Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver allows players to take control of everyone's favorite little cars and some creative tracks based on the famous toy line. The new game features 24 different vehicles and does present some good ideas, but dreadful controls and a poor presentation completely mar the experience. Players can choose from one of four teams and race team specific missions to climb the leaderboards and become the Best Driver around. Each class has their own specialty and missions based around it. While the game doesn't feature any real storyline or campaign, there are over 50 missions included in the game that unfortunately come off as more of a collection of mini-games than a progressive path of missions.
Players choose missions based on the four classes related to their unique color. The blue team is based around the best technology and features drifting missions or task the player with driving up walls to complete laps on the mission. The yellow team is based around power and acceleration and forces players to power through obstacles and similar tasks. Green team is super fast and must complete missions based on speed to get to the finish line as fast as possible while making sure not to miss speed boosts and other important items scattered around tracks. Red is the final team, and the game calls this team outrageous. The team's missions are based around pulling off insane stunts and carefully driving through challenging obstacle courses.
It's easy to tell there is a lot of variety in the missions featured in Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver, but the experience is completely dragged down by horrible controls that make driving far too difficult and some of the missions that require precision steering to complete very frustrating. All vehicles in the game control very loose, and moving the joystick to the left or right when making turns around a track will typically result in a wipeout. Some players would argue that this is to force players to focus on drifting and arcade racing styles instead of realistic racing controls, but when making slight adjustments from one side of the track to the other often leads to crashes, it's a lot easier to blame it on the controls rather than the player.
Each mission in the game is different from the next. One mission will have players performing tricks on the back of a motorbike, the next may take players to a drag racing strip where the car must be stopped with a parachute in a designated area and next may have the player racing downhill on the back of a snowmobile. Though there is plenty of variety in missions, not every mission is designed as good as players would hope when starting a new stage. Missions that require a player to carefully drive up walls or navigate through an obstacle course stick out as major annoyances and can be infuriating for experienced racing gamers and younger players. There are multiple challenges to complete in each mission and medals to earn, and it's not too difficult to complete many missions that simply require reaching the finish line in time, but getting there can still be a pain.
Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver's problems are confounded with a poor presentation that extends beyond terrible controls. We wouldn't expect a game based around toy cars to have the best graphics, so it's no surprise to see below average models for each of the vehicles in the game. Animations for the vehicles are worse and could help explain why vehicles are so tough to control in the game. The environments are varied and colorful, but most are just not large enough and don't feature enough details beyond the items that make up the track. Sound design is also poorly designed but not so much for the dialogue said as its placement that is very erratic and often doesn't correctly follow the action during missions.
It's difficult to see how older gamers could look past Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver's obvious design flaws or younger gamers could enjoy a game that is so frustrating to player across a great majority of the missions in the game, but there is a decent amount of content included in the title for a low budget title. With over 50 missions and challenges and goals for each one, there are hours of gameplay available for this release. Teams also get unlockable skills that can be earned later in the game, and there is a paint shop that allows players to customize cars with different designs and colors. The game also features multiplayer missions for up to four players to duke it out to see who can make the best out of a crappy situation.
Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver oddly seems appropriately named, since it would take the gaming World's Best Driver to control the vehicles in this new release to fully enjoy what it has to offer. There is a decent amount of content included in the game that is available across multiple platforms for a low release price, but poor controls and presentation make Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver a game that is still nearly impossible to recommend. Gamers looking for a good racing game would be better off picking up an old Burnout or Need for Speed title, and parents looking to pick up a new game for their kids for cheap would be wiser to spend their money on a title such as the new Rayman Legends instead. While Hot Wheels toys may be as popular as ever, most gamers would likely agree that Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver is the World's Worst Driving Game.
Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver is now available from all major retailers for the MSRP of $39.99 and can be purchased for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver is rated E by the ESRB for Mild Fantasy Violence. For more information on the game, check out the official Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver website.
Game Features:
Game Information:
Developer: Firebrand Games
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: PlayStation 3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U & Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: September 17, 2013
