Wheels Unleashed is an excellent arcade racing game that doesn't fully embrace some of the wackier parts of the toy brand.
All of this adds up to a very strong, broadly appealing racer. Hot Wheels Unleashed is up there with Milestone’s MotoGP and Monster Energy Supercross, as well as the F1 and WRC games, as another winner in the ongoing renaissance of licensed motorsports gaming. For those who are perhaps not dedicated motorsports or sim racing fans, it could be a strong contender for their racing game of the year. I’ve become a virtual gearhead over the past four years, and Hot Wheels Unleashed is at least in the discussion for mine.
Hot Wheels Unleashed impressed me on basically every marker. It looks terrific, it feels great, and the track design is extremely well done. I kind of hate the blind box approach of unlocking cars, but that’s a small complaint when getting my wheels on the track is always a delight.
Hot Wheels Unleashed puts the brand to perfect use, marrying bright and bold toy car racing with powerful track creation.
Nonetheless, for all its minor annoyances, Hot Wheels Unleashed gives you a remarkable bang for your buck. Alongside a big career mode, livery editor, two-player local and 12-player online multiplayer, and licensed vehicles, there’s a tightly controlled, great-looking arcade racer that’s perfect for players of all ages and skills–and thanks to its track builder, it’s only going to get bigger and better by the day.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a decent racer with some excellent surrounding elements. It lacks the strategy and realism of a sim, but doesn’t hit the over-the-top chaos and action of an arcade racer either. Despite that, the amount of customization available, and with all of the cars to collect, fans of Hot Wheels toys will likely have a good time with Unleashed.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is the embodiment of a dream shared by thousands of people from different generations. It is difficult not to get carried away by the child that we all carry inside us and enjoy with each car, curve and jump ... but it is a dream that may end soon if those responsible choose the path of microtransactions and loot boxes.
Review in Spanish | 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.
A tavern full of toy cars to have fun with thanks to a fun and clean arcade guide model.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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 is a fantastic arcade racer at its core, but the overall product is hurt by the gacha mechanics.
Not only a blast of die-cast nostalgia, but a brilliant arcade racer to boot with superb customisation options.
As it stands right now, Hot Wheels Unleashed is a fun racer whose fantastic selection of cars makes up for its relative lack of varied course environments. With updates and DLC it has the potential to become a brilliant mess of licensed properties in the way the best mash-up games are, but what's here is a solid enough foundation to start from, even if it's a little samey at launch.
Hot Wheels Unleashed starts off blazing fast but ends up as a shallow kart racer.
Despite some balancing issues and some issues with how cars are obtained, Hot Wheels Unleashed is still a ton of fun thanks to its breakneck-speed racing, a detailed track editor that would make your inner child jealous, awesome collectible cars, and packed single-player content. Add in the nostalgia for playing with Hot Wheels cars and tracks as a kid, and you might find it to be one of 2021's hidden gems.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a competent enough racer, but lacks anything to make it unique compared to previous games. It's generally very bland, relies on loot boxes, and the AI rubber bands constantly.