The slightly more interesting courses (track width being largely fixed does quite a number on variety, too) actually free you from the confines of the winding orange line for sections that explore floors, surfaces, furniture, air ducts, and whatever else, although sadly, off-road racing isn't exactly Unleashed's strongest suit. This is where we see the first sign of wheels wobbling for Unleashed - the nature of the circuits all being largely built out of individual sections of plastic track mean that almost all of them look alike and many blur into one, which can be a bit confusing and makes it feel like the game has less to offer than it does.

While there are only five unique locations (slightly more if you count the customisable nature of the Basement setting and the largely bare test chamber that can be used for custom courses), each houses a number of different track layouts that will take you all over the well-realised real world backdrop. It's all spiralling plastic track pieces assembled in adventurous and experimental ways around suitably massive real-world environments, and while some liberties are taken to champion the playful over the realistic (most sections of track just kinda hover in place), it still sells the idea of miniature extreme racing taking place around the home and beyond. In keeping with those super-authentic cars, the courses too play into the theme brilliantly. It's a bit of a shame that these cars are absolutely indestructible, as the way a lot of the toys are assembled would make for some pretty novel (and awesome) destuction mechanics, plus how ace would it be to roll up to an online race with your own well-loved favourite, replete with all its chipped paint, dinged bumpers, and missing wing mirror from one too many stunts that didn't go quite according to plan? Special licensed vehicles (like, say, the Back to the Future DeLorean) are the only ones exempt from this creative endeavour, but for the rest, you're free to go crazy with funky new designs, even sharing your best (or worst) creations for the community to enjoy or grabbing some of the best user-made liveries for when you tire of your own efforts and the stock ones. In a neat touch, you're also free to change things up with most cars by making your own custom liveries, with plenty of paint jobs, decals to layer up if you're feeling creative, and even material types to alter which can make your custom version look and feel like a completely different car.

they all just look the part from every angle. Even down to things like trademark text and model numbers moulded into the bases of each vehicle. Painstakingly accurate all the way from basic materials and accurate assemblies to mould lines in plastics and minor imperfections in metallic finishes, these pretend toys look just like the real thing. Let's start things off on a positive note, because the car models in Hot Wheels Unleashed are an absolute delight.

Hot wheels game