Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged Review

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged reviewed by Luke Reilly on Xbox Series X|S. Also available on Xbox One, PlayStation, Switch, and PC.
"An impeccably detailed and blisteringly fast racer with incredible graphics and rock-solid arcade underpinnings, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 picks up where the surprisingly excellent 2021 original left off. That is, it’s not just the best thing on the breakfast bench since Micro Machines - it’s one of the strongest and most imaginative arcade racers available today. It’s definitely guilty of forgetting to suitably cater to its wide audience at times, it’s stingy on older cars, and it would’ve been a much bigger and better package if it didn’t completely shed its previous track locations, but the last time Mattel had wheels this worthy of a whirl they were welded beneath Ryan Gosling’s rollerblades."

[@alandanielsaucedo5066]

If only they’d include a redeem code or something with some of the actual toys to let you have them in game, they’d sell crazy well.

[@dante316a]

yeah thats a win - win for them and everyone

[@starpetalarts6668]

Game consoles all have an NFC reader so they could seriously go to town with a toys-to-life game.

[@GabeTheGrump]

Hotwheels ID cars already did this, most people don't like games like skylanders/lego dimensions that have content locked behind owning the irl toys. If someone bought this 5+ years from now they would be missing out on a lot of the cars because they don't own the codes that don't exist anymore in stores.

[@starpetalarts6668]

@@GabeTheGrump Yeah, this is true, but the way around this is to not lock the content behind the paywall. Have the in game unlocks be there normally but for Hot Wheels fans who have the cars they can scan the NFC to timesave the unlocks. This way everyone who wants the toys but not the game gets something, everyone who wants the game but not the toys gets something, and everyone who wants both gets both. If the rumor that Microsoft is bringing back Skylanders is true, this would be the way to do it. Not a single positive thing has been said about the FOMO initiative that companies do with their games... the only reason they keep doing it is because the money is there.

[@EduFirenze]

First one was great but the rubberbanding was insane

[@Mistersupafly]

agreed kinda frustrating

[@f.o.8547]

What difficulty are you playing on?

[@BirdmanVeganFuture]

that is annoying. any wheel support and how many tracks he left out?

[@sambeezy007]

​@@f.o.8547I play on easy to just purely enjoy the game with any car

[@McCheeseincakes]

The first one was an incredible surprise for me. Gave me that F-Zero feel that I've been missing.

[@cybercityoedo808]

Same here, great sense of speed and awesome inversions the custom tracks are great as well, someone made Mute City GX.

[@tpvgg]

man you guys are old now

[@stevetalon]

Been playing since day 1 and LOVING IT. All we need is a Speed Racer collab and life will be complete

[@siredaruler6016]

Speed Racer would be nice

[@matthew_natividad]

@@siredaruler6016or a legit speed racer game

[@DanielRaez93]

Remember Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver? It came back and now bigger than ever

[@blackhelmet5315]

Since they jump now, THEY NEED TO COLLABORATE WITH SPEED RACER

[@starpetalarts6668]

They do have track sets and diecasts from the show.

[@edolix59]

My main critique of the original was how basic and barebones the online multiplayer was. Seeing that the online part was omitted completely from this review I'm not keeping my hopes up that it's been improved at all.

[@tr777th3]

it's always a pleasure hearing Luke review a game, he's quite the family man

[@undead_corsair]

As someone who grew up with Hot Wheels Turbo Racing, I'm still really hoping at some point the franchise moves more towards the stylised 'full size' world of that game, rather than the mini racer thing. There's just something so cool about these kind of wacky tracks and hot wheels cars realised as though they actually existed as drivable in a wacky sci fi Western setting.

[@JainaSoloB312]

Excellent review!! Clever, informative, and honest Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@5stargaming193]

IGN alt

[@eilo4213]

Me and the boys bought this for switch... regrets...

[@TheGirlSkateBoardCo]

Crazy this and Spider-Man 2 got the same review lol 😂

[@seymourpant]

I’m not surprised, the first hot wheels was the most fun I’d had with a game in a long time

[@X02Overdose]

This can be a massive improvement on the first game if the rubber banding is tuned down

[@romus3550]

Massive improvement? It looks like an update 1.5 at best

[@i3lia7mad]

IGN posted 3 reviews in the last 12 hours: Spider-Man 2 Endless Dungeon Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 They gave them all an 8.

