Another game I used to play as a kid. This one was one of my favorites growing up and I used to play it with my younger brother (he was a bigger fan than me). To see toy cars in a video game world and racing through tracks reminiscent of the ones you find in stores, you know a lot of time and competition between us two. Getting older now, I tried the different port of this game on the N64 here in this site (since PlayStation wasn’t available in the site yet). It looked better but lacked content so I’ll stick with the one I grew up with. This is Hot Wheels : Turbo Racing for the PlayStation!

Story: N/A 

There’s no story to the game really. It’s just a pick up and play with any vehicles on the roster based on the hot wheels line. Not much to say on this end other than to race for first. 

Rating is a good N/A out of 10. 

Depth : 8

You start off with a base of 20 vehicles to choose from. Then on out after completing the game (more on later) you choose one of forty cars, well forty one if you know the code for the secret car, and race against opponents through many of the death defying, trick slinging, speed demon tracks. Hidden vehicles are found throughout the tracks and you can collect them all (if you know where to find them) to increase your collection. Each track is wildly different from the others and it gives good variety of replay ability. 

The game also comes with some neat game modes, Other than the usual exhibition mode, where you can choose a track and vehicle and race, game also comes with a trick attack mode (airtime challenge) and a hot wheels cup mode. With trick attack mode your goal is to have the highest points possible before time runs out, once you hit the finish line. In multiplayer there isn’t a time limit and it’s just whoever has the highest score. 

Hot wheels cup comes with three leagues, the “Hot wheels Cup”, the “Secret Car Cup” and the “Twinmill” cup which is the most difficult of the three, even though it’s just one race… by no means it’s a quick game, it’ll take like 3-4 hours to complete the game total, maybe more if trying to get secret cars. 

With each cup win you unlock more secret cars and tracks to play in exhibition. Twin mill cup unlocks everything and even hidden cars you previously haven’t found, as a reward for placing first in the most difficult cup in the most difficult track with two of the fastest cars in the game. 

Each car has their own stats which differ to one another and they can be beneficial to certain tracks since speed isn’t always the answer to win first. Some cars hit harder than others to cause an explosion, other are more mobile in the air to create exciting tricks and flips for more points and others can baked well for turns and corners. It’s all about preference for each track and which car you feel is best suited. 

Loading screens aren’t that bad. While loading you’re presented with featured cars on the game, controls and some tips that are helpful throughout your play through. 


Power ups are also present in the game with some turbo booster to replenish your turbo (which helps increase your speed for two seconds) and a hammer for invincibility against other cars and a 4x4 for easier handling, to name a few. Speaking of turbo, your car has a limited amount of turbo which is the same for each vehicle, you can replenish the gauge by doing trick in the air or collecting turbo power ups. The flashier the trick, the more turbo you’ll receive and it’s beneficial to have them if you want to win first in the track. 

It also offers a password system for cheats whether you want to unlock cars immediately or have some crazy changes to vehicles when playing. Sign in is just a way for you to save your progress if you own a memory card. 


This game has a bit of content and EA really put some thought of how the game would play out for a toy car line. A solid 8 out of 10 for me 

Sound : 9

I love the music in this game. From techno music, to rock and even country, there’s quite a few tracks that play when racing through the game. The intro of the game starts off with Metallica “Fuel” to pump up your experience of the game. The sound effects are pretty good, no muffled sound and the cars revving is so good. The only complaint I can see about it announcer with a bit of static but nothing too noticeable. 

A solid 9 out of 10 for the soundtrack. 

Addictive : 8

The game is pretty fun to play for hours on end or as a leisure activity when bored. The variety of cars and tracks makes the game be worth its buck back in the day and to me it felt like actually collecting cars in my youth when I had a small collection of hot wheels cars. The crazy tricks and tracks makes you want to stay playing the game a bit longer trying to see how you can do more crazy and difficult tricks in the game with higher altitude. It’s a game I put so many hours into. 

An 8 out of 10

Difficulty : 6 

The difficulty of the game isn’t that bad at all. Once you know the tracks and how to tackle them, it’s very easy. I mean yeah they have a difficulty setting and I played on normal settings, so there’s that. One big hiccup is the twinmill cup. It’s one of the hardest races you’ll ever do if you’re a newcomer and it took me three years (not cumulatively) to beat that cup. Another 2 years to beat it without glitches or cheats. Overall, the game isn’t that hard to beat, except for the twin mill cup. 

It’s a good 6 out of 10

Graphics : 7

The graphics department isn’t that bad. The stages are beautiful and toy-esque like the tracks from the car line. Some cars are pretty faithful to the original designs and models while others… they seem too blocky or abnormal to say the least (Power Piston). There is some warping when racing and clipping when pushed against the wall. Camera isn’t that good when doing loops or when the vehicle is next to wall, showing the classic background behind wall trick psx games are famous for. 

The graphics are a deserving 7 out of 10

Overall the game holds up well enough these days the tracks are fun, the cars are unique in every way, the game modes helps with the longevity. Like I stated earlier, I used to play this game a lot with my younger brother and race against one another to see who was a better player. Granted he was the bigger hot wheels fan and he was into twinmill 2 while I was a twinmill fan. The game had some differences with the later title I played on the site, the N64 version. N64 version beats the game with graphics and loading it has some songs shortened and hidden tracks cut from the game. Overall I do say this is a more complete experience to playing the game and being the fourth hot wheels game in the series, it does justice to see how well made the game is by EA, back when they were a good company. 

My rating : 8.5/10

Review rating : 7.5/10

I only played this game once and found it to be fun. One of my younger cousin's had this game and so I played it. I also think I remember Hot Wheels having a PC game that was similar. I remember playing a PC Hot Wheels game after school when I was waiting for my mom to get done from her job. I had actually forgotten about these games until I read your review.