Hot Wheels Unleashed

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 takes everything that worked about the original and expands upon it. The core racing action is improved across the board with more kinds of races to partake in and a more in-depth story mode to keep things moving forward. There's always a goal to attain with XP gaining new vehicles and parts and every race feels like it serves a greater purpose. It controls like a dream, looks gorgeous and offers a satisfying, fast-paced racing experience for all who seek one. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 is among the best licensed racers of the past decade and a must-play for racing fans.

I’m giving Hot Wheels Unleashed a 8.5 out of 10. If all you care about is the racing itself it might be a little higher, but the issues with the controls in the Track Builder and a few other small issues here and there make the score for the whole product a solid 8.5. Hopefully people are able to see past or even embrace the less than stellar parts because ultimately I think this game is worth playing and I think that for fans of arcade racing, it’s a must-play. I’m pleased that it lived up to my expectations on that front. Hopefully we’ll see a resurgence in arcade racing on this generation o...

It may be based on a particular brand of die-cast toy cars aimed at kids, but Hot Wheels Unleashed is a fun arcade-style racer suitable for all ages and, for the most part, skill levels. Bursting with content, it’ll be a while before you’ve grown tired of its many tracks and unlocked all of the 60-plus cars that it offers. Throw in online and offline multiplayer, a track builder, and gameplay that’s easy to pick up but has some additional depth for more skilled players, and you have a package that’s easy to recommend.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is a bit light on level and event type variety but still delivers a great racer worthy of the Hot Wheels name with plenty of speed, detailed customization, and a meaty roster of fun vehicles.

As someone who loved Micro Machines and Hot Wheels growing up and put many hours into the PS2 entries all those years ago, I was pretty excited to see what a modern version of that concept could do. As it turns out, Hot Wheels Unleashed is a great little racer and one of 2021’s hidden gems thanks to its fast-paced racing and addictive, nostalgia-inducing car-collecting loop. It can be a little bloated and repetitive in long play sessions, and has a blind box issue that slows things down occasionally but it’s perfect for short bursts of arcade fun.

Hot Wheels Unleashed isn't perfect, but it still has the potential of fun.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is an excellent arcade racing game that doesn't fully embrace some of the wackier parts of the toy brand.

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.

Republished on Wednesday 28th September 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of October's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows.

The brand's plastic track pieces ultimately work against this fun arcade racer.

“Hot Wheels Unleashed starts off blazing fast but ends up as a shallow kart racer.”

The game is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. The attention to detail is astounding: cars with movable pieces bounce around realistically, tint on windows shows scratches at the end of a race, and the light reflecting off of cars and tracks might be the best I’ve seen yet this generation. There’s a sense of love and appreciation for the Hot Wheels brand on display here that should be looked at for any licensed product going forward. If anything, I would have loved a museum of sorts with blurbs or historical information about each car for me to learn more about them.