Hot Wheels Beat That

Product/Game Information

Platform: Nintendo Wii

ESRB Rating: Everyone

Media: Video Game

Product Features

1-2 Player

Product Details

Product Weight: 0.25 pounds

Model: 047875754430

Manufacturer: Activision Inc.

Release Date: 2007-09-26

Sales Rank: 726

Customer Reviews

Yes this is a GREAT game for little ones,
by L. Bailey, 2008-12-31

Ok, I will admit that when my son first played this 4 months ago (which was when he first played the wii) he had a hard time with it (he's 5). HOWEVER, I would like to caviat that by saying we DO NOT play a lot of video games on a regular basis and have only dug out the wii again over X-mas. Hot Wheels is now is favorite game followed closely by Ben 10 and Kung Fu Panda. He loves the ability to change the cars and the race track. And if you just want to continue practicing on what you've been doing, that's good too.

Overall, I think any kid who spends TIME on the wii will learn this game quickly...if not, well then you can certainly split the remotes and share the game with someone (i.e. one uses the remote and the other the nunchuck...meaning one drives and the other handles the speed). I think it's a great game and reminds me a lot of watching Toy Story and the toys speeding around Andy's room...it's a nice different perspective and tons of fun.

Fun racing game,
by Keller Adcock, 2008-12-29

My 5 year old really likes this game. I think driving is difficult on it. We also have MarioKart & driving is much easier on that game.

not a pre-school game,
by F. Pennington, 2008-12-27

Sorry, people:( please read the product information: this isn't a pre-school game. It's great for someone 8 years and up, I bought it for my son with cerebral palsy to use with the nerf steering wheel and I assist him with driving hand over hand. Great game and yes it has some challenges, but it is a hot wheels game for kids. FUN, FUN, and lots of FUN, but not real easy for a pre-schooler. So, lighten up on this game people, if it is too hard for you... move back to the 70's and play table tennis. EXCELLENT GAME FOR KIDS OVER 8 AND PEOPLE THAT HAVE A CLUE:)

Hot Wheels: "Never" Will "I" Beat That,
by irukandji, 2008-12-20

This game is Wii Wheel compatible and up to 2 players. There are 3 difficulties, Easy, Medium, and Hard (they are also referred as Turbo, Nitro, and Inferno modes). You must earn Hot Wheel Flame points in order to unlock Medium, Hard, and other tracks and cars. You earn Flame points by placing in the events and completing the 2 goals for each event. There are 4 types of events: quickrace, eliminator, rampage, and tournament. Quickrace is a normal race, elminator is every 30 seconds the car in last place is eliminated, rampage is destroying a certain number of cars with rockets in a certain amount of time while racing around the track, and tournament is the best of 4 races.

You jump or drive through weapon rings to get a weapon or speed boost item. Similar to Mario Kart's question mark boxes. There is also a Hot Wheel's icon that you can fill up to supercharge your items by scoring points using drifting, drafting, and jumping. Drifting is holding down the trigger and sliding around corners, drafting is just getting behind cars.

The shortcuts are only possible if you have a rocket or something, because you'll have to break through a wall marked with a target. Sometimes it takes two shots or a boost speed may break it open, but it is difficult to tell which does which. Also there are green rings, which give a boost speed, scattered throughout the tracks.

The steering is okay, but even if it were considered bad, there isn't much of a penalty (if any) to your speed by grinding against the edge of the rails. You'll only lose major speed by crashing into walls or objects if you hit them head-on. Also if you fall off the track, like a cliff or hole, you automatically respawn very fast, so it doesn't seem to set you back too much.

The game is broken down like this:

Bedroom Maps (4 Variations):

Quickrace x 4
Elminator x 4
Rampage x 4
Tournament (4 quickraces)

Mini Golf (4 Variations):

Quickrace x 4
Elminator x 4
Rampage x 4
Tournament (4 quickraces)

Attic (4 Variations):

Quickrace x 4
Elminator x 4
Rampage x 4
Tournament (4 quickraces)

Bowling Alley (4 Variations):

Quickrace x 4
Elminator x 4
Rampage x 4
Tournament (4 quickraces)

If you completed all of the above, you have completed Easy mode. To summarize, that is 64 race events and 104 goals. Only half of them are real races, where you place 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Most of the goals take an extra time or two to complete and they can become very tedious. And you must do the goals if you intend to unlock more cars, tracks, and progress through the game. This is the worst part of the game. It is way too time consuming and no fun at all. Also, some of the quickraces last 3-6 minutes, which is too long.

In the tournament modes, one of the goals they'll ask you to get is a certain number of points by drafting, drifting, and jumping and the points for each tournament is increased. You will most likely be unable to accomplish 1st place and get the amount of points in the later tournaments. So you will have to redo the entire tournament just for the points (and that's 4 races at 5 minutes per race, not including the time you spend getting points). And since the most surefire way of getting points is drifting, you'll be spinning around in circles doing donuts for ten minutes and that is no exaggeration. That's 35 minutes just to get that one goal.

There are even more ridiculous goals, like getting a certain weapon and hitting an opponent at a certain part of the stage (ie "In the chemistry area"). Since you can't control which weapon you get, it can take a really long time and is based solely on luck. I would forfeit any hope of actually racing and go back and forth through the weapon rings until I got the item I needed, and would have to wait till one of the cars passed my way. Very long, very boring.

There a few bugs in this game I ran into. More than once the music would stop playing after a race. And another bug that only happened to me once, I finished the race but I didn't get a victory screen and my car just kept racing around the track. I had to reset and lose what I just won, which would have been really annoying if it were a more difficult goal or race.

If you're like me, and want to unlock everything and beat all the modes, I would pass on this game, since the goals needed to unlock things are extremely boring, time consuming, and can get very frustrating.

To compare with Mario Kart:
Time per race:
Hotwheels: 3-6 minutes
Mario Kart: 1-3 minutes

Races per mode:
Hotwheels: 64 + 104 goals (168 combined)
Mario Kart: 32

Unique Tracks:
Hotwheels: 16
Mario Kart: 32

A favorite at our house.,
by PeachyPeach, 2008-12-14

We don't even own this game yet, but we soon will. We have rented it several times. My 5 year old loves it. It did take him a little time to figure out the controls. The tracks are creatively made, they roam through a childs room, as if a kid were to put up the track himself. Seems like a good game, and one of my 5 year olds favorites!

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