Hot Wheels Let's Race: Ultimate Speed by developer Bamtang Games and publisher GameMill Entertainment—Xbox Series X|S review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes.
Hot Wheels Let's Race: Ultimate Speed is a game based on a Netflix cartoon series. I never knew about it until I reviewed this game, so I am unsure whether the game is anything like the show, but I can tell you what I do know, having played it.
The game starts with a basic tutorial, right trigger to accelerate, left trigger to drift, B to break, and all that. I wasn't a fan of having the B button to break, but it's not a huge deal. I hardly had to use it. After I finished the tutorial, I jumped right into the game's primary mode, "race camp," and because I felt the game looked geared toward children, I chose hard difficulty. There was an expert difficulty setting that could be unlocked by beating Race Camp on Hard with one of the six playable characters. You have to do this for each character. Race camp mode has 12 races and about three boss fights, so it's short to beat. You can do it in about an hour.
There isn't really a story beyond you playing as one of the children who go to race camp to try to win the ultimate garage. As I mentioned before, there are boss fights before a few of the races where Professor Rearview will make one of his monsters go after you and the other racers. The bosses can be a shark, a snake, a dragon, and others. A cool thing is that these are all based on real Hot Wheels sets. These boss fights are you and the other racers just running over a spot to pick up weapons, and then shooting them at the boss when it tells you to. There is no penalty if you are hit by it, though, so it's just another easy part of the game. Once the boss is out of health, you have to get car power and use it at a specific area it tells you to, and that's it. The racer who did the most damage will win a flame badge. Some of the twelve tracks are based on real Hot Wheels sets, like the carwash track.
Other than the race camp mode, you can also play speed trials. These are time-trial races that, like the rest of the game, are way too easy. I am one of the types of people who hate time trials in racing games, but these were easy even for me. Other modes include cup mode, where you and up to three others can race in a tournament-style race, like the cups in Mario Kart. Then there is free race, where it's just one race, but again, up to three others can play with you. Lastly, there is Track Builder. The track builder lets you do exactly what it sounds like— make tracks — but the problem is you have to complete nine challenges before you can build your own tracks from scratch. I wish free build were unlocked from the start, but doing these nine challenges doesn't take very long. You have to build a track with the pieces it gives you, then race on it. You do have to keep the track under a certain amount of time, though, so if it says it has to be 90s, it means you have to have a race that won't go over that time. Once you unlock free mode, you will run into the same problem. A race can be no longer than 180 seconds. The limitation is dumb if you ask me. At least building tracks, you pick the piece you want to place and place it on the map, and the game will automatically make the rest of the track to connect.
You will be able to unlock new items by playing and winning flame badges. You can unlock track pieces to use in track builder, new cars, and decals that give you a perk for a race, like longer boosts. You can only have one equipped per race. You will also pick a track piece before every race that will be used on the track you're about to race on. Lastly, you can choose a mod for each race. If you want more speed boosts on the track, you can use a mod for that.
When you race, there are different kinds of spots you can hit for power-ups. There is the speed boost, the car action power, and the oil. The oil is the only real power up in the game, but you use it as soon as you run it over. Every car in the game has its own car action; although each vehicle has a different one, they all do the same thing: give a speed boost. You build up car power while racing by running over the spots on the track, doing tricks on jumps — although the tricks are straightforward to do, press left trigger, and that's it —and then you can get it by drifting. If you drift long enough, you will also get a speed boost. Hitting walls while drifting will stop the drift. Each car has its own stats for speed and such, and, in all honesty, I didn't see a difference between them, but at least they are based on real Hot Wheels.
I didn't run into any problems while playing the game, no crashes, bugs, or glitches. The game looks like Paw Patrol graphically, but the TV show is that way too. To me, there isn't enough to the game to keep me playing, even though it's aimed at younger children, like five-year-olds. Even they would get bored with it quickly. There could have been more to the game, like power-ups you use in Mario Kart, more than 12 tracks, no limit on the track builder, and maybe a tad bit harder, as it is way too easy even on expert mode. Sadly, not even the music was very good in the game. It is another game that was rushed for a holiday release, so a parent might see it and think it might be something their child might like. It's best to stick with the two Hot Wheels Unleashed games instead.
Score: 3 / 10