[@SoulInajar]

Your point ?

[@i3lia7mad]

they are moving away from the legendary 7.@@SoulInajar

[@elitecol69]

Turbos dont cool the air, they heat it during the compression, an intercooler is used to cool the compressed heated air into the engine.

[@HakuYuki001]

Air nerd

[@ElusiveShadow77]

Both this and the first one are genuinely some of the most fun racing games I've ever played!

[@birdman4birdlegs]

Lukes alliteration game was on point for this one!

[@AshleyVsTheWorld]

With the track builder can we actually race them with ai? That was my only major critism with the original game. Especially since playing online you'd only get that one person in the lobby sitting idle just to farm the credits

[@Wicked_Fox]

Track builder with AI would be impossible all because of the invisible tracks

[@mymiscellanea5818]

No, you can't. It's one of the biggest requests they're getting, and it would be awesome. To be fair, it would be really hard to implement. On their own tracks they can make all sorts of modifications and special-cases for the AI to make sure it behaves reasonably. To handle everything a human might come up with in the track creator is a big ask.

[@bp19870]

Not quite Micro-Machines though, is it? That was a great game!

[@Alias-49013]

Feels more like a V1.5 than a V2

[@Aftarmath]

You do unlock cars from Unleashed goal in your unleashed profile for completion of campaign

[@SizeNZ]

It's an 8 - Great

[@Yooshii64]

Nice b8 m8 it's great

[@Raedz_media]

Gr8

[@SWOTHDRA]

Damn same as spiderman 😂😂😂

[@lewbran]

​@@SWOTHDRA and endless dungeon 😂

[@unchartedrocks1]

Hopefully online stays supported for much longer than the original.

[@HeshyBoii]

Online is still supported for the original

[@unchartedrocks1]

Can't wait to use photo mode on this game.

[@berettagt88]

So glad K.I.T.T. is back!

[@AllThingsInfamous1]

Imao he snuck a redfall diss in a hot wheels video.

[@naed_coral]

A game that didn't need a sequel so soon! XD it just feels like Part 2 rather than number 2 in the series

[@monumentvalley6681]

What do you mean "so soon"? You're obviously very out of touch with gaming, because video games have been getting sequels 2 years apart for DECADES.

[@Ultra-Lightning]

@@monumentvalley6681it just feels so soon because of the lack of improvements or changes that actually came with the new game. It just feels like overwatch 2 did when it dropped

[@XoticXTC]

JUST REMASTER HOT WHEELS WORLD RACE!!!!!! PLEASE IM BEGGING

[@Marticus_97]

Tristian is the best review for racing games!

[@TajmirTheRandomFan]

6:56 If HWU2 really Needs 6 Billion cars, milestone has to consult Mattel, the problem is that, under the terms with Mattel and milestone the objective for the Unleashed game was promote the HW car toys and the Modren models, any older hw car that were in classic HW games stopped production, and some older HW cars that were from the early 2000s some of which are still up in production.

[@kizanko]

That one Redditor is probably hyped for this

[@MeenaChainwal-wi7kd]

ayooooo brooooo😂😂😂. man of culture

[@Rohit.Gaikwad]

r/HotWheelsUnleashed

[@DarkHaseo21]

Its me, Im that redditor.

[@Paulie705]

I'm that one Redditor. Outside of the DLCs in the first game being licensed content that didnt appeal to me (or probably anyone) at all, it was incredible

[@Benjamin_Gilbert-Lif]

Yes

[@rmfberry261]

im just curious if the ai is still default 2ce as fast as you?

[@cloudvoid0]

Thoroughly enjoyed the review. Will definitely check out this sequel sometime.

[@SeanR.L]

This game would have ALOT more personality if there were voices from your drivers and also the other drivers. How cool would it be to have batman shout something as he whizzes pass you!

[@Cococrash11]

Awesome Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged Review Video.

[@shuushi1189]

soooo did they improve the online multiplayers yet?

[@OfficialExplorermalaysia]

Is there an online mode in this ?

[@justz9435]

This is probably the closest thing we're gonna get to F-Zero

[@SeerMagicX]

Did they fix the awful rubberbanding that ruined the original?

