Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels Review – Epic childhood fun

Drop what you’re doing and head to your installation of Forza – the Hot Wheels add-on is available now for Forza Horizon 5 – and just like the add-on for Forza Horizon 3 back in the day, it’s loads of fun.

While Lego was the add-on for Forza Horizon 4 (and it was awesome fun too), the Horizon Hot Wheels DLC is brilliant flashback to those orange plastic tracks we’d build for our Hot Wheels cars when we were younger, running the tracks off chairs, tables and under whatever we could to get big loops and jumps and watch the cars go flying around loop the loops and often off the tracks and into walls.

My love of Horizon generally is the free roaming open play, and Forza Horizon 5 Hot Wheels allows the same thing.

My sons wanted to complete races and challenges, while I have just been out roaming discovering all the roads and commencing my XP board challenge.

You start the game with limited car access, only B class cars or lower can be driven, and you’re going to want for faster cars to get better loops and turns on the wide-ranging tracks all around this new Hot Wheels world.

There’s 125 “miles” of tracks to drive, all twisting and looping around the four new biomes. Giant’s Canyon, Ice Cauldron, Forest Falls and the stunning Horizon Nexus where the festival is suspended among the Hot Wheels tracks.

Good news for the online players, you can play with friends from the get-go in a co-op mode.

And, there’s 10 new cars for Forza, including four that are Hot Wheels cars scaled up to life-size.

2018 Chevrolet Hot Wheels COPO Camaro. In 1968, the first ever Hot Wheels debuted in the form of a Custom Camaro die-cast and in 2018, those muscle fumes were reignited to celebrate Hot Wheels’ 50th anniversary.

2012 Hot Wheels Bad to the Blade. This Indy car concept was showcased in the Hot Wheels “Fearless at the 500” event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500. It’s since been rewrapped in new graphics to honor the Hot Wheels 50th anniversary while Firestone tires and Hot Wheels rims complete the look.

2013 Hot Wheels Baja Bone Shaker. Inspired by early 1970s trophy trucks, this highly modified off-roader is given a rugged look, bigger wheels and the perfect amount of suspension to leave behind every challenger in the dust and do so with a smile on its skull.

1993 Schuppan 962CR. Powered by a water-cooled 3.3-liter Type-935 Flat-6 with twin turbochargers producing 600 horsepower, the engine is capable of a 230mph top speed and can accelerate from 0-60mph in just 3.5 seconds, thereby making it one of the fastest cars ever.

2000 Hot Wheels Deora II. As one of the original sixteen Hot Wheels cars that debuted in 1968, the Deora remains a favorite of Hot Wheels enthusiasts across the world and in honor of Hot Wheels’ 35th anniversary in 2003, a full-scale concept car was created in homage to the groundbreaking spirit of bold originality embodied in the Deora.

2021 Hennessey Venom F5. As a tribute to 30 years of Hennessey, it’s only fair that it combines the best of speed and power in the ultimate driving package. Capable of 1,817 horsepower – and yes, you’ve read that correctly – at 8,000 rpm and 1,193 lb-ft of torque,
the F5 is a monster.

2019 Brabham BT62. To honor Brabham’s 70-year heritage in racing, the BT62 has been carefully designed for the driver who strives to challenge themselves as company founder Sir Jack Brabham did when he began his racing career in Australia in 1948.

2006 Mosler MT900 GT3. If the Mosler MT900S is a Forza Horizon PR Stunt master, then you can only imagine the capabilities of the MT900 GT3 – especially once it touches the high-speed, interconnected tracks of Hot Wheels Park.

2020 SIERRA Cars #23 Yokohama ALPHA. Being the most powerful Sierra vehicle ever, the Alpha features a turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa boasting 450 horsepower with a top speed of 140mph. The Alpha produces a single ton of downforce – twice its own weight – using big carbon fiber wings and weighs just 1,100lbs.

2018 SUBARU WRX STI ARX Supercar. Imagine 0-60mph in only two seconds. It sounds like a dream, but for this Subaru supercar, it’s a reality. Rallycross is a sport of gravel, jumps and sometimes bumper cars; it’s never going to be a smooth ride, and a car catering to competition must be built with these caveats in mind.

If you’re like me and loved the heck out of Forza Horizon 5 but haven’t picked up the controller in a while, then this is the perfect time to get back into it!

Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels is available now on Xbox Consoles, PC on Windows and Steam, as well as the Cloud Gaming Beta.

Thanks to my boys Harri and Jackson for playing the game for hours when I couldn’t, and helping me with the screenshots!