One of my favorite racing games ever, believe it or not, is Hot Wheels Turbo Racing on the N64 and original PlayStation. There have been many Hot Wheels-branded titles over the years made by various developers, but today, the franchise belongs to the racing game artisans over at Milestone, who were responsible for the thrilling and addictive Screamer earlier this year. Their next project, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush, takes the spirit of the studio’s earlier Unleashed games and breaks the action out across four open-world environments, predictably loaded with secrets, collectibles, and varied event types you can easily hop into.
We were fortunate enough to get a playable preview of Infinite Rush last week, and it’s shaping up nicely. Personally, the Unleashed games fell a bit flat for me, between stiff physics and unremarkable track design, so the decision to take Infinite Rush open-world works in the game’s favor. Rather than playsets in real-life rooms, these worlds feel like thriving, miniature cities. If you’ve played Lego 2K Drive, the feel and vibe is frankly exactly the same, just replace one popular toy franchise with another.
Within an extensive launch roster of 150 die-casts are four classes of vehicles: Versatile, Speeder, Drifter, and Titan. Their names are pretty much self-explanatory, but in a Burnout Paradise-type fashion, the key is that they all earn boost by driving in different ways. Some are better in certain situations than others—you’ll want a Titan if you plan on going off-road, for example—and across every group are both fictional Hot Wheels and Mattel-ified versions of real cars, including the Ferrari SF90 Stradale, Lancia Delta Integrale, NA Mazda Miata and Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution, to name some standouts.
They all look excellent too, which is something Milestone has always managed with these games. The way they’re able to leverage Unreal Engine to make the realest-looking toy cars you’ve ever seen, from their metallic paint, to their “tampo” graphics (printed features), and plastic wheels, is second to none. And, perhaps unsurprisingly considering how well Screamer ran, the preview build I played on my midrange PC performed exceptionally smoothly at high settings.
I like that there’s always a challenge around the corner in these open worlds, and I’d say starting one up comes with even less friction that an event in Forza Horizon, and loading is rarer, too. I especially like the “Daredevil” element—cars you’ll come across in your travels that will summon an instant head-to-head race when you drive near them. Beat them on the spot, and you’ll add them to your collection. Lose, and you’ll just have to wait for your opportunity the next time they powerslide across your screen.
Hot Wheels™ Infinite Rush – Announcement Trailer
In terms of how the driving actually feels, I didn’t necessarily love or hate it. There’s a stiffness and heaviness to low-speed maneuvers in this game that is very typical of modern arcade racers. Personally, I prefer less understeery and more responsive handling, but given the emphasis on ripping long drifts, particularly in the Drifter-class vehicles, it makes sense.
The Wheelswood environment, which was the only one of the four available in the build I played, has city-like grid streets, mountain roads and, of course, big orange and blue Hot Wheels tracks with wild curves and gigantic loops looming over everything, just as you’d hope. Players will be able to assemble their own custom tracks in these maps, as well. And, whenever you smash into a lamp post or shrub or other roadside objects, you hear a cute plastic popping sound. Yeah—the devs understood the assignment, no doubt about it.
Overall, Infinite Rush could very well be Milestone’s best Hot Wheels game yet, not just in terms of content but also, unique gameplay. Like 2K Drive, it feels like an experience more geared for kids than most people currently living their automotive fantasies through Forza Horizon 6. That said, what’s here is already way more interesting to me and extensive than Forza’s Hot Wheels and Lego expansions of the past. Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is slated to release on September 24 for the very reasonable price of $50 on Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X and S, PS5, and PC.
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