Hot Wheels Infinite Rush review – boy racer

Hot Wheels Infinite Rush – it definitely looks the part (Milestone) Forza Horizon is the inspiration for this new open world racer based on the famous toy line, with model cars driving around a realistic looking city. There may be big questions over the health of veteran Xbox franchises such as Halo and Gears Of War but in Forza Horizon, Microsoft has one of the most popular series in gaming today. They’ve not done much to exploit that though, with still no word on a release date for the PlayStation 5 version of Forza Horizon 6, while other publishers have made little effort to offer any kind of alternative. You won’t find a sudden rush of open world racers on any release schedule, which immediately makes Hot Wheels Infinite Rush an interesting novelty, even if it’s primarily aimed at a younger audience. Or at least we think it is. We can’t say we remember Hot Wheels being much of a thing when we were kids but we’re sure there are plenty of adults out there that remember them fondly and the game seems to be trying to cater to them as well. If we sound uncertain it’s because the game’s pitch seems muddled, with too much realism for kids and not enough for adults. There is fun to be had here, since the racing itself is perfectly competent, but it doesn’t take long for it to start to seem like a missed opportunity. Despite the obvious comparison, Hot Wheels Infinite is by no means a clone of Forza Horizon and you could really compare it to any open world racer, back at least as far as Burnout Paradise. For a start, it doesn’t feature a single open world area but four separate islands: a city, a desert industrial zone, a tropical island, and a Japanese looking area. Although we have no natural affinity for Hot Wheels, we do have a nephew that loves them. But showing him the game was not quite the moment of excitement we envisioned. Infinite Rush makes a good first impression visually, with realistic looking cityscapes pierced by the bright orange of authentic looking Hot Wheels tracks, and the old plastic-looking gorilla and other oversized fauna. The cars look great too, as they’re modelled to look exactly like the toys, not real cars, complete with painted out windows and copyright information moulded onto the bottom of the chassis. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. While the game certainly looks the part, the process of turning it on for the first time is a strangely overwhelming one, with a blizzard of explanation screens and instructions, all of which is a world away from the pick up and play genius of Mario Kart. The basic controls are straightforward enough but each of the vehicles is divided into one of four class types: speeder, drifter, titan, and versatile. Accepting that the versatile is the all-rounder and that the titan is the heavy, the distinctions are fairly clear in theory, even if in practice they don’t seem to make enough difference to justify the fuss made over them. You can drive whatever you like when touring the open world, but many races force you into a specific class and not uncommonly the least suitable one, which seems to defeat the whole point. The race types range from basic checkpoint competitions to drift challenges, elimination modes, and time trials. Additional tasks, ranging from stunt courses to photography tasks, can be found while roaming the city. There’s plenty to do and a loose overall structure, where you’re trying to earn enough points to take on the Rusher of each island, who works kind of like a gym leader in Pokémon. Only a minority of races reward you with points, so it takes quite a while before you can challenge them, which plays out like the racing game equivalent of a boss battle. There is plenty of reward beyond just points though, most obviously new cars – with over 100 in total to collect. The racing model is solid, without being exceptional or especially distinctive. What you’re driving looks like a toy car but it handles more or less like a real one. No game with dinosaurs in it can be all bad (Milestone) That feels more like a problem than a positive though, as if it weren’t for the orange tracks, and other toy landmarks, the game just looks like it’s set in the real world. The previous two Hot Wheels Unleashed games had a Micro Machines style premise where you were driving around living rooms and gardens, as if the car really was just a couple of inches long. We’re not sure why that idea was abandoned, as it’s considerably more interesting and distinctive than Infinite Rush’s quasi-realistic take. This is obvious in the design of the cars too, as while there are some wackier designs, with the game keen to emphasis a rubber duck on wheels, most of the toy cars just look like real-world cars. Actual Hot Wheels toys are dominated by licensed vehicles and non-road worthy novelty designs but while the Unleashed games reflected this, strangely Infinite Rush does not. Apart from the bright colours, it’s easy to forget this is a Hot Wheels game at all, although there is an additional reminder in that there’s absolutely no people anywhere. You’re literally just driving the car, so not only is there not a toy driver there’s no toy pedestrians either, which makes everything feel very empty and characterless. On the positive side, there are split-screen and online modes but you can’t free roam with another player, as you can in Mario Kart World, which saw our Hot Wheels obsessed nephew quickly lose interest. We don’t blame him either, as Infinity Rush as a whole is a strangely juiceless experience, with no real attempt to leverage the licence, beyond a simple track editor. There’s nothing of substance here that you can’t find in existing games with much more nuanced driving models. It’s too basic and repetitive to attract serious race fans and too finicky and restrictive to interest younger players, which makes it appeal disappointing finite. Hot Wheels Infinite Rush review summary In Short: A peculiarly drab attempt to make a more family friendly version of Forza Horizon, that’s predictably less fun to drive and offers little in the way of unique attractions. Pros: The driving is solid, if not exceptional, and there’s plenty of visual variety in the four open world islands. Lots of different challenges and race types, and the toy cars look great. Cons: Nothing is all that much fun, with repetitive race types and a general lack of personality. Little use is made of the Hot Wheels licence and there’s no co-op free roam. Confusing tutorials and long load times. Score: 5/10 Formats: Nintendo Switch 2 (reviewed), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: £44.99Publisher: MilestoneDeveloper: MilestoneRelease Date: 10th September 2026Age Rating: 3 The racing is fine but not exceptional (Milestone) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. 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