Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged review — Unleash Your Inner Toy Racer

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged roared onto the scene revving up its predecessor’s engine with fresh new tracks, flashy new cars, and nostalgic, but explosive mechanics. Hot Wheels Unleashed blew out its tires in 2021 taking the toy-sized arcade racing joyride through miniature marvels. I have to say, I have always been a fan of Hot Wheels racing games, or any bite-sized racing game for that matter so this title unleashing itself to the public surely revved up my interest! This review is over Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged so buckle up tiny drivers because it’s time for a test drive.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged does an amazing job of buckling down on the visuals of its predecessor. The racing tracks struck me with nostalgia as they winded through environments in detail making them look like a toy store display. I was highly intrigued by how fun every track looked. While upping the graphics, the core gameplay is largely unchanged and while some might think this is boring, it was not a bad thing. The arcade touch to the mechanics of the cars is what charmed me the first time around with Hot Wheels Unleashed. The drift and boost combo is always so satisfying and gameplay rewards smooth sailing cornering and risky moves with blazing speed, leaving your opponents in a trail of dust.

The new arcade mode is what took the cake for me. I was able to race around the track, harbor new times, practice my sick drifts, and enjoy the dynamic scenery around me. It all felt so real as the arcade room was littered with stools, textured floors, arcade-like ambiance where the gaming music bounced off every wall. Neon lights coated the room and I was only a toy, racing around with the whole area to myself. It is very fun, very fast-paced, and even customizable with track building.

Track building opens a whole new world as players can meticulously engineer fun tracks to race on. Each piece of orange plastic will be placed perfectly for the track to work or, torn all down to make a better one. The engaging factor that track building made this small racing car game more personalized and fun.

I managed to play this game with a controller because that is the only way to play a racing car game. Mouse and keyboard is doable, but the adaption that a controller has to this game is seamless. New cars and tracks were added and they all are so flashy and carry on in a smooth, yet fast manner. Rolling over boost pads to gain the advantage in a race and avoiding various objects can be challenging. However, each track is bright and does not stop throwing new gravity-defying loops, risky curves, leaps, and hidden shortcuts at you. I had to train myself to react quickly because this is not a game that slows down.

Overcharging my engine to boost in front of opponents on the track reminded me of Nintendo’s Mario Kart. The burst of speed is super satisfying, however, if you lean on that mechanic too much, you could risk overheating and toasting your engine. This introduced the urgency of being quick and precise with drifting so you will avoid the consequences of falling behind in the race.

Each car is almost the spitting image of a real Hot Wheels toy. It is nearly photorealistic and being able to champion all of the designs on the realistic plastic tracks is even better. The metal engines of the toy-cars look like they would be ice cold, like in real life as well as the plastic overlays of the designs. The modeling that Milestone puts into their designs is prestige and keeps the toy cars faithful to real-life Hot Wheels toys.

Looking good and feeling good are two different areas when it comes to racing games and I can tell you that Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged effortlessly balances both. From boosting, to in-air controls, to drifting and gaining speed on an enemy, the toy cars feel weighted. Flying in the air off a boosted ramp, braking, and handling the car, all feel satisfying, and while it is tricky, mastering it will leave you in first place every time. That is the beauty of this game. It allows for you to master the mechanics to come out on top which lengthens its competitive drive for first place.

With over 100 cars and more to come in DLCs and Season Passes, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged offers a trunk load of content. This will keep fans coming back for that special toy car model they have always dreamed of having. One thing the game struggles with is adding in older content, like some of the tracks from its predecessors. It almost feels like a missed opportunity as the tracks are highly dynamic but sticking in some of the older ones with a fresh new coat of paint would have put the pedal to the metal. However, seeing the season passes can be intriguing, but the prices for each one can instantly shoot a casual player down. It is rough to play a game when you do not own all of the expensive content including additional car models, different environments, and more.

However, despite the additional content, the base game harbors enough content to come back for more. From the base races, the detailed campaign story and races, the shiny and dynamic arcade modes, and the beautiful visuals and seamless mechanics, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is nothing to bat an eye at. It is definitely worth it if you are into racing games, let alone, wanting to wreak thumb-sized havoc upon the racing track.

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