Hotwheels Unleashed

For those unware, there's a new Hotwheels game coming out, were this the early 2000s, that wouldn't sound like news at all. The franchise has seen 30+ games released over its multi-decade lifespan. However, due to the place for mass-market toy tie-ins being the Mobile Phone, there actually hasn't been a notable Hotwheels release since Forza Horizon 3's brilliant expansion.

That recently changed with the announcement of a new game by Milestone Inc. This immediately gave me doubts to the package. Milestone is one of those studios who embody mediocrity. The studio equivalent of lettuce, a cloudy sky, or a Toyota Corolla. Their games have all the passion, excitement, and sexiness, of a McDonalds kitchen.

However, I've also said of mid-market studios, that I'll always be rooting for them, even if I may not particularly care for their games, and god damn, I'm rooting for this one.

Let's start with the positives.

Firstly, they nail the toy aesthetic. As a fan of racing games, the pursuit of realism is getting quite tiresome. There's only so many times you can replicate the same cars, tracks, and leagues, before it becomes tedious.

Trackmania has always been the closest to Hotwheels' style, and even then, it's vehicles still look akin to ones from the real world. Milestone's choice to completely model the vehicles like Hotwheels toys, down to the wheels, floor, and paint coating, is not just cool, but distinct.

There's no other big racing game I know of with this aesthetic.

I was also very pleased to see flexibility in its gameplay, this is primarily seen in the trailer when a player uses a jump to take a risk, and crossover a large chunk of the circuit to catch up to an opponent. This will hopefully make races more exciting, where risks can pay off in victories that just aren't possible in normal racing games.

Sadly... those are where the positives end for me.

The biggest thing that Milestone have lacked since the beginning, and haven't changed since, is their lack of style. Some would say that doesn't matter as long as there's a beefy core to the gameplay, and while I'd agree in certain instances, when it comes to Hotwheels, you need style.

And while they've nailed the vehicles aesthetics, virtually everything else witnessed so far in music, locations, track designs, color palette, sound design, and visual effects, are as bland as bland can be.

It'd be disappointing, if the precedent hadn't already been set from their prior work.

I'm really hoping the garage environment is demonstrated because it's the easiest, and that it doesn't set the tone for everything else the game has in locations, or worse, is the only location.

There's still lots of time between now and release, and I'll be the first one to sing this games praises if all of the concerns I've got are addressed, but I can't help but feel at the moment, that the images, sounds, and locales, are just... boring.

And if there's anything Hotwheels shouldn't be, it's bland.