A Great Racing Game for Fans of The Genre | Hot Wheels Unleashed Review
More Difficult than You Might Think
More Difficult than You Might Think
Easy recommend for those looking for their next racing fix, complete with its own quirks in a unique and fresh blend to the arcade racing genre. Gets surprisingly tough quick, and has some balancing issues, but overall — Recommended.
I’ve been looking for a new racing fix for a while, and I’ve also been looking for more games to play on SteamDeck, so when I saw this as “Verified Playable On Deck” I knew I had to try it. I've got to say, I am pleasantly surprised!
Like my opening blurb says, I really think this is an excellent racing game, for fans of racing games. The unique scenario of these races being done in actual Hot Wheel’s branded toy cars is kinda genius! And with the physics they have in place, they do behave as though they’re these small toys, complete with the sound effects you might expect from smashing metal and plastic together. Then, it’s spiced with the imagination of real engines and tires winding around a racetrack, and all of it makes for a great experience.
I spent the majority of my time in the “City” mode, and I’m pleased with the variety of the tracks and stages. There are a couple of races that are the same, but ultimately, Hot Wheels Unleashed presents you with such a huge variety of them that I barely noticed when that happened. Even if that bothered me, I could always quit and make my own tracks or play the tracks of others, meaning that the track selection is quite literally endless due to the User Generated Content (UGC).
You’d be surprised to know that driving these Hot Wheels cars around the tracks isn’t always easy! While the Hot Wheels branding might suggest it was developed for a younger audience and therefore an easier game, this doesn’t play like “pedal to the metal” Mario Kart… you really have to be conscious of how you brake, when you brake, when you drift, and how you drift. Boosting at the right moments is also essential to getting the win. I found the skill ceiling of this type of play style to be really engaging and challenging, and overall, it made me learn its core systems so I could be a superb driver (for this game).
But I think its presented challenge is a two-edged sword. There are a lot of very cool cars to discover, and all of them have their own unique stats that determine how they drive. It doesn’t take long to realize that some cars are absolutely better than others, which led me to finding my personal favorite and sticking with it most of the time instead of experimenting with cars that I thought looked cool or fun. But nonetheless, I think many people will be happy with the depth of the controls and how the majority of the cars drive regardless of their stats.
The AI in this game isn’t the smartest, but despite that, it somehow earns wins regularly… After spending enough time with it, I truly believe that the AI is programmed to ‘rubber band’ and catch up to you. Even on the normal difficulty, they would give me the hardest time. I’d do perfect laps around courses, and these cars, that I know have less than ideal stats, would zip right in front of me, no boost required. So that was frustrating. I think this might be to cover up the balancing issue that comes from stats in general; there really are cars that are by the numbers better. But you need a handful to fill out the slots for a race. So maybe the rubber banding was implemented to get around the player being good and having a car with great stats… But who knows. It’s cheeky, though, keeps you on your toes.
Some of the stage hazards do make me want to die. Every spider map, in particular. Yeah, I really don’t like being slowed down one bit. It makes some of the time trials especially difficult when you’re on the track all by yourself. Speaking of the time trials, some in the post-game are wickedly difficult, even when you’re playing as some of the best in class and most rare vehicles in the game. As much as I wanted to, I will not be able to 100% the campaign because of some of those challenges in particular.
My last little gripe is some courses and circuits really take a long time to complete. We’re talking, at its worst, 2.5 minute laps. That, combined with the CPU rubber banding around like they’ve got a lag switch, now that really gets on my nerves. In these longer races, we’re talking about me losing 8 minutes of my life because the CPU racers are cheating, if I can’t manage to get in first place. It can be frustrating in ways that seem you can’t necessarily overcome.
Overall, and despite my gripes, Hot Wheels Unleased is a sweet little package of a game that I ultimately have had a lot of fun with, and that I know offers a ton of value. If you’re not into racing solo, there’s an online multiplayer and there’s local split screen. The map editor is really fun and pretty intuitive. Coloring your own cars is satisfying, and so is personalizing your own basement with posters and trinkets. I didn’t mind the loot box system either, I thought that it made my collection unique and interesting as I played. It’s overall a good game, and I appreciate the pretty high skill ceiling.
DLC & Sequel: I probably won’t be purchasing the DLC because I’m not THAT into the game after completing the solo mode, but it’s there if you want more cars/tracks/etc. The Batman stuff looks pretty cool. Not sure if I’m compelled enough at the moment to immediately dive into the sequel, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
SteamDeck Compatibility: It worked great 95% of the time. There were a few times when it would lag a VERY considerable amount to the point of freezing the game, which definitely affected my experience, but those were a rare occurrence.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.