For the last 35 years, Mattel’s Hot Wheels brand has personified cars and trucks
for boys and men alike. Small enough to wedge several into a pocket, yet strong
enough to handle flying through the air and crashing to the concrete over and
over again, Hot Wheels was into portable gaming fun long before Game Boys hit
the streets. But Mattel has tried to keep up with the times, releasing waves of
new cars and trucks every year, fostering a huge collectors community, and
creating fun racetracks that seem to get wilder every year.
Hot Wheels World Race attempts to take you inside that world of incredible
racetracks, putting you at the wheel of a hyperspeed racer, performing stunts
and loop the loops through various circuits, multi-level tracks etc. The feature
that jumps out at you, literally, is the emphasis on not only performing extreme
stunts, but the need to perform them well in order to earn extra go juice,
called Nitrox, that will be needed to launch yourself onto shortcuts, pass
difficult opponents, and increase your hang time on the next jump.
The gameplay is your basic hyperspeed racing game. There is no semblance of
simulation here, more of an all-out tire-burner type race. After 2 or 3 races
where you finish in the top position, you quickly discover that you can
basically goof off the first two laps or so and then focus hard and catch the
pack on the last lap, because they won’t get too far ahead of you.
The stunts are the signature feature of the game, but quickly become old hat and
boring. All you can do is roll on one of 2 axes and try to stick the landing.
Not especially challenging, though the game will penalize you for performing the
same stunt twice in a row. If you land a stunt well, you will earn boost fuel or
Nitrox, with which you can jump further and drive faster than normal.
The graphics of the tracks are pretty good, but they are very repetitive. You
will find yourself racing the same basic track layout over and over again.
Special effects such as crashes and leaps are pretty good, and the graphics
engine is lag free and smooth.
As you progress through the rookie league on up, you will unlock various
cars. All of the cars basically drive the same way, with very little difference,
so there isn’t much to really unlock.
All in all, World Race is a decent effort, but not a game that leaves you
excited about competing in your next race. Splitscreen multiplayer action for
racing your friends might keep it on your play list, but overall there are
better options out there.
Gameplay: 7.0
Standard racing fare, no new ideas or
excitement here. Stunts and leaps get old really fast when all you can do is
roll and flip.
Graphics: 7.2
Smooth,
fast action, but the scenery was pretty monotonous.
Sound: 7.5
Sounds like a racing game, with
engines and everything. Not much more to say.
It is a good thing this is a kids game, but even my 8 & 10 year olds would soon
tire of this one.
Concept: 7.6
Putting the gamer into the types of tracks that have been marketed in the past
few years is neat, but I was really hoping to see replicas of the ACTUAL Hot
Wheels tracks, like the current T-Wrecks, Raptor Blast, Viper Strike, FireBall,
Alien Attack, etc. Now that would have been cool, especially with background
graphics of BIG kids playing with the car I am driving in….
Multiplayer: 7.5
Nothing too spectacular, just split-screen racing, like
a thousand others.
Overall: 7.4
Like
many franchise-based games, Hot Wheels World Race has a lot to live up to. It is
a fair attempt at a racing game, but doesn’t really have enough oomph to make it
over the hill with many discriminating gamers. If you have boys who like the Hot
Wheels cars, buy this game instead of one of those track sets that cost more
money and are too easy to tear up. You won’t lose any pieces, either….
