I don’t know a single kid who doesn’t like playing with cars like Hot Wheels.  Heck, even when I was little, one of my favorite Christmas gifts was this beige-y fold out Hot Wheels Service Station from the 70s (if you know, you know).  Many years later, one of my little brothers got this volcano Hot Wheels playset and my best friend and I took the loop off the top of the volcano, increased the torque on the speed spinners, and made the Hot Wheels cars shoot up the volcano and hit the ceiling!  Yeah we got in a little bit of trouble for that.  Anyway now you can play a new Hot Wheels video game with Infinite Rush.  It’s an open world racer with events to find on several different huge islands. Kind of reminds me of a Switch game I played years ago called LEGO 2K Drive.  Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is available on most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch 2 here.

You’ll start out in a huge city area but this city also has tons of those orange vinyl bendable tracks everywhere as well as places that look like Hot Wheels playsets (and if they’re not, they very well could and should be).  Steering your car is like any other racing game.  R2 for gas, L2 for brake, and you can boost with B and drift while holding the brake while turning.  You can also do a little sidestep move but I never used it.  On the city map you’ll find all sorts of events from races to stunt challenges, photo tours, destruction derbies, and more.  You’ll want to complete all the main races on the map and then challenge a rival to unlock the next island.  You can mark these spots on the map so you can find them easier.  There are lots of other hidden things to find around the islands as well, like gear coins, stickers to take pictures of, and more.

When you complete races, you can unlock new Hot Wheels cars to drive and there are tons of them!  If you have friends over who want to play, you can jump right into some quick races for up to four players.  You can even go online, too.  You can also customize your cars with paint jobs and stickers that you’ve found.  There is even a track editor!  My only problem with the game is that I wish the cars handled a little tighter, but it could’ve just been the ones I was using.  And as you play, you can upgrade them to do even better.  Also sometimes the goals and objectives were a little unclear, and the tracks don’t always do a good job of telling you where to go.  But if you liked the open world part of Mario Kart World, you will probably enjoy this one, too.  It’s not as good as Mario Kart World, but it’s still a fun little racer that would make a great Christmas gift for any kid and Hot Wheels fan.

Kid Factor:

Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush is rated E for Everyone with ESRB descriptors of Users Interact and In-Game Purchases.  Basically parental supervision is recommended for when your child goes online or tries to buy stuff with real money from the in-game shop. You can crash into other toy cars but that’s about as violent as it gets.   Reading skill is also a must, as everything is text based.  Multiple difficulty selections mean players of all ages can enjoy this, but younger gamers may still need a try or two before getting the hang of each race.

Tags: Game Reviews