For a licensed racing game, 2021’s Hot Wheels Unleashed was a fun and respectable debut, and now we’ll get to see how developer Milestone builds on that foundation with an upcoming sequel.
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged arrives on October 19 and retains the fun “little toy car in a big world” presentation with new additions under the hood. Players can now get behind the wheel of motorcycles and ATVs, and the game has over 130 vehicles total at launch.
Players race across five diverse environments using new skills: double jumping and lateral dashing. The double jump can be performed at any time to leap over rivals and obstacles, while dashing is great for sideswiping nearby opponents or dodging hazards. Milestone touts increased interactivity between vehicles and objects on and off the track, and playstyles can be customized using perks earned by earning skill points.
Modes include a revamped story-driven campaign starring four original characters, complete with animated cutscenes. Other challenges include events designed to test players’ skills such as drifting and evading crashes. For online multiplayer, the game supports cross-play (except on Switch), and players can now create friend parties. Local two-player splitscreen also makes a return.
The popular creation suite from the first game now features a refined Track Editor with expanded features and a Livery Editor update introducing the Sticker Editor to create and save custom patterns and shapes. Best of all, all user-generated content will be sharable cross-platform at launch, though it’s unclear if any player-made content from the original can be imported into this game.
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. Check out some of the sequel’s cars in the screenshot gallery below.
