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Understanding Aftermarket Aero OptionsForza Horizon 5 Meets Hot Wheels
One of the best arcade racing games out there just released a crossover with our favorite toy. Here’s Forza Horizon 5 and the Hot Wheels DLC!
Forza Horizon 5: Welcome to Mexico
Forza Horizon is the arcade racing simulation game sibling to the more serious Forza Motorsport series. While Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport players experience multiple real-world racing circuits and a strictly simulation racing environment, Playground Games takes that same Forza engine and creates an open world experience with races taking place at event called the Horizon Festival. This Horizon Festival is a fantasy event that travels the world looking for the fastest, craziest, and most skilled drivers out there. There are tons of races, drifting, stunt jumps, speed traps, and more all happening around one of the biggest music festivals I’ve ever seen.
Forza Horizon has brought racers together in Colorado, parts of Europe, Australia, Great Britain, and now Mexico. Forza Horizon 5 introduces a blend of Mexican heritage and locations with the Horizon Festival and its races featuring over 100 cars and counting. Players can experience lower end vehicles like the classic Volkswagen Beetle (lovingly dubbed the Vocho in Mexico) all the way up to serious land speeders like the Koenigsegg Jesko or even Ken Block’s Hoonicorn.
I’ve been loving the Forza Horizon 5 experience a ton since its release personally. There are just so many cars in the game to take a look at and more keep getting added every week. The extensive paint customization and car upgrades have me crafting some of my dream cars and have actually helped me make some side currency on the in-game designing and tuning markets. The Baja inspired cross country races make for a fun off-road dynamic that plays well into the various different terrains that can be found throughout Mexico. Then there are the multiple different story missions found throughout the Mexico map that provides crafted driving experiences through various challenges that introduce picturesque locations or interesting character stories.
I’ve pretty much buttoned up my Forza Horizon 5 experience and am nearing the 100% club since coming out last November, but now there’s a new Forza Horizon DLC that has hit the market that hasn’t been seen since Forza Horizon 3 – Hot Wheels. Yes, our childhood favorite car toys can be experienced in video game form. There are a number of Hot Wheels staple cars that have been added, new Hot Wheels inspired customization options, and most importantly, a new Hot Wheels map floating high above Mexico that has all of the swooping orange tracks you could ever want. Here’s a look at Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels.
Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels
To start, the introduction to this new Forza Horizon DLC is awesome. Three Hot Wheels inspired cars are attached to a giant Hot Wheels launcher pointed up an orange track piece that fans of the toy cars will be all too familiar with. They’re each launched at ludicrous speed up the track and into the sky to the floating Hot Wheels map. Be ready to chuck any questions out the window as to how and why a racing festival has enough money and advanced resources to create a place like this – it is a video game after all. Players then get their first experience of the new Hot Wheels tracks by driving the Bad to the Blade car at top speed alongside other Hot Wheels cars and a bright purple airplane flying just above the track. The intro ends with a cinematic speed through the Hot Wheels festival site and you’re finally dropped into a land that you had only pictured in your imagination when playing with those tiny cars as a little kid.
The Hot Wheels Map
The best way to describe this new Hot Wheels map is a high-speed playground. While normal roadways typically include some brake stomping corners, this place features long swooping curves and flat-out straights that let you really lay down the pedal. The tracks further this blistering speed with launchers and back draft elements that can push your vehicle well past its intended top speed, but you’ll need that added boost with how these tracks are laid out.
Like any good Hot Wheels toy set, the Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels map features a number of exciting loops, corkscrews, 90-degree banked turns, steep hills, and even a couple of appearances from dragons that will all get your adrenaline pumping. The tracks also incorporate a number of unique elements to them too like slick water rapids, ice covered surfaces, rumble tracks, and interesting magnet track portions that allow your car to defy gravity at any speed.
This expansion isn’t just about the toy inspired Hot Wheels tracks though, there are also three different biomes to explore. There are the snow-covered peaks of The Ice Cauldron that includes a molten lava center. Racers can also traverse the desert wasteland of Giant’s Canyon that features Grand Canyon like formations. And finally, there are the tall trees and magnificent waterfalls of Forest falls. Each biome provides a different terrain to experience off-road and each has its own breathtaking locations to enjoy speeding through.
New Hot Wheels Cars and Customizations
Along with the new Hot Wheels inspired map were a number of Hot Wheels cars making their appearance in Forza Horizon 5. The game already had both the iconic Twin Mill and Bone Shaker in the game, but Playground Games added some other collector favorites to the mix. The Baja Bone Shaker and Rip Rod are both fun cars for on and off-road racing. The Deora II, 2Jetz, and the Bad to the Blade models all make for some great fantasy choices to speed around the various tracks. Then there are the slightly more down to earth additions of the special edition Hot Wheels Ford Mustang, Nash Metropolitan Custom, and Ford F-5 Dually Custom Hot Rod that each have real world counterparts.
What good is keeping these cars stock though? Each new Hot Wheels car features a number of extensive performance upgrades and a couple new customization parts for all Forza Horizon 5 cars. The new customization bits include the new Redline tires that mimic the Hot Wheels toy wheels and there are 12 new Hot Wheels Spectraflame paint colors available to choose from. Now I can make a recreation of that 1968 Chevrolet Camaro that Hot Wheels debuted with.
New Hot Wheels Experiences
The Forza Horizon 5 expansion isn’t just about new places to drive and more vehicles, it also introduces a whole new story with plenty of challenges to keep you busy. I’ve nearly completed each of the five Hot Wheels Legends stages and I have to say that it’s been a fun experience. While carving through this new fast-paced world in races or trying to launch myself as far as possible with stunt jumps has been enjoyable, my favorite bit was probably the Hot Wheels: A History of Speed story missions that featured a side character named Haley as she explains her immense passion for these toy cars and their extensive history.
More Cars and Another Expansion on the Way!
Forza Horizon 5 itself is worth the price for those that enjoy a good car game, but the Hot Wheels expansion just furthers this experience in radical new ways. There are so many cars for enthusiasts to enjoy in this game and more are coming every week. Spring for the Premium Add-Ons Bundle and you’ll not only gain access to the wonderful Hot Wheel experience, but you gain car packs featuring Formula Drift cars, newer models from 2022, and nearly 50 other cars from different eras of the automobile. Not only does that bundle give you those cars and the Hot Wheels DLC, you’ll also get the future Forza Horizon DLC that has yet to be announced! I can’t wait to see where Forza Horizon 5 takes fans while we wait for the next big release of Forza Motorsport 8.
Interested in other car video games? Check out our other articles on Gran Turismo 7, Rocket League, and some of our other favorite car video games!
