

Two solutions exist: either let me buy the car I need or alter the way secret events work.

Frankly, I don't understand how it was put in the game at all. This system can and will slow progress of everyone who plays the game at least once and probably several times. But oftentimes, these cost even more - as much as 1,200 coins in my experience so far, which would take many races to earn. You can either spend 500 coins (earned from several races) to buy a randomized car or check the in-game store for a few specific cars rotating in and out every few hours. At one point early in the campaign, I was met with four or five dead ends because I lacked any of the cars needed to perform their secret events. Unfathomably, this means you're reliant on a system of mostly randomized car unlocks to hopefully pull the cars you need. As it turns out, these secrets require you to complete specific races with specific cars to open the next chain of events. This system is so vague that during my review, I had to ask around about what it even wanted me to do. Where the system breaks down is when the game stops your progress on its campaign roadmap with "secrets" that vaguely reference things you'll need to do to unlock further races. Hot Wheels Unleashed offers a rather expansive campaign mode of 80+ races, and each one offers two rewards, a basic completion reward of in-game coins, gears for upgrading, blind boxes containing new cars, or specific new cars, and then a bonus reward for achieving the extra objective. So the issue isn't a dearth of cars to choose from, it's how you go about adding them to your collection. With dozens of cars at launch, there's a lovely mix of licensed cars from real manufacturers like Ford and Chevrolet, plenty of originals and fantasy cars like Roller Toaster and Rip Rod, and its first major vehicle expansion, while not free, will bring in pop culture cars from properties like Snoopy, Batman, and Ninja Turtles. Its car selection, meanwhile, is actually much more expansive. But music is merely peripheral to so much else this game is about, so that's forgivable ultimately. The music is still bad, and within an hour I turned off its mix of what sounds like royalty-free rock.
HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED PS4 REVIEW FULL
In the full game, both of those issues still exist - sort of.

When I played a limited preview of Hot Wheels Unleashedearlier this year, my biggest concerns were its poor music selection and an apparent lack of cars beyond Hot Wheels originals. Hot Wheels Unleashed Review: Extinguished Flames However, Hot Wheels Unleashed commits one grievous error that extinguishes the flame of excitement and instead can leave many players spinning rubber in an oil slick of frustration. Its driving model is as precise and tough as you want to make it, and its lot of cars on day one is enough to make any longtime fan fist-pump like the boys in its advertising.

Hot Wheels Unleashed is the first Hot Wheels game I can recall that, in many ways, feels built to satisfy fans of any age.
