Hot Wheels Unleashed Critic Reviews

Hot Wheels Unleashed is how you make a toys-to-life video game. Milestone have taken some of the finest collectables and made them photo-realistic, unleashing them on racetracks that will blow your mind with the level of detail and craziness in equal measure. Exemplifying the “kart racer” genre, it is the natural progression of why we fall in love with this type of racing game over and over. This is a love letter to both Hot Wheels and arcade racing fans.

‘Hot Wheels Unleased’ is as close as you can get to a kid’s dream (or at least mine). There are some slightly clunky things like the track builder at first, but once you get past the learning curve you’re able to set sail and take the wheel. It handles like a dream.

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.

Not only a blast of die-cast nostalgia, but a brilliant arcade racer to boot with superb customisation options.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is one of the most entertaining racing games of the year and a love letter to fans of this franchise. Without a doubt, an unmissable entry.

Milestone awakes our nostalgia for the beloved Hot Wheels from our childhood with this extremely well designed, addictive and beautiful game.

Hot Wheels Unleashed brings to consoles the same feeling that we had when we played with the toys in our childhood. The variety of vehicles is wide (even when there aren't many legendary ones), and both the cars and circuits work well. Overall, this is a great arcade racing game and a great surprise.

With more cars than you can shake a bit of plastic track at and a driving model that’s surprisingly good for an arcade racer, Hot Wheels Unleashed is an excellent racer that punches well above its weight.

A tavern full of toy cars to have fun with thanks to a fun and clean arcade driving model.

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 marks the return of toy cars to consoles and PC, with a noteworthy title.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is a fantastic arcade racer at its core, but the overall product is hurt by the gacha mechanics. Thankfully, the quality of the core game is good enough to largely overcome that handicap, but it would be a far better experience with rebalancing in that regard down the line. The racing action is fast-paced and thrilling, with strong sound design that helps make up for a lackluster soundtrack. Hot Wheels Unleashed is a fantastic pickup for anyone who grew up wanting a fleet of Hot Wheels cars — and that aspect will get better as time goes on with content packs.

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.

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.

In its best moments, Hot Wheels Unleashed feels like a rollercoaster, albeit with a greater ability to steer the action. These are the Hot Wheels tracks you dreamed of zipping through when you were a kid, ramping off buildings, or accelerating through your home’s air ducts. The breakneck speeds and delightfully silly tracks don’t make this incredibly sophisticated, but it’s one of the more amusing racers to hit the starting line in some time.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is an excellent arcade racing game with some truly inventive and crazy tracks, wonderfully recreated Hot Wheels toys that drive beautifully and the visuals to back it all up. Unfortunately an imbalance of reasonably long to extremely long tracks and their many hazard risks make it too easy to get frustrated when struggling to reach top spot, and the track builder while very well detailed fails to make the user experience anything but pleasant.

Hot Wheels Unleashed has everything it takes to become a cult hit: a fine driving experience, a story mode, a track builder and you can unlock and collect rare cars. More than that, it's the racing game we didn't know we needed this year.

A fun arcade racer that provides added value for those willing to get their hands dirty. However, those who just want to race might find the experience a limited one. Buy into the whole creative side and it’ll make you feel like a kid again, especially if you’re the type that likes to collect.

This is a surprisingly well done, fun racing game, full of thrill and fast toy cars. It’s highly addictive, the car designs are adequately crazy and there’s a robust editor to satisfy your creativity.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is a fast-paced racer that captures the frantic action of the miniature, diecast toys. The momentum-based gameplay helps to create intense races where anyone can win or lose. Even though the tracks are exciting and varied, the lack of environments is disappointing. Vehicles look incredible, making you want to collect each of them, however, the grindy blind box system may halt your progress. Overall, this is a solid racer that will knock you over with a nitro-boost of nostalgia.