[@RaiuAdami]

Yes, it only gets painful on Extreme difficulty like it should

[@SeerMagicX]

Wait, they really fixed it!?@@RaiuAdami

[@spencerboyce6227]

@@SeerMagicXyeah, I’m finding less issues with it

[@MrNile00000]

What an odd review, you are all over the place and your flow is strange. Very hard to follow what you are saying.

[@cosmogroot9857]

Aussie in a nutshell

[@rcinematic]

Wish there was a stunt park mode where you don’t have to race

[@TherealGM4NN]

Is 1 better or 2

[@MickOnYourFace]

IGNs best reviewer!

[@sveeny]

Did the difficulty balancing actually get some quality control this time? Because in the predecessor this was incredibly unpolished and ruined an otherwise really polished game for me…

[@okdokie278]

Didn't the first game come out not too long ago? They made a sequel this early?

[@DraftLogic]

Define not too long ago. It came September 2021. 2 years turnaround for a sequel is not uncommon.

[@moodluxx]

now imagine if they made a remastered version of Speed Racer😮‍💨

[@Burnzs]

bumper push from Hot Wheels velocity X

[@marcamusprime9513]

No power-ups?

[@RacerC45]

Still no Muscle Tone, or Avant Garde?

[@Sub-Zero.]

Muscle Tone is confirmed to come later

[@andresmirabal6864]

Wish this game had a stunt system!

[@Nikinjapan]

Unleash the dlc! Loved the first game but worried this will just get dumped with zero attention after all the mtx are introduced in the same way

[@spencerboyce6227]

What is mtx

[@Nikinjapan]

@@spencerboyce6227 microtransactions

[@starpetalarts6668]

@@spencerboyce6227 Micro transactions. They're prevalent in this game because you don't get no where near enough currency to buy the cars you love at a quick pace. So the game gives you the ability to purchase currency that you would normally get through winning to speed up collecting cars using your real money.

[@vaporizel]

im tired hoping beenox release CTRNF 60 fps for ps5, so gonna get this instead.

[@nathanhighvoltage5259]

Bro described a supercharger. Not a turbo. Lol

[@housstheroccan3040]

again nothing will ever match RE-VOLT

[@onkaragarwal18]

I’ve not played this but how tf did this get the same score as Spider-Man 2

[@Gr33NGiAnT365]

Did you think he was just sitting there comparing it to spider man? Wtf

[@DBTHEPLUG]

Brain lag

[@spencerboyce6227]

Definitely shouldn’t have gotten an 8, this game is more in the range of 6-7 especially since they didn’t change all that much from the first unleashed

[@CaptainBackslap22]

How’s the online mode?

[@FreakingOut2468]

First one was decent but they didn’t care about the fans. This will be no different.

[@RaiuAdami]

Milestone has listened to the community with the improvements and the DLCs. Even more Acceleracers are coming

[@spencerboyce6227]

@@RaiuAdamiI agree, it’s insane how much they’ve improved since the first game especially since the first game received hardly any criticism even though the game had lots of problems

[@dmj1419]

This game is almost completely dead. They refuse to fix the looooong multiplayer wait times. Takes 5-10 minutes just to find a lobby.

[@Birdhowse]

bet he thought himself so clever after writing that intro 🙄 ffs

[@spencerboyce6227]

Bro just had that knowledge on hand and was all like 🤓☝️

[@DvDPlaya]

It was lame that we couldn't use any vehicle. Just make them all the same speed FFS. Ya know?!

[@samirshah5411]

debating on buying it for series X versus PS5 any graphical benefit on one platform over the other?

[@juniorromero6119]

They both handle it the same. I’m leaning more towards my ps if it uses haptic feedback but have yet to see anyone mention anything about it.

[@spencerboyce6227]

@@juniorromero6119if you’re wondering about the triggers, the triggers do change how hard you need to press them in this game

[@Reaperman4711]

What a weirdly wordy intro.

[@ayo0o0o0o0]

Like Amiibos for Switch

[@gosthunter39]

Dope

[@Gingerlion777]

The first one was pretty boring if you ask me😅😅 fun for the first hour.. but after that.. also once you have a great car, why would you even bother with the slower cars you unlock?

[@Viniciusg950]

Fr

[@TrueAnarkii]

Got noting on Hot wheels Turbo Racing. Cant flip not a hot wheels game.

