I’m quite excited about the new Hot Wheels Unleashed arriving in September 2021. It combines my love of cars, videogames and models in one place, and the fact it’s being developed by Milestone, who specialise in racing games, means I’m hopeful it could be fun to play.
It’s planned as an arcade racing collaboration between the developers and toy makers Mattel, and will be released across the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. It’s the first Hot Wheels game to cover all home consoles for several years, as most previous examples have been on handhelds and mobile, with a few exceptions.
As you might expect, Hot Wheels Unleashed will let you drive various die cast cars of different rarity and attributes around tracks created from the iconic orange plastic pieces. And you’ll be able to drift, boost and crash in both online multiplayer and split screen modes.
What potentially makes it more interesting is that Hot Wheels Unleashed will include a Track Editor to let you customise and share circuits with other players. And they’re all located in everyday surroundings
Hopefully we’ll get a combination of Micro Machines, Trackmania and the Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels expansion. Which would be a triumph for Milestone, considering Hot Wheels games have been released to a mixed reception ever since the first example appeared back in 1984 for the Commodore 64.
“Like many other team members who worked on the game, I’ve been playing with Hot Wheels since I was a child, and today I’m still a hungry Hot Wheels fan and collector,” said Michele Caletti, Executive Producer, Milestone. “This is the reason why we’re all so committed in delivering the purest and most authentic Hot Wheels gameplay experience ever in a videogame. We owe it to the Hot Wheels community and to our inner children.”
If you’re already excited about the idea of racing Hot Wheels cars virtually, rather than cluttering up the living room with die cast toys and acres of plastic, then you can pre-order the Hot Wheels Unleashed: Day One Edition from Game, which includes the Hot Wheels Sportscars pack: Track Manga and GT Scorcher.