Gaming Target - GameCube: Hot Wheels: Velocity X

Written by Tim McGrew on December 19, 2002

Full Review: There's nothing hot about this one, not even the wheels.

Hot Wheels racers have never been the absolute epitome of excellent driving games. Unfortunately, that tradition holds true with Hot Wheels Velocity X. There is definitely a load of extra options to choose from, but the game still comes up short in a number of different ways keeping it from being a potentially great racer comparable to the likes of other arcade driving experiences.

The story of Velocity X revolves around Max Justice and his mission to find out who is trying to steal the formula for Velocity X; a new type of fuel that was invented by his father. The story doesn't have too much bearing on what you have to do in the game, but it's an interesting addition to an otherwise simple racer. To find out, players will race against, destroy, and generally out drive other Hot Wheel cars in a number of different modes and game play abilities giving the game a great deal of its aforementioned variety.

One mode in particular which helps with players who are beginners is known as Joyride. In this mode players can race non stop around a track that they are about to play so they achieve a better feel for the course they are about to compete on. It's almost like scouting a track and it helps a great deal and players can unlock cars as they acquire items in the Joyride mode. Another mode is the Battle mode wherein drivers compete in a fashion similar to Twisted Metal where the last man standing is the winner of the challenge. With fifteen weapons to choose from, there are no problems with diversity when it comes to wiping out opponents.

Most of your time will be spent in the Adventure and Challenge modes of the game for they make up the bulk of the experience both in earning extras and completing the heart of the game. Adventure is basically like a story mode where you compete with other racers and advance the rather boring story from start to finish. Challenge is primarily used for earning cars and tracks and other special items to be unlocked for later use. The missions vary a great deal in Challenge mode and range from a simple race to performing a few intricate stunts. In the end, none of it is overly difficult.

When growing up, the biggest thrill of playing with Hot Wheel cars was the smash and crash nature of them that happened as a result of plenty of speed build up and massive roller coaster like ramps and loops. Fortunately, HWVX does not disappoint in that category and gives players the option to perform stunts in mid air by hitting the L and R triggers. It's not exactly the most intuitive stunt setup considering it's only two maneuvers altogether, but it's a neat little trick worth mentioning.

The biggest single gripe about the game, which consequently ruins the whole experience, is the incredibly poor control scheme. The game tries to perform like an arcade racer but the arcade feel that Hot Wheels tries so hard to achieve falls terribly flat and causes a great deal of frustration. Since power sliding is a staple of arcade racers, to see it pulled off so poorly in this game is a huge let down. Cars drift so carelessly into corners and tend to overcompensate for you turning your wheels that you wind up dropping your speed considerably. For all intents and purposes, simply breaking and pulling out of a turn as fast as you can earns better results than a traditional power slide which makes the handbrake utterly useless.

With so many control issues, the game itself is hurt extensively from it. A simple race around a circle can become very tedious since the controls are not accessible to any type of gamer. The tight turns in the game, and there are a lot of them, conflict with the control scheme and the nature of it making an incredibly boring and frustrating experience. With so much potential in variety and game play elements, it's sad to see it fizzle and die in such a manner.

A couple of the more interesting aspects ruined by the control scheme is vertical and combat racing. Since cars have a vast array of weapons to use both in Battle mode and on the track, players can essentially attack other cars at will. However, it's impossible to aim at moving targets since the controls are so horrible and because of that, you'll have to rely on the few weapons that affect a range as opposed to pinpoint accuracy. Vertical racing is also terrible with this feature since the turning attributes of just about every car is horrendous and using them while fighting gravity creates a type of poor finesse that no player deserves to be treated with.

Probably the best aspect of the game is the design of the cars which are designs straight from Mattel of existing cars. The detail in them is quite good and the textures are decent for this type of game. Considering that all Hot Wheels cars are one color to begin with, it's forgivable that the texture work in some instances is boring and repetitive.

The biggest drawback of the graphics is the incredibly unforgivable frame rate. The randomness of it coupled with its frequency hampers your driving skill a great deal. Slipping and sliding around the track while combating a bit of slowdown around a tight turn on a vertical slope is hardly my idea of an enjoyable afternoon of gaming. In hindsight, it would have been much more fun to toss the game out the window as opposed to keeping it in the Cube and giving it back to the store.

Like the rest of the game, the sound is generally mediocre and poor with music that falls into the background unnoticed and sound effects sound exactly alike from car to car. There's nothing to be happy about here, but this is probably the one aspect of the game with the fewest complaints thus far and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you.

The multiplayer in Hot Wheels, something that the PS2 version lacked beyond its sub standard 2-players, is its 4-player capabilities. Although it's always nice to have a few extra over to play games with either to compete or play cooperatively, chances are, they'll be brave enough to toss the game out the window if you haven't already so mentioning that fact is rather moot to begin with.