The races in all of these modes involve just two special abilities: drifting, and a turbo boost whose strength is balanced by the rest of the car’s attributes. In City Rumble, the races all have a mixture of grades, with celebrity cameos and collector’s items like the TMNT Party Van or the Back to the Future DeLorean. There’s also a campaign mode, called City Rumble, where players unlock new vehicles or win the Blind Boxes that randomly award a different ride. These cars are graded by rarity, and vehicles can be traded for virtual cash or parts, which can be used to upgrade them. Hot Wheels Unleashed has 60 cars for you to collect and race in the game’s staple offerings of online multiplayer, local split-screen multiplayer, or you-against-the-AI races.

That’s critical, as the AI racers in Hot Wheels Unleashed pose an unexpectedly stout challenge in the upper two (of four) difficulty levels. It’s hard to describe I drive arcade or action racers with life-size vehicle models all the time, but I don’t feel as connected to their motion as I do in Hot Wheels Unleashed. This is important, not just for the aesthetic that Milanese studio Milestone achieves, but also because it gives the cars very intuitive handling.