Tested: ‘Hot Wheels: Rift Rally’ the AR Game With a Wicked RC Car Kids Will Actually Enjoy

Hot Wheels has undoubtedly grown up a fair bit, especially in the last 20 years. As computer games continue to cannibalize the market that diecast cars and toys used to take for granted, it was almost inevitable that Hot Wheels found its way over to the augmented reality side of things. Of course, AR mobile games can often be a gimmick or a shallow affair. The kind of mile-wide but only inch-deep playing experience that fills the Apple App Store with bloatware that gets played once and forgotten about.

But you're not liable to forget Hot Wheels: Rift Rally, because the thing is $129.00 for the base model and a further $20 extra for the Collector's Edition. So even if your child has the attention span of a hamster that skipped its dose of Ritalin, like I did (and still do), parents are bound to encourage their kids to use it as much as possible. Thankfully, the hardware on offer for your money is up to par if you ask us. I'll be honest; because autoevolution's coverage of the New York Auto Show happened simultaneously, I only had a little time to research facts and figures about the new Rift Rally toy before it showed up at my doorstep.

But if anything, that only added to my surprise when I opened the box and had a look at what was on offer. This being a Hot Wheels set, I imagined the box would be filled with small, diecast cars with plastic track pieces you could view through AR or something. You know, like Hot Wheels used to be when I was a lad. But no, Rift Racers was an altogether different experience than anything lapsed Hot Wheels fans are used to. Instead of the box opening and finding a box full of little diecast cars, you're immediately greeted with a QR code to help you download the Rift Rally companions app for the Apple App Store.

The rest of the box consists of a decently nice-quality USB-C charging cable, four cardboard stage markers with plastic stands for custom track layouts, and the star of the show, the Chameleon camera car. When paired with the Rift Rally app, this well-above-average-sized Hot Wheels car's roof-mounted, 1080p high-definition camera streams a butter-smooth, low-latency video feed of anything within the Wi-Fi or direct console connection range. Using the app's impressive AR capability, simple household objects around your home meld with a world of smokey drifts and exciting racing.

Right from the start, the floating robot assistant who guides you through Rift Rally's opening tutorial can be annoying and makes some pretty obnoxious "robot noises. Think the Omochao from Sonic Adventure 2 was annoying and not remotely helpful? This little guy manages to be even more ear-degrading. But at least it's slightly more helpful this time around. Once you get past all of that, you're greeted by a prompt to choose between a solo campaign mode, a stunt mode, and a multiplayer mode where up to four players with their own Chamelion RC car can play simultaneously.

With 20 bespoke vehicles to choose from upon the game's release, all with their own performance specs and special abilities, there's plenty of variety for those who enjoy classic Hot Wheels icons like the Twin Mill, the Surf n Turf, and my personal favorite, the Deora II, but still have room to explore the novel car designs the game has to offer. All vehicles are fully re-sprayable, of course, as if it wouldn't be for the amount of coin this toy costs. You even get an in-game copy of the McLaren Senna and a matching diecast car with the Collectors Edition.

Initial controller input on the Apple iOS version that we tested the game and RC car on appeared to have a noticeable delay between the phone and the car. Of course, this only serves to make the illusion the car is going lightning quick when playing on the phone all the more attainable. Even if the real-life car is tootling along at a speed small dogs don't mind chasing around for fun, you'd be none the wiser, assuming you didn't look up from your phone screen. Choosing between a slower low gear and a faster high gear setting at the top of the screen during gameplay was another nice touch.

The illusion of racing in a three-dimensional, immersive experience with diverse environments and a fun choice of AR vehicles suspends your disbelief almost like professional wrestling does. You know it's not real; the ambient glow of the Chamelion passing by every so often reminds you if you forget. But you don't care. Why? Because it's so gosh-darn fun. Meanwhile, two electric motors, one at each rear wheel, power the Chameleon, whose battery took no more than two hours to charge from dead to full in our experience.

With chunky tires on offer sporting well-defined treads at all four corners, it's tempting to think the Chamelion would be decent off-road, as it is on hardwood or carpeted floors. But, being rear-wheel drive only, the Chamelion fails to tread over all but the shortest and most-level freshly-cut backyard grass. For the same reasons, you might want to make cut-out ramps from old pizza boxes or soda-pop cases if your living space has dips or bumps between rooms where the floor is a little uneven.

All in all, the Hot Wheels: Rift Rally play set is the kind of experience kids couldn't even fathom back in 2005. If the replay factor is a big concern for prospective parents, as it should be at this price point, we're pretty confident your child will get a fair amount of joy out of this unique RC Car/AR experience. You know, before confining itself to the inevitable toy chest that never gets opened anymore like it's Toy Story or something. For these reasons, if your kid's done all their homework and aced all their math tests recently, Hot Wheels: Rift Rally is one of the most heartfelt gift toys a parent can buy off the shelf for their little petrolhead at the moment.

That said, there are a few negative points we must point out. The cardboard stage markers held to their plastic stands by fragile plastic clips might not last as long as you'd like. Being able to play on the go via airplane mode via the Rift Rally iOS app was another lovely touch too.

In a world where triple-a racing video games offer enough excitement to last for ages, we're happy to see the historic Hot Wheels brand we all know and love to take on a form factor that younger generations not only find appealing but even older Hot Wheels fans can't help but respect. For this reason, Hot Wheels: Rift Rally gets our seal of approval.

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