[@scoogsy]

They gave it an 8

[@rorieb20]

I'm guessing you have to re unlock the card you had in hotwheels unleashed 1

[@shaun10767]

Gotta get u to play somehow

[@mymiscellanea5818]

yes

[@spencerboyce6227]

@@shaun10767they didn’t make you reunlock cars you already had in the crew motorfest, so it wouldn’t have been out of the picture to import cars from the previous unleashed

[@Homedoceu7]

The first game got 9...

[@808jonnysmith]

No in-car or hood camera modes?

[@HikariSakai]

...they're literally toys...

[@808jonnysmith]

@@HikariSakai Yet the replay mode has those camera angles

[@spencerboyce6227]

@@808jonnysmithit does?

[@808jonnysmith]

@@spencerboyce6227 The first one did. Not sure if they removed the replay camera angles from the second one but that would be even more odd.

[@spencerboyce6227]

@@808jonnysmith ok

[@dwainreid9093]

Having absolute 0 fun with waypoaint races. Shouldn't have been added

[@alexd.6551]

Fun but flawed. Half of the time spent is in flickering loading screens. Physics in this game is a reminder of the first one where as well as here ...is unrelated to the one in our universe ...maybe in some Marvel universe things behave like this...infinitely sliding backwards while accelerating forward and so on. Difficulty in this game is not gradual but very easy or robot mode, where a millisecond decision makes you loose the game(timed laps in end game)

[@RacerC45]

Still no MS-T Suzuka?

[@TheNPC1123]

It's in the game

[@RaiuAdami]

MST is in the game and a lot more fan favorites like Super Tsunami are

[@Raedz_media]

Its GR8

[@Benjamin_Gilbert-Lif]

ACCELERACERS

[@nileshzagade2092]

Had no clue this even came out

[@spencerboyce6227]

Yeah, literally no one is talking about it, on the day it laucnched it was like the sixth game from the top of the “new games” section of the PlayStation store. It’s like this game just started existing

[@SKYTREADEDIT]

Nice

[@mazenelsoukkary5706]

this got the same review score as spiderman 2 LMAOOOO

[@Memelord2020]

8/10

[@The_Bean_Head_Men]

Online multiplyer is poor

[@RiasatSalminSami]

It seems to look worse than the first game in some places.

[@_captain_yt]

Cannot seem to find any physics in driving 👎

[@rbstyle1201]

The motorcycle have poor detail and looks out of place

[@TimV777]

Looks like n64 graphics

[@arataasuka6293]

score 8

[@Darthadios]

This game looks way more interesting than that new botched Forza motorsport.

[@ZayFlxx]

Relax

[@gnoclaude7945]

Botched lol. Game is fantastic. You should try it sometime.

[@AGOYMAMPRANG]

Awsomeeeee

[@KratosRager]

Throwing shade at Redfall 😂

[@salasalsa-mb5gw]

meh .... 😦😧 .

[@Thrak360]

Is it 7?

[@Rohit.Gaikwad]

8

[@Thrak360]

@@Rohit.Gaikwad thank you. 8 is great.

[@kevinkev1530]

👍🏾

[@user-ot5rose1979]

01:52

[@spencerboyce6227]

What’s so special about this time stamp?

[@Syahburei]

I’d rather have a crash team racing port than this one

[@raptros]

Ah shuddup...

[@mutantlavalampderg412]

nope its doing the whole "dlc not included in any season pass" crap again, im getting a refund

[@jokerpsy3253]

how fake you want your review to be? IGN - yes

[@Wylie288]

Still has the shitty microtransactions? Ill pass. Again.

[@thescreamking944]

Lies this game is lamw

[@samvassa4133]

Sony must cancel the PS5 after the Activision Blizzard deal is approved because they can't make games on PlayStation without call of duty or any Activision Blizzard games

[@UniversalStand]

Sarcasm?

[@specialwire123]

does the guy only play racing games? how boring that must be

[@superawesomeboy]

This guy cares about what kind of games the reviewer plays? How boring must that be

[@raptros]

Do you only play fortnite? How boring that must be...

[@robinnewhouse1563]

Do you enjoy the games you're playing, even if that may be mainly one genre, but at the end of the day you're still having fun? How boring that just be

[@megamanx1291]

That's the best approach, a person who is experienced in that genre review that genre

[@spencerboyce6227]

This reply section is ruthless

[@Syahburei]

Still no power ups? Hard pass