Hot Rod Mayhem Review

Hot Rod Mayhem is a cartoon-ish racing game mixed with elements from kart games like Nintendo’s flagship series Mario Kart. Design a character (more on that below), a car and a choose a race track and just go nuts. The game offers 10 unique race tracks available in four different ways.

Race tracks are available in standard, reversed, mirrored and twisted ways. While they are essentially the same ones, having them offered in slightly remixed version is a nice touch. When it comes to characters, it’s a bit different than most similar cartoon-y racers.

Instead of a choosing a prefabricated character, you have a base character model that you can customize to your liking; by choosing a suit, helmet and a head. It allows for a decent character variety and players can have a customized character with the available skins.

And in order to race your way to the finish line at the top racer, you’ll be able to pick up a variety of items in order to cause chaos on the racetracks. You’ll be able to pick up offensive such as lawn dart (think of it as the equivalent of Mario Kart’s blue shell), a marble, spinning top; you’ll also be able to pick up a shield that will allow you to deflect a single hit. Very useful against the lawn dart.

The game does have a cute cartoon-y look to it that will definitely appeal to kids. The overall look of the game is highly colorful with uniquely designed tracks. There’s a limited, albeit decent skins available to create your character. The tracks are overall well-designed and unique. They are pretty fun to race through and each has its own unique challenge. The soundtrack is, as you’d expect, a generic cutesy soundtrack that will be forgotten the moment you shut off the game.

The game’s main problem is that it’s thin on gameplay. You can do a Championship mode and then instant races, but you can’t do a single one. You’re asked to do a minimum of three; which you can choose or either have the game randomly choose. While it does offer fun with friends, it feels shallow. An additionally battle-like mode or challenge/objective based races would’ve been a nice diversion.

Hot Rod Mayhem is a fun and addictive cute racing game with tight controls. While it does feel limited on gameplay due to having only two game modes, it’s easy to pick up and play and can be a great game to play with friends, partners and young kids. It’s good for a few rounds and laughs, but don’t expect to be playing it for hours on end. It can be a great diversion between more extensive gameplay experiences.