Back in 2020 Nintendo in partnership with Velan Studios released Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, a mixed reality racing game for Nintendo Switch. The basic concept is that the game came with a physical kart that was equipped with a camera, and you would control that kart and see what its camera sees via your Nintendo Switch. The game came with 4 special gates that the kart’s camera could recognize so you were able to place the gates around your house or wherever in order to create your own race courses. Being that you viewed all the action through the Switch’s screen, all sorts of stuff could be overlaid on the video being delivered from the kart’s camera, like other racers, special items, and more, blending a true Mario Kart experience with the real life world around you.
Mario Kart Live was a pretty huge success, and now Velan has brought their patented RC mixed reality technology to another major partner in Mattel to produce Hot Wheels: Rift Rally, a similar mixed reality racing experience that utilizes the toy brand’s iconic miniature car line. Most of what I just described about Mario Kart Live holds true in Hot Wheels: Rift Rally–the camera-equipped vehicle, the gates for course creation, the blending of virtual images and real-world footage captured from the car–but rather than needing a Nintendo Switch to play you can play Hot Wheels: Rift Rally via an iOS device or a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5. I know there’s A LOT of people in the world who own a Switch, but still this should make an experience like this more accessible to even more people.
As you might expect, Velan has really leaned into being able to harvest from the legendary lineup of Hot Wheels vehicles. As such the physical vehicle that comes with the game is codenamed the Chameleon, and that’s because it’ll be able to transform into more than 140 different Hot Wheels vehicles from across its 50+ year history, as well as some new original vehicles exclusive to Hot Wheels: Rift Rally. In addition to the gate-placement circuit racing you can do, Rift Rally includes an extensive Stunt Mode where you can string together all types of cool moves like drifts, wheelies, burnouts, and more to shoot for high scores and unlock rewards.
Hot Wheels: Rift Rally is available starting today in GameStop stores or online through the Rift Rally website. The Standard Edition is $129.99 and comes with a white Chameleon vehicle, 4 gates, and a charging cable. There’s also a special Collector’s Edition for $149.99 that comes with a sweet black Chameleon vehicle, 4 gates, charging cable, and an exclusive die-cast McLaren Senna Hot Wheels that is also unlockable for your vehicle in-game. Velan and Mattel were generous enough to provide us with a review unit of the Standard Edition, so look forward to more in-depth thoughts about Hot Wheels: Rift Rally from us in the coming days. In the meantime you can also discuss this with our community in our forums.
