‘Hot Wheels: Rift Rally’ is another mixed reality racer from the makers of ‘Mario Kart Live’
The $130 set requires a PlayStation or iOS device.
Hot Wheels: Rift Rally is a new mixed reality game from Velan Studios, the creators of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. Like Nintendo’s 2020 title, you control a real RC car while your screen shows an augmented view from its cockpit. It will be available in March for PS5 / PS4 and iOS.
The game bundle includes one toy car, which you can drive in two modes: Campaign and Stunt. In Campaign, you set up gates around your room, which you drive the car through to complete the different maps (each includes unique challenges). Meanwhile, Stunt mode skips the gates, letting you drive wherever you want while performing digitally enhanced drifts, wheelies and burnouts to beat your high scores.
It supports a solo campaign and multiplayer. When playing with a friend, they can bring their car for competitive racing or (on PlayStation only) play co-op using a single toy vehicle as the action switches between controllers.
The bundled Chameleon car can appear onscreen as any of 22 different virtual vehicles with over 140 variants. It includes “endless options” for digital customization, including performance mods that change how the car moves across your space; for example, adding an acceleration boost in-game will make the toy car drive faster. In addition, you can play various mini-games, puzzles and challenges to unlock new vehicles and mods.
Although the software is free to download, you’ll need to buy at least a $130 Standard Edition, which gets you the Chameleon car, four Rift gates and a charging cable. A $150 Collector’s Edition swaps in a “special edition” Chameleon while adding a (non-playable) McLaren Senna Hot Wheels die-cast toy. Hot Wheels: Rift Rally launches on March 14 and is available for pre-order starting today.
