Hot Wheels World's Best Driver

If you were born anytime after 1965, there is a very strong chance that your first car was not the one your parents handed you the keys to on your sixteenth birthday, but the one you unwrapped from beneath the Christmas tree. Hot Wheels took the hearts of many young kids, allowing them to build racetracks and envision massive races taking place within their living rooms. To this day, Hot Wheels is a top selling toy brand filling up many toddlers’ toy chests and clenched fists. This love for the tiny cars carried on into the digital world, hoping to grow with some of the kids as they opted for “cool” tech and video games. This led to the creation of Hot Wheels: World’s Best Driver, and the many aspiring racers that played it.

Visual Art

For toy cars, the game has a very toyish feel coupled with it. Instead of detailed race cars mimicking Formula 1 racers or drag cars one might catch on the highway, Hot Wheels stayed true to their brand and designed the game to feel like the toy cars simply became drivable. The extra steps were even taken for tracks to be designed in Hot Wheels fashion, with a twisty, turny, loopy, orange track for racers to speed around on. This idea separated Hot Wheels: The World’s Best Driver from all other racing games at the time, as it had an established connection with its already popular brand and did not have to copy from every other racing game at the time.

Gameplay

Although the idea of freely cruising the streets in your favorite Hot Wheels car or actually race against others in their favorites, Hot Wheels: World’s Best Driver had a little bit of a different idea. The game offers no true racing modes, with the gameplay following more along the lines of a continuous challenge game. Upon launching the game, the player gets to choose from four teams to join: Outrageous, Superfast, Powerful, and High-tech. Each team has special powers and special challenges for the players. The powers and challenges are quite simple though, turning into “do a trick,” “be fast,” “destroy things,” and “drive good.” On top of simple and repetitive challenges, there are only four places for players to drive, all inside Hot Wheels’ “test facilities.” There is only one other mode to the game, Hot Seat Mode, a pass-and-play multiplayer version of the regular gameplay.

Personal Rating

I had high hopes for Hot Wheels: World’s Best Driver, but unfortunately, it simply falls short of them. Childhood memories are a delicate topic, and this game does not do them justice.

Pros:

• Brings childhood toys to life
• Pass-and-play mode can be fun
• Stays true to Hot Wheels fashion

Cons:

• Extremely repetitive
• Limited arenas/tracks
• No true racing in game