The lighting seats the cars into the environments outstandingly well.
What especially sells it is the outstanding lighting, which regularly comes from multiple sources all around each map, whether that’s the neon of a jukebox, brash fluorescent tubes, or the glaring sun itself. The backdrops are excellent, too – especially the vast cityscape buried in cloud that surrounds the construction site. This ridiculously good level of detail also extends to the environments themselves, from the scuffed and etched surfaces of the iconic soft plastic tracks to almost unnoticeable flourishes like air bubbles underneath hastily applied guardrail stickers. Milestone’s success in making the cars look so credible is a huge part of what makes Hot Wheels Unleashed so joyful to play. Under the right light, child-sized fingerprints can be observed – especially on windscreens – and even their plastic tyres become ringed with the kinds of gouges a pristine Hot Wheels car will pick up after an afternoon of pounding the pavement. The most striking thing is that damage hasn’t been applied thoughtlessly or randomly cars correctly lose paint on their vulnerable corners and raised edges, faint scratches appear on larger flat surfaces, black plastic is revealed under the silver coating, and printed tampos are partially rubbed away. Here’s where they really start to resemble the toy cars strewn around my youngest son’s room: chipped, scratched, and play-worn by the demands of their seven-year-old automotive overlord. I’m still finding myself just rotating them around, stopped in my tracks by how fantastic they look.Īs impressive as they are out of their boxes, they look even better after some doorhandle-to-doorhandle action out on track. That said, the car models themselves are simply gorgeous, and every one I’ve collected so far is an unflinchingly faithful recreation of the miniatures they represent, down to the tiniest details: the texture differences between plastic and lacquered metal parts the subtle mould lines left from the assembly process the broad range of paint finishes the stamped text beneath the chassis carrying the model name and production year. Of course, the last time I saved up a pile of these I opened four of the same car in the space of a few minutes, which was deeply unsatisfying. The remaining option is winning or purchasing blind boxes (which, thankfully, can only be bought with in-game currency) to try and get something different. That simply feels like too long the only thing I want my kids to do for four consecutive hours is sleep.
I do still have quite a few cars to unlock, though, and doing so is slow going because cars are only purchasable à la carte from a selection of five random models which rotates every four hours of play – not real time.
The small selection of film and TV cars are easily my favourites, though, and I don’t expect I’ll do much racing in anything but the Back to the Future DeLorean now that I’ve unlocked it.įinishing the campaign has given me some ultra-rare original models, which are great picks by Milestone. There’s also a handful of real cars in the mix, which I think is great for variety and perfect for anyone who may not be huge fans of cars shaped like giant hamburgers. The range leans towards more recent models – or, at least, recent versions of classic castings, like the iconic Twin Mill, and even a 50th anniversary version of the quirky Dodge Deora, one of the first 16 cars Hot Wheels ever made.