Milestone's latest swing at the Hot Wheels franchise abandons the confines of living room tracks for something far more ambitious. Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush takes the iconic toy cars and sets them loose across sprawling open-world playsets, a dramatic shift that trades track-focused arcade racing for the kind of roaming, mission-heavy gameplay that made Burnout Paradise a classic.
The move feels audacious on paper. Hot Wheels games have traditionally thrived within the constraints of those bright orange plastic tracks, tight loop-de-loops, and fantastical stunt courses. Pulling that formula apart and rebuilding it in an open world could have backfired. Instead, after hands-on time at Summer Game Fest 2026, the direction shows real promise.
Two distinct zones anchor the experience. Wheelworld presents itself as a gleaming metropolitan playset, all towering structures and urban chaos. Gearworld leans into industrial desert aesthetics, complete with environmental hazards pulled straight from those weird toy commercials of the 1980s and 90s, including a giant scorpion spraying venom across the terrain. These spaces don't feel like traditional racing arenas. They read as diorama worlds, the kind of elaborate toy displays that looked incredible in commercials but never made it to store shelves.
With over 150 cars to choose from, players assemble a stable of vehicles spanning three classes: speeder, titan, and the adaptable versatile category. Swapping between them happens seamlessly between missions, encouraging experimentation. The titan class, for instance, trades agility for sheer pushing power and requires managing a heat gauge when boosting to avoid stalling out. That kind of strategic variation transforms vehicle selection from cosmetic choice into genuine tactical consideration.
The mission structure embraces freedom. While core objectives exist, the real draw lies in scattered side activities. Traditional races sit alongside time trials, vehicle delivery runs, and destruction derbies where environmental damage is the whole point. One standout asks players to locate landmarks and photograph them for an album, a modest idea that somehow captures the exploratory spirit the game aims for.
Racing itself maintains the fast and loose arcade feel that defines the franchise. Momentum matters more than precision, and the environmental variety keeps each run fresh. Missions blend street racing with those signature orange tracks, creating moments where toy cars pivot from wild open-world chaos into the kind of tight, focused racing that made Hot Wheels games memorable in the first place.
The track editor returns as well, though hands-on time didn't include a preview of that tool. The added space of open zones means builders can construct and test courses in larger contexts than before, potentially expanding what the creation tools can accomplish.
What stands out most is how well the Burnout Paradise template fits the toy car universe. That game thrived on the freedom to ignore missions and simply explore, to chase collisions and secondary objectives. Hot Wheels has always invited that kind of playful destruction. Infinite Rush leans into it deliberately, positioning the entire experience as a living toy box rather than a series of disconnected race events.
Thirty minutes revealed a concept with serious legs. Developer Milestone appears to have cracked how to expand Hot Wheels beyond its traditional lane without losing the charm that made the franchise worth reviving in the first place.
Author Emily Chen: "Taking Hot Wheels into open-world chaos could have been a disaster, but Milestone found exactly the right template to make it work."
Comments