Talk about a tricky act to follow. Milestone’s Hot Wheels Unleashed and its sequel were both very good uses of the license, helping cast aside memories of the shoddy Hot Wheels games we had to endure in the days of the PS2. Whereas Hot Wheels Unleashed had surprisingly wide appeal, this tie-in from GameMill is firmly aimed at a younger audience, shifting focus to the exceedingly colourful Hot Wheels monster truck toy line. If you don’t spend your spare time laying out strips of plastic Hot Wheels track in your living room, this isn’t for you.
As the name suggests, there are no races or Mario Kart-style shenanigans here. This is a stunt-based affair – albeit one with a sideline of destruction. You’re tasked with rampaging around spectator filled stadiums, performing chains of stunts such as flips and spins, while smashing into caravans, stacks of barrels, and various wooden structures to beat slowly increasing target scores.
Around a dozen trucks are available, adorned with appropriately plastic-like exteriors including sharks, dinosaurs, steam trains, and piranhas. Bigfoot, the granddaddy of all monster trucks, is here too. While trucks don’t vary in stats, which is an odd design choice, they each have a unique mission within the campaign mode. It’s also possible to perform a flashy signature move after filling a gauge and finding a ramp large enough to gain ‘big air’.
The campaign mode takes a few hours to beat and is spread over a handful of regions, reusing the same stunt arena for each location – right down to the starting position. Variety comes from the gradually increasing target scores to beat within 2-3 minute time limits, and whether you’re out to achieve a ‘spectacle’ score by performing stunts (with flips and spins mapped to the analogue sticks) or reaching a destruction ratio by crashing into anything breakable – including cars that can be driven over. Some areas have hot dog carts to smash and balloons to pop, and locating these can be a little tricky, occasionally prompting a retry. Generally, though, the difficulty is forgiving, with even the final challenge no more difficult than those that preceded it.
Only by beating every target score within a region – which varies from junkyards to a toxic-waste filled town – can the trophy for each area be gained. This is where most of the replay value lies. Incidentally, it’s possible to earn fans as a reward too – which doesn’t actually amount to anything other than the amount gradually increasing. New truck skins are more noteworthy unlockable rewards.
Boss battles feature here too, being different from how you may expect. Within a relatively tight time limit – at least compared to the rest of the challenges presented – you must find and destroy three wooden standees to unlock the ramp that leads to the boss. There’s no combat to speak of; they simply take ‘damage’ as you speed through a supersized toy-like playset, which is also automated, and usually accompanied by flashy effects. Simplifying things further, the standees are highlighted from afar using beacons of light.
As you play through the campaign, every arena unlocked is added to the mode selection screen on the main menu, allowing boss battles and freestyle matches to be accessed instantly.
Stunt Mayhem gets a pass on the strength of its visuals, which are bright and vibrant, and the robust physics engine. There’s a degree of tact to the stunt system, as extra points are awarded for perfecting landings, and you also need to complete a chain without spinning out. Fail to do so, and the chain will be lost along with any points accumulated. A couple of times I managed to keep a chain going for over a minute, only to mess up the landing. As time limits mostly last two minutes, I had no choice but to restart. The ease of commencing a chain, along with the short time limit, means there’s an odd lack of leeway for error.
The biggest problem here is the high level of repetition – something evident less than an hour of starting and only exacerbated over time. The objectives and stunt arenas simply aren’t varied enough, with most match types playing out identically. I can’t imagine it holding a child’s attention for long, and chances are most parents will expect it to captivate for longer than an afternoon or two. Still, it’s good to see Bigfoot going strong.
GameMill Entertainment’s Hot Wheels Monster Trucks: Stunt Mayhem is out 18th October on all formats. Developed by 3DClouds.