Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged review: Not just for kids

At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

Great driving expertise and glorious management
Lots of enjoyable vehicles to gather and drive
Perfect for each younger and outdated

Cons

Very uneven issue degree
Sometimes the physics will get out of hand
A bit extra environments wouldn’t harm

Our Verdict

When Hot Wheels Unleashed makes a comeback, a lot is similar, each on the floor and behind the toy wheel. However, finely tuned controls and a few new options improve the already nice driving expertise, which along with imaginative and difficult tracks create a top-notch arcade racing recreation.

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I’m sitting within the driver’s seat of a big (however small) monster truck. Around me are a Koenigsegg, a toaster on wheels, one thing dinosaur-like, and an outdated Ford. The engine begins. I time the throttle good and get full increase. The poor vehicles that get in my means fly away like bouncy balls, whereas I speed up via a loop to finish a a number of meter-long bounce over a espresso desk.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 is quick, messy, and plenty of enjoyable. But haven’t I performed this earlier than?

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Reboot or recent begin?

At first, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 can really feel like a carbon copy of the primary recreation. It’s toy vehicles in all kinds of types, with all the pieces from actual automotive fashions and popular culture celebrities rubbing shoulders with rocket-powered laser tanks. Add to that imaginative miniature tracks crammed with loops, pace plates, and obstacles.

Together they create fast-paced, enjoyable, and sometimes difficult races that require full focus to keep away from ending up with a automotive the other way up in a dusty nook. Just like its predecessor, then.

Not that it is a unhealthy factor. The idea continues to be going robust because of the distinctive tracks. Courses the place orange plastic roads, large jumps, and imaginative obstacles combine with regular environments adorned with acceptable particulars like picket planks, chairs and arcade machines, are paying homage to the outdated traditional Micro Machines video games.

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A bit automotive in a giant, large world

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 additionally makes higher use of the full-sized environments than within the first recreation; just like the Micro Machines collection, they’re extra built-in into the racing this time round. Speeding round loops and orange gutters is all effectively and good, however there’s one thing particular about dodging beer cans and slaloming between chair legs.

The environments wherein the programs are set are giant and stuffed with furnishings, decor, and different particulars which might be woven into the races in several methods. In the museum, the monitor goes round an enormous T-rex, whereas the escalators, air flow, and arcade machines within the arcade make excellent racing tracks. There’s additionally a home with a lounge, kitchen, storage, and yard, a western-inspired miniature golf course, and an American diner and its automotive park. Being in a position to construct your individual programs with a easy instrument additionally makes it clear how effectively thought out the environments are.

But though the environments are greater, extra detailed, and higher utilized on this second recreation, I miss the rooms of the earlier one. Or quite, I miss the variability. Because as loopy because the programs are, there’s an pointless lack of selection when there are solely 5 areas wherein all the pieces takes place.

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Jump on the high

Fortunately, it’s simple to neglect that the backgrounds are sometimes repetitive when the races themselves are so intense. Speeds are excessive and skid marks are few, as a substitute drifting via the corners in a most pleasant means with an ideal mixture of full management and coronary heart within the throat.

This sequel additionally has a few new recreation mechanics that really have an effect on the races rather a lot: The potential to improve and customise sure options of the vehicles, and a model new bounce button.

Jumping consumes a few of the increase, and makes it doable to, for instance, bounce over obstacles and holes, bounce to shortcuts, or bounce over gaps in tight turns. It doesn’t sound too thrilling, nevertheless it offers the driving a welcome further depth – and makes the sport stand out a bit extra from its predecessor.

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Wash your mouth out with cleaning soap

There’s merely rather a lot to love in Hot Wheels Unleashed 2. But then there’s the problem degree. Just like its predecessor, some races are terribly irritating and unfair. Sometimes due to a unusually excessive degree of issue, typically as a result of a single crash on the finish of an ideal race can destroy all the pieces. Luckily, the races aren’t significantly lengthy, so it not often hurts to sort out them again and again.

Every from time to time, nevertheless, there are cries of foul language directed on the mildly uneven degree of issue, particularly within the boss battles, the place a single mistake typically ruins your complete spherical.

At the identical time, each the monitor design and the physics of the vehicles have been refined in comparison with its predecessor, so it’s not fairly as frequent for easy collisions to have devastating penalties. But the truth that one tiny mistake on the incorrect time can destroy an in any other case excellent race isn’t any laughing matter. A restricted rewind perform would have gone a good distance, though it will have additionally taken a few of the stress out of the race.

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Shop, store, store on your joyful face

But it’s really not the cool races in enjoyable environments that I like most about Hot Wheels Unleashed 2. It’s the toy vehicles, or the gathering of them to be exact.

With over 130 automobiles within the base recreation, there are many cool, enjoyable, foolish, and nostalgic vehicles and motorbikes to lust after. Since cash is handed out freely within the marketing campaign mode, there’s no must compete in the identical races again and again or replenish a digital pockets with actual cash.

However, there are already further toy vehicles out there for actual cash. And given the sheer quantity of downloadable materials launched for its predecessor, the second installment is prone to be crammed with one, two, two three enlargement passes – however happily the bottom bundle is sufficiently well-stocked that they don’t really feel like a chore.

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The gasoline on the backside

Aside from the occasional recreation and series-based automotive, I’ve by no means had a lot curiosity in Hot Wheels. Yet I fell in love with the primary Hot Wheels Unleashed due to the mix of fast-paced racing and the gathering of toy variations of well-known automotive fashions and fantasy creations.

Now that the second is right here, I’m nonetheless sitting with a smile on my face. A smile that’s admittedly distorted into sheer anger from time to time, however not typically sufficient for the sport’s enjoyment to endure. It have to be mentioned that this second installment doesn’t fairly seize me in the identical means as its predecessor, largely as a result of the idea doesn’t really feel as new and thrilling this time round.

But with higher monitor design, extra balanced issue, and a few new recreation mechanics, this follow-up does sufficient to make the primary really feel restricted. There’s actually no scarcity of fine arcade racing video games, however Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 stands out amongst the crowded discipline.