HWU throws back to an older arcade-racing era by opening with very few racetracks to select from-and a campaign that you must play through to unlock many of the game's contents.

Boost through meaty, plastic straightaways That's not a bad thing-and I had a good-enough time with Unleashed to write about it at Ars, as I think some people will really enjoy what's going on here.īut you'll have a better time with HWU going into it fully aware of its weird and tricky design decisions-along with quibbles about its in-game economy of cars and tracks. In my week of testing the game ahead of its launch this week, I found that Hot Wheels Unleashed feels like a Micro Machines skin on top of the modern, hardcore-leaning Trackmania series. Yet while handsomely modeled toy cars and cute environments might look like a basis for newbie-friendly racing, it's not the case here.

To be fair, that specific concept isn't necessarily common in gaming, but Codemasters' legendary Micro Machines series holds a lot of water for a certain type of arcade-racing fan. This week's Hot Wheels Unleashed is one of the best video games ever made using licensed toy cars. Links: Amazon | PlayStation Store | Xbox | Nintendo eShop | Steam | Official site Platform: PC (tested), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Switch

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