Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge
First sign of the apocalypse: we get a decent Hot Wheels game. Be afraid...
Published: December 5, 2004
One of the biggest beefs I have with this industry right now is with the fact that most kids games are just pure crap, and they get away with it, of course, because, well, parents don't know any better. It'll likely stay this way until either a) the parents smarten up and start reading some reviews first or b) kids reject crappy games en masse, and that's even less likely to happen, since most young gamers will play just about anything.
The Hot Wheels license hasn't typically been one of those high water marks of superlative gameplay, either. Most of them have been painfully simplistic and derivative right out of the box. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found myself actually enjoying Stunt Track Challenge -- and it wasn't just me; my girlfriend actually managed to get hooked. Truly, these are the End Times.
Now before you start hoopin' and hollerin' (cause I'm sure you're all quite prone to that) that we've lost our edge here, understand that while it's a decent game, it's by no means an all-ages, must-have, killer-app, something-something. It's a fair game, and one that I honestly wouldn't mind giving to a younger nephew (or even a niece if she's a bit of a tomboy and digs stuff like dirt and bugs), but it can't hold a candle to something like Burnout 3 for the older crowd. But I'm overqualifying the appeal here. This is, simply put, a wholly adequate game for the youngin' in your life.
The concept is simple: traverse six different themed "worlds" that deliver various races, precision driving courses, stunt challenges and decal hunts. Aside from the decal hunts (which unlock a handful of graphics to customize cars), placing high in the races will add to your overall point totals, and if you can finish in 3rd or better in the standings at the end, you move on to the next world.
The challenges themselves are surprisingly diverse. The circuit races are run-of-the-mill laps around a track, but the other challenges run the gamut from trying to avoid swinging or spinning objects as you careen down a ski jump-style leap for distance to screaming around tracks with no edges in a race against the clock to using speed and precision to hurling your car through or onto targets to navigating dangers on a constantly-changing track while diving through targets. Throughout all the courses, tight controls and a simplistic trick system keep the focus on proper handling and speed checking, and it makes for some genuinely nail-biting race moments.
In most of the events, you can send your car soaring off ramps, which gives you a chance to utilize the woefully underdeveloped trick system. You can flip the cars forward and back, or corkscrew them left or right. Landing the trick cleanly nets you some boost (there are also little flame icons scattered about the tracks, but they won't get you nearly as much as a clean trick) and shunts you ahead at a steady clip. If you bail, you'll do a couple flips, lose speed and obviously won't gain any boost.
The fact that you can only spin the car in one of four directions (it's more or less pointless and nearly impossible to mix up a flip and a twist) really begins to annoy after the fifth or so race; granted, the whole idea here is that you need to land the trick cleanly in the first place, and letting kids spin the car on both axes at once would likely land them upside-down more often than not, but some variety would have kept the tricks from seeming like a chore.
Once you do build up the boost gauge about half way, you can kick it on with a press of the R1 button, while tapping L1 will throw the car into a powerslide, which feels pretty floaty and never really gets solid, even at the end of the game where it's all but required that you have the slides down pat if you want to take first.
The tracks themselves -- and the environments they skirt, plunge into and soar over -- are the real draw in the game, though. Each of the worlds has a distinct and cohesive feel, with some shared elements between them, but plenty of themed variety too. The usual approximations of what an adult assumes a kid is into at the time like a spider's lair, a volcano, outer space and so forth are well-crafted here. In particular, on track that scoots around a miniature flaring sun is especially well done.
The Hot Wheels license hasn't typically been one of those high water marks of superlative gameplay, either. Most of them have been painfully simplistic and derivative right out of the box. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found myself actually enjoying Stunt Track Challenge -- and it wasn't just me; my girlfriend actually managed to get hooked. Truly, these are the End Times.
Now before you start hoopin' and hollerin' (cause I'm sure you're all quite prone to that) that we've lost our edge here, understand that while it's a decent game, it's by no means an all-ages, must-have, killer-app, something-something. It's a fair game, and one that I honestly wouldn't mind giving to a younger nephew (or even a niece if she's a bit of a tomboy and digs stuff like dirt and bugs), but it can't hold a candle to something like Burnout 3 for the older crowd. But I'm overqualifying the appeal here. This is, simply put, a wholly adequate game for the youngin' in your life.
The concept is simple: traverse six different themed "worlds" that deliver various races, precision driving courses, stunt challenges and decal hunts. Aside from the decal hunts (which unlock a handful of graphics to customize cars), placing high in the races will add to your overall point totals, and if you can finish in 3rd or better in the standings at the end, you move on to the next world.
The challenges themselves are surprisingly diverse. The circuit races are run-of-the-mill laps around a track, but the other challenges run the gamut from trying to avoid swinging or spinning objects as you careen down a ski jump-style leap for distance to screaming around tracks with no edges in a race against the clock to using speed and precision to hurling your car through or onto targets to navigating dangers on a constantly-changing track while diving through targets. Throughout all the courses, tight controls and a simplistic trick system keep the focus on proper handling and speed checking, and it makes for some genuinely nail-biting race moments.
In most of the events, you can send your car soaring off ramps, which gives you a chance to utilize the woefully underdeveloped trick system. You can flip the cars forward and back, or corkscrew them left or right. Landing the trick cleanly nets you some boost (there are also little flame icons scattered about the tracks, but they won't get you nearly as much as a clean trick) and shunts you ahead at a steady clip. If you bail, you'll do a couple flips, lose speed and obviously won't gain any boost.
The fact that you can only spin the car in one of four directions (it's more or less pointless and nearly impossible to mix up a flip and a twist) really begins to annoy after the fifth or so race; granted, the whole idea here is that you need to land the trick cleanly in the first place, and letting kids spin the car on both axes at once would likely land them upside-down more often than not, but some variety would have kept the tricks from seeming like a chore.
Once you do build up the boost gauge about half way, you can kick it on with a press of the R1 button, while tapping L1 will throw the car into a powerslide, which feels pretty floaty and never really gets solid, even at the end of the game where it's all but required that you have the slides down pat if you want to take first.
The tracks themselves -- and the environments they skirt, plunge into and soar over -- are the real draw in the game, though. Each of the worlds has a distinct and cohesive feel, with some shared elements between them, but plenty of themed variety too. The usual approximations of what an adult assumes a kid is into at the time like a spider's lair, a volcano, outer space and so forth are well-crafted here. In particular, on track that scoots around a miniature flaring sun is especially well done.
