Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged Review

ign.com:

Turbochargers work by sucking in air from the atmosphere, compressing and cooling it, and subsequently blowing it into the cylinders to help your engine burn fuel at a faster rate. Unlike turbochargers, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged doesn’t suck or blow, but it is pretty damn cool. This palm-sized sequel shines with graphics that range from excellent to outright remarkable, an inspired selection of life-sized environments where stools loom large like skyscrapers and skateboards are as big as sailboats, and accessible and drift-heavy handling with a couple of new twists. However, while it’s certainly a slight step forward from the excellent 2021 original, it has introduced a couple of annoying quirks – like creases in the cardboard of a Super Treasure Hunt blister pack.

Just like Milestone’s first Hot Wheels Unleashed two years ago, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 is still the antithesis to the tossed-together, toy-licensed turds today’s parents toiled through during our own childhoods. Beneath the corporate branding, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 really does remain an indubitably groovy arcade racer with highly imaginative tracks and some of the most brilliant-looking vehicles in the genre.

The car models are still absolutely amazing renditions of real-life Hot Wheels, which appear essentially photorealistic on-screen. Rotating them around in the menus and photo mode they look like genuine toys placed under a microscope; seriously, it really cannot be stressed enough just how unflinchingly faithful Milestone’s models are to actual Hot Wheels miniatures. The texture differences between plastic and metal. The faint knit lines left on injection-moulded parts. The subtle accumulations of extra paint on tapered spoilers. The difference