Hot Wheels games have generally followed a well-defined formula in recent times - that is, brightly coloured diecast models racing around appropriately large-scaled locations, playing up their diminutive 1:64 proportions with enormous real world locations and objects.
But Italian developer Milestone has decided that what the racing genre truly needed was to extract Hot Wheels from the kitchen table and drop it onto a 1:64 scale open-world island chain. I mean, sure, why not?
If you loved the earlier Hot Wheels Unleashed games specifically because they let you race a 1:64 scale diecast car over dining tables and through backyard gardens, I have slightly bad news: Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is having none of that, happily sacrificing that cosy living-room magic at the altar of open-world expanse.
Instead, Milestone essentially shrinks you down to the car’s world, giving us four compact diorama islands designed to look like giant plastic playsets, complete with Wheelswood’s knockoff Hollywood sign and a King Kong homage scaling a skyscraper. You bounce between these environments - that also includes the coastal resort of Tentacle Bay, the desert canyons of Gearville, and the mountainous Japanese-themed Drifty Temples - by flinging your vehicle off massive launch ramps while cheesy elevator music plays during portal cutscenes.
Think of it as “Baby’s First Burnout Paradise” and you’ll get the idea. Provided, that is, your idea of paradise involves launching past dinosaur skeletons and dodging giant alligator jaws floating above the track.
The move to an open world means that the classic time waster of simply dropping in and driving around the vibrant islands is a pleasantly diverting activity, while there is plenty to explore, even though the islands themselves aren't that big in comparison to other open world racers like Forza Horizon or The Crew Motorfest.
As you explore you come across standard races and purple-crown progress events, but you can also spend your time chasing Daredevils in pink-slip races, completing test-drive deliveries, and doing Smashing Wheels hot laps where running over plastic trees and tire stacks builds your score.
Progression feels nicely organic and well-paced, avoiding the Forza Horizon curse of filling the map up with a constant barrage of icons as new seasons and events launch, rather they simply appear as you discover them while roaming around, which gives the game a more relaxed, unforced feel, rather than an ever increasing checklist of things you need to do.
On Easy or Medium settings... it’s basically built for six-year-olds who just want to smash plastic debris - and, let’s face it, we all want that sometimes anyway.
Vehicles are divided into four handling classes - Speeders (that are obviously all about straight line speed), Drifters (sideways fun), Versatiles (a bit of both), and the heavy Titans, which boost powerfully but drift with all the grace of a brick on a roller skate and cause fabulous destruction everywhere.
You can swap classes on the fly with the D-pad when roaming the open world, which is nice because the five-slot upgrade system only offers fairly subtle perks rather than turning your car into a fully-customised monster, meaning you won’t likely be able be able to spec up an all-rounder to rely on for every occasion.
On Easy or Medium settings, the game is a frictionless cruiser where traffic bounce away like paper, flipped vehicles automatically right themselves, and missing corners carries zero penalty. It’s basically built for six-year-olds who just want to smash plastic debris - and, let’s face it, we all want that sometimes anyway.
But cranking the difficulty up to Very Hard transforms those forgiving physics into an exhilarating, barely controllable fight for survival suitable for adults, experienced racers, and lunatics everywhere.
Unfortunately, the open-world transition does bring a degree of administrative friction, starting with a relentless barrage of short flyover loading screens every time you exit a brief event, alongside frequent texture pop-in.
Ultimately though, at its very core Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is just plain fun. Pure, simple and genuine fun that is easy to drop into any time.
The lack of any 1:64 scale pedestrians also leaves the open world feeling strangely uninhabited, as do the NPC cars that roll around in a slightly aimless, bewildered fashion. This is doubly disappointing, because Milestone had the opportunity to double down on the “scaling you down” vibe by populating the open world with a vibrant array of similarly small toy pedestrians to keep things interesting.
Also who wouldn’t want to add in a few plastic army men and, I dunno, fluffy elephants bouncing off your bonnet as you fly recklessly around?
The real highlight, predictably, is the garage, where Milestone’s obsession with 1:64 scale die-cast detail remains bordering on clinical, showcasing microscopic paint flecks, factory stamp flaws, and worn chassis numbers on over 150 vehicles.
The roster mixes absurd Hot Wheels staples like the Bone Shaker and a Japanese Lucky Waving Cat with genuine automotive royalty like the Koenigsegg, Group 5 Lancia Stratos, Audi RS5, and Honda City Turbo.
Ferrari even makes its official Hot Wheels debut here with the SF90 Stradale, though in classic modern gaming fashion, most of the remaining Prancing Horses are corralled behind the dreaded paid DLC passes.
Hot Wheels Infinite Rush delivers a chaotic, content-packed arcade toy box that caters to both casual kids and adult racing fans looking to channel their inner child.
Actual driving aside, the track builder and livery editor are nice additions, but both have an uncanny ability to test your patience with fiddly UI controls and a glaring lack of a basic decal mirror option (I mean, come on Milestone, that’s the most basic of necessities in a livery editor).
And to top it off, local four-player split-screen inexplicably forbids you from free-roaming the open islands together with friends or family. All of these can, of course, be fixed with updates, so fingers crossed for that.
Ultimately though, at its very core Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is just plain fun. Pure, simple and genuine fun that is easy to drop into any time you feel like a bit of mindless chaos or some genuinely challenging racing if you crank the difficulty up to 11.
If you can forgive the lost living-room charm, clunky menus and slightly lifeless open world, then Hot Wheels Infinite Rush delivers a chaotic, content-packed arcade toy box that caters to both casual kids and adult racing fans looking to channel their inner child.
