Planet Hot Wheels

Planet Hot Wheels was a a racing-oriented Massively multiplayer online game. It was created in 2000 but the site was taken down in 2004, and the stats is unknown if it would ever come back on the website. Planet Hot Wheels, apart from the various games it had, was used for the purpose of a social networking website akin to MySpace and later, Facebook, with message boards for users to chat in along with a news section generally dedicated to motorsports. Despite that and the various flash games it possessed, its main attraction was the 'World Race' multiplayer game used to promote the Highway 35 World Race series in 2003.

Gameplay

Planet Hot Wheels was made one of two Hot Wheels games to promote the 2003 Highway 35 World Race series, the other being Hot Wheels: World Race. Unlike the World Race game, Planet Hot Wheels replicates the style of racing seen in the cartoon miniseries and movie, which is a point-to-point sprint in various different locations, usually annexed by portals at the beginning and end of each race, quite unlike the 6-man circuit racing of World Race. The game uses a heavily modified version of the gameplay engine used in the previous Stunt Track Driver games, which can be easily seen in its sound and visual effects. This engine was later used for the Turbo Driver game, which showcases a similar premise to the World Race series. By default, the game has features of a 'kart racer' game like Turbo Racing and Extreme Racing, with various power-ups from lasers to smokescreens that can drastically alter the experience depending on how they are used, though this can turned off. A unique aspect of this game that sets it apart from other MMO's of this kind was that the online aspect of the game was restricted to Local Area Networking, which, in general, cut off any opportunities for worldwide multiplayer, but allowed up to 16 players to play in a self-sustained server. Apart from the 16-player limit setting itself further from the console World Race game, all 35 cars from the Highway 35 series are playable from the start of the game. And unlike the World Race console game again, all of the licensed vehicles, along with some of the more 'impractical' cars (Mainly Moto-Crossed, Red Baron and Wild Thing) are in the game, completely unaltered from their original depictions in the toyline and animation. The game was apparently made to run concurrent with the show, as a couple of assests from it, like Dr. Tesla's Cube and the design of the portals was reused for Planet Hot Wheels. Also, the game used five 'episodic' tracks each themed around a racing team from the series. However, only the first three tracks in the game are actually based on the show, a notable example being 'The Shortcut'. The other two tracks, 'Ocean Vista' and 'Urban Sky' are respectively based around the Wave Rippers and Street Breed teams, with elements of their sections from the Ultimate Track Set, which was produced as a limited-time reward for obtaining all 35 cars in the series.

Planet Hot Wheels