Hot Wheels toy cars have delighted kids for many a generation.  Heck, even I played with them when I was little.  I had a foldable Hot Wheels garage playset that I played with all the time.  One of my brothers had a Hot Wheels track that had a volcano that the cars would race up on.  We took the loop at the top out so the cars would shoot straight up to the living room ceiling!  Heck, even recently I saw Hot Wheels Mario Kart cars and tracks.  I was tempted to get them, but I didn’t!  But now there is a mobile racing game that captures the imagination of Hot Wheels cars and tracks with Hot Wheels: Infinite Loop.  It’s available free to play for most mobile devices, but reviewed on iPad here.

Apparently the game has a story.  In the future, we have developed technologies where we can race life sized Hot Wheels cars, which leads me to believe that six-year-olds rule the future.  In this time we also have the technology to make hologram roads that are like those bendable orange Hot Wheels tracks.  So the game is like a cross between a street racer with fanciful loops and twists every now and then.  So yeah it’s pretty great.

Play control is also fantastic and tailor made for mobile devices.  You don’t have to worry about holding down the gas all the time, as you’re constantly moving forward.  At the start of the race you can hold down the accelerator to get a speed boost, but that’s it.  To steer, just press the large arrows on the left and right sides of the screen.  When you come to a turn, hold down the small drift button above the left arrow to do a power slide, and release it at the right time for another speed boost.  As you drive, a meter will fill up, and when it’s full, press the button above the right arrow for a nitro boost.  What’s neat is that while the meter goes down, you can press the button again at the right time to get even more of a speed boost!  Cool idea!

Unfortunately, while the gameplay, controls, and graphics are console quality, it’s the free-to-play nature and aspects of the game that bog things down.  You can compete in races to unlock items to upgrade your cars, but you always have to be connected online to race, and about half the time, I couldn’t connect to race.  And it takes FOREVER to unlock any upgrades as you have to collect a ton of rewards to do so, and you must wait hours for the reward boxes you earn to open.  It’s a shame, too, because there are tons of cars to collect.  Some are pretty cool, too, like one that’s shaped like a shark.  And while the graphics are great, the speed can get so fast that things look a little blurry and it’s hard to tell where to go on the track.

It’s a shame, too, because had this game been released on a console without all that free-to-play stuff and cars that unlock less sporadically, this would’ve been a really fun game.  I dunno, maybe there was a console Hot Wheels game like this at one point.  I’ve never played a Hot Wheels game before this one.  Since the game is free, I say it’s still worth checking out, but you might lose interest quickly like I did after having the race the same track over and over to unlock a small upgrade, much less a new car.

Kid Factor:

You can crash your car into a wall or get slammed into the side and break into pieces, but that’s about as violent as it gets.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, and parental supervision is recommended for the in-game ads and purchases.

Tags: Game Reviews