Hot Stuff, coming through. Apparently

Oh, the joys of childhood. Whiling away hours sprawled on a Flash-deprived kitchen floor, racing toy cars around an imaginary track, taking in rubbish bin corner and that nasty table leg chicane. Hot Wheels will always have a place in our hearts, but unfortunately this game does nothing to sustain the teary nostalgia.

On one hand, this is a very accessible arcade racer. The career mode takes the form of a futuristic game show where players work through reasonably fun mini-challenges, be it racing against AI drivers or completing stunt-based or long jump timed challenges. Each 'episode' of the show provides a different theme, and thus the comical environments for the challenges. There's a ton of cars to choose from and customise, and success unlocks further vehicles in each class (Sports, Heavy, Muscle and Gold), along with fancy decals and rims. Easy, eh?

Well no, because the game is simpler than Forrest Gump. The word 'Challenge' in the title is a tad superfluous - a blind leper with both hands tied behind their back could complete this with minimal effort. The point of unlocking cars is redundant as well - later models boast better capabilities, but the easiness of each challenge means the very first car you start out with is perfectly capable of finishing the game. Stunt challenges are dependant on high-scoring jumps, yet your wacky racer can only rotate around two frustratingly limited axis, and scoring is seemingly dependant on landing on all four wheels.

It's a reasonably fun title, but tired graphics and monotonously easy challenges mean this is strictly one for undemanding kiddies. They still exist, right?

Fun, yet visually unimpressive and tediously simple. Poor multiplayer (Live would have been great) doesn't help.