Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5 for Wii Reviews by Gamers

For me, Hot Wheels topped out when they released the ones that you could ram into each other and the hoods would flip to look like they had been in a real fender bender. Those were awesome, and after I had the little metal beauties, my collection of plastic tracks and four-wheeled toys began to fall by the wayside. Eventually, I was too old to care about the toys.



To try and hook a brand new generation, Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5 is being beamed onto TV sets nationwide, and in addition to the cars on toy store shelves, there's a videogame out for the Wii to make parents open their wallets and little Sammy and Suzie smile.


Pump the brakes, kids.

If you've never heard of Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5, I have no idea why you're reading this review, but I'll bring you up to speed. Turns out Earth exists as part of a multiverse – an infinite number of alternative universes. In the other worlds are mean but intelligent animals walking on two legs (the Vandals) and robots looking to take over everything (the Sark) and they race around in cars collecting keys so that they can shoot through portals into new worlds to takeover. Out to protect Earth and all the other planets from these car-driving maniacs is the Battle Force 5, a team of six drivers in five cars that wear these futuristic suits and smash the bad guys with rides that can climb walls and transform.



If that sounds convoluted, that's because it is. Still, this game doesn't try and shove the whole story down your throat. Here, they expect you to know who Vert Wheeler and Zemerik are as soon as you turn on your console. There's a story that has the team captured and the Infinite Key malfunctioning, but Hot Wheels is a breakneck franchise, it doesn't have time to sit down and explain what all this stuff is. This is a tale for the fans out there – as evident by the cutscenes that look like the show and feature top notch voice acting -- so don't try and cut your teeth on the Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5 mythos by picking up the Wii-mote.



In terms of gameplay, it's all about behind the wheel action. In the beginning, you'll start as Vert in the Saber's smokin' hot driver's seat and have to begin beating Sark minions and freeing your team members one by one. When you release someone, the next level generally has you using their car to get to the next partner.



Problem is, none of this is exciting or controls all that well. Every level starts with you following a red line on the ground to a portal, following the line on the other side, freeing a friend, and fighting a bigger bad guy somewhere in there. There are dudes to smash and items to pick up as you race down the red line, but none of this is challengeing. The icons that unlock extras are just sitting on the track, and although you have attacks, you can just run enemies over to beat them.



This is boring.



Even though the cars have different abilities – the Spinner shoots grenades, Chopper morphs into this four-bladed buzz saw, and so on – the fact that you're just running people down takes away their individuality. I enjoyed wrangling enemies with the Tangler's grappling hook, but other than that, the individuality of the vehicles was lost.



Worse is the fact that the cars control pretty badly at times. Although you're steering with the analog nub, it's not like you're turning a real wheel. Basicaly, you're moving the reticle on the screen and the car is going towards that. It feels disconnected and is pretty cumbersome when you're grill-first with a wall and trying to get to the left. These are tank-like controls with stiff, angular moves. They make getting the tiny collectibles a chore and ramming bosses a pain.



Using these broad controls to collide with specific stuff is actually a pretty big part of the game. In each of the title's 10 chapters, you'll need to ram other vehicles for items and the same applies to the game's one two-player multiplayer mode. You can sideswipe opponents by waving the Wii-mote to a certain side, but I found myself barreling towards foes more than I ever did driving next to them.



That multiplayer I mentioned a second ago is actually a pretty odd feature. Although it's just for two players, the title tosses in a bunch of computer players as well. From there, you just get to pick the environment and your cars as you play your "get the key to the portal as many times as you can in five minutes" match. You can't adjust the time, add a score limit, or change it to just a flat-out race. During my playtest, I found the framerate choppy in places, it's a bitch to actually get to the guy with the key, and myself frozen and floating in the air for about 30 seconds.



In short, it wasn't impressive.

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