A Dream for Hot Wheels Fans

Hot Wheels has stood the test of time through its modular track sets and great car designs, all for little kids to enjoy. Milestone, the developer of the Hot Wheels Unleashed series, has elevated the modern Hot Wheels games market once again with Hot Wheels Infinite Rush. Players take the set tracks into what is essentially four playgrounds to explore, race in, and collect cars, except that the playground is made out of iconic Hot Wheels track pieces interwoven through plastic buildings and architecture, and lets us explore as we did as kids.

Hot Wheels Infinite Rush has no real story. You select your first Hot Wheel, and you are plopped right into the first map, Wheelswood. All you’re really told is to drive around and have fun. Also, to win races. That’s really the objective of the game – do the ever-populating races on each map to unlock a Rusher. These are head-to-head, point-to-point races throughout the map they’re on. All on the line is the car you’re racing against. With a chill setting and this sole objective, you’re just told: “Go! Do whatever you want here.” 

That’s exactly what happened. Driving around each of the four islands of this archipelago was simply a blast. Having a Forza Horizon-esque racing game on the Switch 2 for on-the-go racing fun quickly made it obvious that this was what the platform was missing. It plays great save for one issue.

Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is all about the thrill of the race. No story necessary!

The loading times are pretty slow. Before and after each race and when switching between islands, you’re met with a pretty long loading screen. We’re talking 20-30 seconds of waiting before you can do whatever you want next. So if your goal is to go from race to race, map to map, you’ll find yourself waiting a good bit back-to-back. 

That’s where the joy of Milestone’s open-world design comes in. There are so many things to do on each map that it’s honestly impressive. Every location has the same collectibles: Stickers, Hot Wheels flames, and gears. Each of these unlocks new cars and customization options for you to design your collection in any way you would like.

Then, to explore, you can switch between the four car types at will. The Versatile is a jack-of-all-trades car with a good balance of boost-building and speed. Drifters for the tight corners of some of the cityscapes you can drive through. Speeders to go fast. And the Titan is hefty, builds boost quickly, and requires you to balance how much boost you use before it breaks down. Having each of these four at your beck and call really helps with experimenting and doing anything you can to get all the collectibles. 

The joy of Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is in the open-world design of its maps.

They’re also great for tackling the numerous activities scattered throughout each map. Activities also unlock gradually as you complete Main Event. They range from taking a picture in a specific spot, getting to a point as fast as possible by constantly boosting, or doing an on-the-fly obstacle course. These drop-in and drop-out events do a great job breaking up the time between the big races and reward the currency needed to buy some of the Hot Wheels in each of the island’s shops. 

As for the Main Events, the selection of racing types also keeps each race fresh. You’re not just doing one type of race over and over again. Instead, you will unlock one classic race. Then the next will be an Elimination-style race. The one after that may be a drifting or a time attack, where you rack up the most points or beat the fastest time on a track. Of the six, Time Attack, Drift Master, and Waypoints stood out as the best races by far. 

Speaking of drifting, it’s pretty well done in Hot Wheels Infinite Rush. Drifting isn’t as technical as other open-world racing games. Instead, it’s used as a tool to help swing around corners as quickly as possible and build up boost faster. The fact that it has quick dashes to the left and right, and the literal flames shooting out of cars as you boost, adds to the feeling that you’re just a kid playing with your Hot Wheels in your basement. 

Racers aren’t limited to the classic race format. Different race types keep things fresh.

The driving itself feels good. Not amazing, but great for what it is. Each car has its own handling, speed, and acceleration stat. Yet just driving around, you probably won’t notice too much of a difference between different cars of the same class. So really, it’s okay to just pick the coolest or most fun-looking car in your livery to mess around or race in. 

Yet the biggest challenges are the Rusher events. These highlight each map masterfully, interweaving their architecture and Hot Wheel additions within each other to create a thrilling event. Some of them are quite difficult too. Similar to Hot Wheels Unleashed, these are when the major setpieces, like a fire-breathing dragon you can drive on the back of, or a massive octopus monster, are used to their advantage. But with these already being on the map, it does take some thrill out of racing around them during the events. 

Track Editor opens up the gateways for players to get creative.

Personally, I didn’t spend much time with the Track Editor during the review period. But with the time I’ve already spent messing with it, this is the track editor that fits the theme perfectly. You’re only really limited by your imagination with what can be created. And after launch, it’ll be exciting to see what people come up with. 

Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is a Hot Wheels fan’s dream. Even if it’s not the best racing game and suffers from long loading times on the Switch 2, just driving around on the go through each of the four main areas is a blast. Infinite Rush fills a hole that’s been sorely missing on the Switch 2. Best of all, it does the Hot Wheels brand even more justice.  

Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is available September 10th on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.