Milestone, the Italian studio, is back again without another turbocharged Hot Wheels game – Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged, and just like before, this racing game will take you back to your childhood, racing Hot Wheels cars down tracks that you could build at home, only this time, the tracks are built and you can sit on your console and play.

On the surface, this title doesn’t seem that much different from the first, but there are a bunch of things under the hood that make it that little bit better. From launch, the game will have 130 cars loaded and ready to go, and there are some absolute bangers in the mix. They have also introduced two new categories of vehicles, motorcycles, and all-terrain vehicles, making for a little more fun, but unlike other games, you don’t feel like you are riding a bike, and you aren’t specifically targeted by the pesky online racers.

The vehicles are broken down into six different categories; Rocket, Balanced, Swift, Drift, Off-road, and Heavy-duty. Depending on the race, they all seem to have their advantages and disadvantages. I loved the drift cars, they filled the hole in my JDM heart, and while they might have been a little slower on the track, sliding around the corners of the Hot Wheels tracks was well worth it.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is a little different from the first game with unlocking cars. You need to buy them from the storefront with the coins you unlock from the races. The design team behind the storefront did an awesome job – it made me feel like I was standing in front of the Hot Wheels section TOYS ‘R’ US, and the available cars will change out every couple of hours, so if you miss a particular car, there’s no doubt you can pick it up again later. The first car I bought was Snoopy sitting on the Red Dog House, but it’s not the best car to race with. It’s super tall, so you can get caught up on low-hanging obstacles.

If you are not quite happy with the tuning of your car, you can upgrade them as you unlock skills points. The skills points can be spent at the Upgrade Station, and they are broken down into three categories – Speed, Handling, and Obstacles, and as you might expect, these options will upgrade your top speed on a boost, how quickly you can dash around obstacles, and how the car handles on the track. The fact you can upgrade your cars adds to that customisable aspect we all love in racing games.

The developers have put a huge emphasis on online gameplay, and I can really get behind it, even though I’ve yet to find a racing game where online is not pure chaos from the time the light goes green. From launch, the fan-favourite Quick Race will have you jumping straight to the track and pumping out as many laps as you desire.

Time Attack really brought out the competitive side of me because it sets a goal that you need to beat before it sets the Unleashed time. I wanted to hit this so I could be the best, and it took me plenty of laps to achieve. Clash Derby will quickly become the online fan favourite, with the whole point of the race being to hit opponents and score points, so people can be rewarded for their dirty racing habits.

Elimination is one racing fans should be well aware of, but just in case if you’re in the last position when the timer hits zero, you will be removed from the race, and this continues until the last remaining driver is crowned the winner. Grab the Gears is another mode where you need to smash into people and steal gears to win the race, and this was some good, chaotic fun. The one I spent the most time on was Drift Masters, and as the name suggests, you drift around corners to achieve the highest score to win. Last but not least is Waypoints, where you more or less drive around the environments and hit the waypoints to win.

My childhood was spent filling up half my bedroom with plastic Hot Wheels tracks and battery-powered boosters, and now it’s back in my adult life, albeit digitally, because Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged has a track creation tool built into the game. I think I was more creative as a kid when it came to designing the jumps and other hazards I used to make, but even so, the feature was so much fun.

Diving in head first, I set about making some cool tracks, and to my surprise, the user interface was super simple to use. It didn’t feel like it was hard to create my dream track, and regardless of how many tracks come with the release, you can always make more.

If you are the complete opposite of me in that you actually have a creative side, you’re going to love the livery editor. Even if you aren’t, the system is simple, letting you create something unique so you can stand out on the track, and I’m looking forward to seeing some sticker-bombed Hot Wheels cars in the near future when I jump into an online race.

There are only five tracks that come with the game at launch, set in five different environments. You’ll be racing through an Arcade, a backyard, a gas station, a mini golf course, and a dinosaur museum, and as we mentioned earlier, you have the Hot Wheels Lab where you can create your own customized tracks. It’s a weird feeling that even though there are five pre-built tracks, I never seem to learn them fast enough, and each car handles differently, so if you do something like put the car on the grass because you threw the drift too hard, then your car will bog down in the grass and slow you down.

In true Hot Wheels fashion, the tracks are not as simple as pulling the trigger on the accelerator and steering – there are obstacles, jumps, boosts, and as I learned with the Snoopy Car, there are things over the track that can catch the top of your vehicle.

If you like a more story-driven racing experience, the developers have not forgotten about you. They have added a story-driven campaign played from an overworld map. The events are all kind of linked into a main story where massive monsters are invading the city, and our two heroes must shrink the monsters down during Boss Battles. These are some extreme races, and you do this while behind the wheel of your favourite Hot Wheels car.

The story is explained through still-shot cutscenes, but the dialogue is a little hit-and-miss, such as jokes thrown around that are more confusing than funny. The boss fights were some good fun, with the monster starting the race at its normal size, slowly shrinking down as the race progresses, and creating an obstacle in itself.

The car sounds were a little disappointing and I was not sure what I was meant to be expecting with the title. They sounded super cool before the lights went green, but then the awesomeness just left. You still had the sound of the tires screeching and the fireworks going off just not so much the car. The music was awesome, and of course, stream-friendly for all you streamers out there, with a kind of punk rock feel, and it really helped to get you pumped up.

If you played the first Hot Wheels Unleashed game, the controls should not be a challenge for you in the slightest. They’re probably one of the easiest games to control. Everything seemed to work really well. It felt great on the controller, and the vibrations helped you feel how the cars were handling. I’m not even sure if you would even bother hooking up a wheel for an arcade racer like this.

I was going into this title not sure what the graphics were going to be like and the fact the developers can make Hot Wheels look so realistic was freaking awesome. The graphics on the Xbox Series X looked absolutely stunning with the different lighting and shading. I was in a wow the whole time and the UI on the main menu looked awesome.

You need to unleash your inner child, or if you have kids, a few games of Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged will bring you closer together. It’s the perfect game to bring back childhood memories, and it was so much fun. You can let your hair down a little and relax.

Written by: Hayden Nelson