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Hot Wheels is a universally loved franchise amongst car enthusiasts and hobbyists of all age groups. Just seeing the looped-around tracks and Hot Wheels car sets makes every car lover giddy inside. Taking all of this into account, Milestone has managed to create a refreshing experience with Hot Wheels Infinite Rush, which delivers a dynamic ride back to your childhood imaginations with an open world of Hot Wheels cars and tracks.
Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is, in the simplest of terms, a pure family-friendly arcade racing title that focuses on delivering the nostalgic feeling of playing with Hot Wheels sets straight out of the box. From the get-go, the game features an open world where you can polish your driving skills slowly to get deeper into the game's story.
Total Family-Friendly Fiesta
Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is an excellent family-friendly arcade game that is clearly catered towards children getting into the racing genre. The controls of the game are very straightforward with no complex mechanics, making it perfect for kids to grasp the basics of a racing title in little to no time.
The world design is colorful and refreshing, making it the ideal format for kids to enjoy the magic of racing peacefully. Most parents can easily enjoy the title with their kids without any guilt. The heavy emphasis on children doesn't make the game too childish for adults. Rather, for an adult, the game might feel like a walk down the memory lane and a reminder to play pretend with toy cars around their home.
Open World Switch
Unlike previous Hot Wheels titles, Infinite Rush moves to a streamlined open-world approach. To my surprise, I have slowly become a fan of the open-world switch. Once you consider how Hot Wheels focuses on flashy cars and high speeds, an open world that mimics more successful titles like Forza Horizon, the whole thing starts to make even more sense.
Previously, Hot Wheels Unleashed titles have been based on track-based racing, which became boring after a while. However, in Hot Wheel Infinite Rush, the open-world approach helps players practice or do mindless driving to pass some time and polish their racing skills.
Lofty Visual and Art Style
After booting up Hot Wheels Infinite Rush for the first time, the initial thing that caught my eye was the more soothing visual and art style. Instead of focusing on a 3D art style like most Hot Wheels games, Milestone has adopted a new visual identity. The cars in the game resemble the IRL toy cars, embodying the feeling of ripping imaginary stunts and racing feats with a Hot Wheels car straight off the box.
Amazing Co-Op Potential
As most arcade racing titles move away from local co-op gameplay, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush dives straight into it with their amazing support for local co-op multiplayer. As a more family-friendly title, from my perspective, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is an amazing title to play with your kids, family, and friends with their local co-op multiplayer mode that supports up to 4 players at once.
Lack of Gameplay Variety
Even though most aspects of the game are quite straightforward to grasp and player-friendly, the game will suffer with long-term player retention due to the lack of gameplay variety. Aside from the open-world gameplay, Infinite Rush relies on classic modes like elimination races, standard races, time trials, and destruction derbies.
Once you finish playing all races initially, the game has no replay potential except for the fact that it becomes a local co-op multiplayer option for when you have company. The gameplay loop might attract the regular players of Hot Wheels titles, but for general gamers, it will get old very quickly.
Final Thoughts
Hot Wheels Infinite Rush in its whole glory is a family-friendly racing title that will keep kids engaged with parents chipping in for some local co-op multiplayer action. Aside from that generalized player demography, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush manages to fill the craving of racing with the toy cars we grew up with; however, it falls short with the lack of gameplay variety.
Unfortunately, if you are looking for something to fill in the itch for racing, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush might scratch it for a while, but in its entirety it is a family-friendly title catered more towards kids and families getting to experience a visually soothing racing title over the weekend or in their free time.
The Good
Excellent for families and kids- Colorful and welcoming world design
- Open-world shift pays off
- Distinct visual identity
- Strong local co-op
The Bad
Thin gameplay variety- Weak long-term retention
- Narrow appeal potential
