Hot Wheels: World Race

Blast through Tezla’s intense tracks. Can you win the World Race?

NA release: 31st October 2003
EU release: 28th November 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: Climax Brighton
Publisher: THQ
NGC Magazine Score: 33%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

While the previous Hot Wheels game, Velocity X, had a significant focus on story, this one removes it completely, instead just having a bunch of tracks to race on. This is also strange in that this game is based on a film and TV show. It also moves from the “Futuristic City” concept and onto full on F-Zero style racers, making it immensely generic. What doesn’t help matters is that, unlike every other futuristic racer, this is very slow, and the cars have terrible handling.

One gimmick is the boost meter. You fill it up either by performing stunts on specific jumps or by collecting small rings on the map. These rings don’t respawn during maps, which makes the final lap the slowest and least exciting part of every race. Not that the racing is all that exciting at any point. Despite different stats, the cars don’t feel that different and the tracks have nothing that interesting to distinguish themselves – they may as well be the same layout with different backgrounds.

But the thing that really breaks World Race is the CPU. The rubber banding has been turned up to the max. Get the perfect boosts, take every corner perfectly and make one tiny mistake landing a stunt and everyone will instantly overtake you. Take things slowly and carefully, and you’ll be absolutely fine. The best way to win is to just ignore the boost until the end of the race.

Poor

There’s no cure for blandness in a game. The designers can dress it up in all the neon lights they can find, but if the concept is as painfully dull as this one then there’s no saving it.
Martin Kitts, NGC Magazine #90

Remake or remaster?

Nothing interesting here.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Hot Wheels: World Race