Out Today, This PS5, PS4 Hot Wheels Game Requires a Toy Car to Play

Hot Wheels: Rift Rally available now

by Stephen Tailby Fri 31st Mar 2023

It seems to have flown completely under the radar, but Hot Wheels: Rift Rally has released today on PS5 and PS4. From Velan Studios, the makers of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (and, less pertinently, Knockout City), it's a mixed reality arcade racer that turns your home into a customisable track.

In the box, you get the Chameleon RC car — so-called because you can customise how it'll look in-game — and a set of gates, which you place on your floor to map out your race course. Through the camera atop the remote-controlled car, you'll drive through your own rooms and hallways on your TV screen. It's a novel idea, providing you have enough space to make it work.

As mentioned, the car can be customised to take on the look of various different Hot Wheels favourites, and you can then drive through a full campaign, engage in local multiplayer, and other modes like freestyle stunts.

It appears the game is currently only available in the US, where it retails for $129.99 (standard) and $149.99 (collector's edition). It's unclear if there's a wider release planned at this stage.

Will you be playing Hot Wheels: Rift Rally on PS5 and PS4? Speed into the comments section below.

Stephen has been part of the Push Square team for over six years, bringing boundless enthusiasm and a deep knowledge of video games to his role as Assistant Editor. Having grown up playing every PlayStation console to date, he's developed an eclectic taste, with particular passion for indie games, arcade racers, and puzzlers. He's also our go-to guy for Sonic-related matters, much to his delight/chagrin.

1
Anti-Matter
Fri 31st Mar 2023

Is there a physical copy of the game inside the bundle?

2
Bentleyma
Fri 31st Mar 2023

I’d like to try something like this, but my flat isn’t big enough.

3
Gremio108
Fri 31st Mar 2023

Have you guys gone early on the April fools with this one?

4
AFCC
Fri 31st Mar 2023

I am wondering how the campaign works. Do they tell you to move the track around the house for each race or what happens?

5
Cycologist
Fri 31st Mar 2023

150 seems a tad steep

6
Wilforce
Sat 1st Apr 2023

@Anti-Matter No physical. It’s a 1.5 gb download on Apple devices, I haven’t tried on PS5 yet.

Edit: Almost 4 gb on PS5.

7
TooBarFoo
Sat 1st Apr 2023

This is a total Mario Cart knock off. Didn't think that did well enough to copy the concept.

8
Wilforce
Sat 1st Apr 2023

WiFi option has some latency issues on mobile and PS5. The car doesn’t seem to swap access points on a mesh network and appears to remain connected to the closest access point after first connection of the session. Mobile appears to have a more noticeable delay than PS5 when maneuvering.

The grind to unlock cars is tedious - you can do quests or grind stunts. Quests are faster, but then you need to do activities you may not want to do at the time. Stunt mode is not efficient to grind when trying to unlock other cars. I appreciate that in stunt mode you can freely swap between the cars you’ve unlocked.

Compared to Mario Kart Live, this game is a lot more versatile. Swapping different cars noticeably affect the handling of IRL toy car. Additionally, not everything is focused on racing - the other game types add diversity to replayability.

The stands that hold the goals are now plastic, but the actual signs are still cardboard. The actual vehicle feels like a heavier quality plastic compared to the Mario Kart vehicles, and the car sits slightly higher off the ground compared to Mario. Hot Wheels Rift Rally is definitely a more mature offering of the two, and feels like Velan took what they learned and improved upon it for Wild Rally.