Hot Wheels Unleashed is the best racing game I’ve played in 2021. While there have been other, much more accurate racing titles, this is the best arcade racer on the market this year. It’s got a tonne of content to offer you, and it’s not going to stop anytime soon with loads of other franchises joining the fray in the form of vehicles and expansions over the course of the rest of the year. In this article, I want to explain why I think the game does racing progression better than many other titles. It’s got a very simple story, but it’s one I’ve enjoyed more than any others.
The story in Hot Wheels Unleashed is a simple world map with events to complete. Some of these are races, secrets, time attacks, and even bosses. Once you complete an event, presented as a node, you unlock the nodes connected to it. This means that you can unlock multiple paths by completing a single event, opening up an opportunity for you to progress towards different goals on the map, be they a free Blind Box, or a boss encounter. You can do whatever you want, unless you don’t have the required cars and events unlocked to complete a secret.
The races themselves are so short that it feels like you’re flying through them as you progress. You can complete ten activities in about fifteen minutes, which is perfect for those players who might only be able to play for fifteen minutes in a day. There are so many events in the game that all of your time feels like it has an impact on reaching 100% completion, but you never do enough that you feel like you’re coming to the end anytime soon. This game should be daunting because of how packed it is, but it actually ends up being more enjoyable because of how everything is laid out.
The story reminds me of Burnout 3. The world populates with events as you complete others. It’s natural, feels like you’re the one having an impact, and encourages you to get every reward in every event so that you can push through the game as fast as possible.
