I know I’ve been writing about Hot Wheels Unleashed a lot lately, but that’s only because the game is a complete surprise and really bloody fun to play. It’s got loads of activities to work though, tonnes of cars to collect, and I think it stands a good chance of being the next Rocket League. To be clear, I don’t think this game is going to replace Rocket League. They’re very different, and that’s not the audience that Hot Wheels Unleashed is going after. However, the game is so packed with unlockable content and fun racing that I think it’ll gradually become one of the best arcade racers on the market.
Rocket League is fun, but it wouldn’t have gotten as big as it is without one key element. A free month period on PlayStation Plus. That free month skyrocketed Rocket League from being an indie hit that would take months to become a big title with an eSports scene to a game that was a hit the day it came out. I still remember downloading it and playing it on day one, really enjoying myself with the unique gameplay and spending the next month working away at it for no reason other than it’s so much fun to play.
This is how Hot Wheels Unleashed feels to play. However, Hot Wheels Unleashed has a £40 pricetag attached to it. I think that were it a free-to-play title with microtransactions for Blind Boxes, it would be out in more players’ hands than ever. With that pricetag, I think it’ll take a while for the game to become massively popular. One caveat I have here is that there are no microtransactions in the game. The only thing you can buy are expansion packs, which makes sense since that’s additional content with premium cars like Batman and Barbie.
These two games are so different that it’s impossible to compare them in any other way than their launches and the way they appeal to audiences. That’s all I’m trying to do. I genuinely believe that this game could take off and be huge, all it’s going to take is a few multiplayer tournaments, a couple of influencers, and it’ll be absolutely massive.