There has been a flood of racing titles hitting the market, so it was important for Stormfront to make Hot Wheels Turbo Racing unique. For the past week or so we’ve been blazing through the game and have come to the conclusion that Hot Wheels Turbo Racing, despite a few problems, is a fast, fun, and addictive racer for the PlayStation.

Hot Wheels cars can be found in abundance in any toy store, and the sheer variety of cars available boggles the mind. Thankfully, the developers have implemented a ton of cars into this game, all of them having unique defining statistics that allow them to perform in a certain way. The models and textures for the cars are decent, and look a little bland simple in comparison to something such as Grand Turismo or Ridge Racer Type 4. A nice plus found in Hot Wheels is that scattered throughout the tracks are little icons that represent secret cars. Just zoom over one of them with any vehicle, and the secret car will be added to the total line up. There are a ton to unlock, and this kept me looking and searching for hours on end. Some of the cars are found in places you’d never normally think of, while others are just a simple matter of revving up and performing a large enough jump onto a small platform.

A good chunk of the Hot Wheels experience is the speed at which the cars race. This is an aspect where Hot Wheels misses the mark a bit. When speeding down the tracks, you just don’t get the sensation of moving at insane speeds like you should. There is a turbo button that boosts the car for a few seconds, but even then it doesn’t seem that fast.

As the PlayStation reaches new heights in visual quality that were once thought to be impossible on the machine, gamers expect a certain level of quality from their racers. Unfortunately, Hot Wheels Turbo Racing disappoints in this area as well. My major complaint is the lack of background objects occupying the outskirts as you’re racing along. Sometimes a cactus or stack of boxes will appear to the left or right of you, but for the most part it is fairly empty. Animals, plants, anything would have been nice. From my experiences, the frame rate was fairly consistent, although I did notice some slowdown during a few areas.

Just racing by holding down the acceleration button isn’t going to get you anywhere. The key to Hot Wheels Turbo Racing is earning turbos and utilizing them to get ahead of the competition. To earn turbos, you must pull of tricks in the air with the cars. After jetting off a ramp, all that has to be done is hold left, right, up, or down to either spin or flip constantly. Depending on how many flips and spins you do will determine how many turbos are earned for that particular trick.

One problem that has started to get on my nerves is the difficulty in trying to navigate your car when caught in a tight corner. Trying to back up and head into the normal frontward direction only provided frustration. After numerous attempts, I was so far back into the race that I was unable to continue. It could have been because of my use of just the analog joysticks, but even so, there should’ve been more tweaking done to support the analog.