Two years after the original Hot Wheels Unleashed debuted, developer Milestone brings us a sequel in the form of Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged. The previous game was generally well-liked but I didn’t have the chance to play it. I enjoy racing games of all kinds on a casual level — but am certainly no grandmaster of the pavement — which fed into my excitement to take a look at Unleashed 2.
Releasing on October 19, 2023 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, Epic Games Store and Switch, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged looks to marry nostalgia and arcade-style gameplay and generally does a great job. The Milestone developers are the minds behind the MotoGP series so it’s no surprise that their latest entry in the Hot Wheels series is well crafted as well.
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged Review
I spent close to 15 hours with the game, mostly in the Creature Rampage mode while also experimenting with the livery creation suite and customizing cars in the garage. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged does feature split-screen play, but I wasn’t able to test this during my time. I also wasn’t able to properly gauge the online multiplayer side of things, which makes sense since the game isn’t officially out and in the hands of players yet. I played exclusively on PC via Steam using an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.
What I Like
Gameplay
There are five different modes to choose from: Quick Race, Time Attack, Drift Master, Elimination, and Waypoint. Quick Race is simply a traditional race where you vie for a podium finish in a set number of laps. Time Attack is a time-trial mode where you attempt to finish within a set amount of time. Drift Master challenges you to accrue the target number of points through drifting. Elimination is a Battle Royale style mode where a timer counts down, eliminating the players at the back of the pack until there is only a single racer remaining. Waypoint is exactly that — you hit checkpoints across the track with a waypoint system guiding you to the finish.
I found pretty much all of the game modes to be fun except Waypoint. The waypoint arrow points rigidly towards the next checkpoint, not necessarily the direction you should actually be going. Perhaps this is the entire point, but when the arrow is pointed directly left after a checkpoint, only to find out you were supposed to go straight and up around a track, it just felt annoying. I found myself simply wanting to complete the target goal versus wanting to hit the Unleashed goal as I did with all other game modes. The prospects of replaying a Waypoint multiple times to get the optimal path to set blazing scores doesn’t appeal to me, though I can see where this will be quite popular with others once the checkpoint placement is learned.
Having said that, when four of the five included game modes are incredibly fun you clearly have a recipe for success. The core gameplay of Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 is addicting. I found myself needing to move on to something else, only to keep playing “one more race.” That “one more race” feeling nagged at me enough that I would invest an extra 30-60 minutes playing during my initial playthrough after intending to stop. That, coupled with the constant rush of dopamine with leveling up and completing Unleashed Missions, created an incredibly fun and addicting experience that I’d argue is exactly what arcade-style games like this should strive to achieve.
Creature Rampage (Story Mode)
The story itself is clearly crafted for young children, but hey, grown-ups can think Hot Wheels and monsters are cool, too. The Creature Rampage mode puts you into action, racing across a map containing five different biomes to put an end to a monstrous threat looming over the city.
In order to progress through Creature Rampage, you simply must achieve the listed target goal for each race. For Quick Races, that might be “reach the podium” or a specific time you must beat in Time Attack. There’s also attached “Unleashed” goals that range from finishing first to beating an even more difficult time. This is where you get some replay value as you can go back through, either improving on scores/times or simply complete them with an upgraded car later on.
As you progress through each biome, you’ll eventually get to a boss fight that requires you to race the track, destroying targets that represent the boss’ health. In a sense, it’s an elongated Time Attack as you must destroy the targets before the Boss’ Rage Meter fills up. Every target you destroy reduces what amounts to the boss’ HP, represented by a numbered heart in the Rage Meter. Break targets and reduce the meter to 0 in order to defeat the boss, earn a bunch of rewards, and move on to the next biome.
I played through Creature Rampage on Medium for my review, and on a few occasions the Rage Meter filled as I missed a target. You don’t automatically fail once the meter fills, though you don’t have a ton of time to hit a target either with a full meter either.
Along the way, you’ll also run into Challenges on the Creature Rampage map. These are off the beaten path, so to speak, and you must navigate to them on the map and select them in order to activate them. As I was playing with an Xbox Elite controller (PC), I was able to press the left stick to toggle the view of the active challenge. You’ll also have branching choices along the way to choose which route you take across the map. This doesn’t really change anything in terms of how you progress, but you will also run into races that require certain vehicles like “powered” that you won’t be able to compete in unless you upgrade one of your Hot Wheels. You can unlock “hidden” paths by completing Challenges, as the Challenge tile becomes an active tile you can navigate from.
Time Management
Races typically last between 1.5-2.5 minutes, which allows for quick progression through the Creature Rampage mode. In the event that you don’t meet the minimum criteria to advance through a race, only needing to invest a couple minutes into a restart doesn’t feel bad and was hardly ever frustrating. The most frustrating moments for me were purely when I’d miss a drift around a corner, slamming into obstacles or off tracks entirely. That low time investment per race also made restarting in the middle of a race less offensive. Again, everything about the core gameplay is what an arcade-style game like this should be.
I enjoy all kinds of games, but time management is a real dilemma for me these days. It’s a tough sell for me to invest a bunch of time into multiple games at once. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged gave me quick, to-the-point gameplay that was fun and addicting without ever asking me to invest too much time. Perhaps this isn’t an important detail for many, but this element added to my enjoyment of the game.
It was just super fun to hop into a race, burn rubber (plastic?) on the track, and be done in a couple minutes.
What I Didn’t Like
Depth
While the Creature Rampage mode provided a steady stream of races, there wasn’t much else to it. By the time I completed Creature Rampage, I was nearly Level 30 with over 100,000 coins. After a while, the Coins adding up didn’t mean much as I had already found the car that I enjoyed enough to use every race. I had it fully upgraded to my liking, and when I ran into a race I couldn’t use it in I simply swapped to another fully upgraded car I could use and then went back to my preferred ride.
Again, keeping in mind that this game is geared toward a younger audience, there isn’t a real need for complexity here. Still, there wasn’t much for me to do with all the Coin I was banking after races and every Hot Wheel can receive the same upgrades. There wasn’t anything special or unique to upgrade, you simply choose from the same options for each car and move on.
There’s a tab on the main menu labeled “Downloaded Content” that obviously means more content will be coming in the future. Perhaps the DLC will add some cool reasons to spend Coins, but once I got my main car I rarely even looked at my Coin total. A couple times I went through the Shop, buying everything I didn’t own before refreshing and doing it again. There are Unleashed Missions for collecting cars, so spending all your Coins and finishing some more races can help you clean up on the available car roster. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged features 130+ Hot Wheels to collect and race with, so it’ll take some time wrapping up a complete collection and can keep you busy.
Bottom Line
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is an incredibly fun arcade racer that taps into childhood memories. While the Creature Rampage story and the game itself might be catered towards kids, adults will have a blast boosting across the unique tracks. Elimination Mode should be a party-pleaser, and when crazy challenging tracks are bountifully available then full online lobbies battling it out seems like it will be a great time. Completing the entire story portion of the game took me roughly 12 hours and that was without completing every Unleashed Goal or even every race. If you attempt to completed all Unleashed goals as well as the challenges, it looks like you can easily sink 15-20 total hours into the offline story mode. No matter how you play, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 is a blast and worth a look if you’re a fan of the genre or just want something different in your rotation.
