It wasn’t too long ago that we talked about an interesting new indie game by the name of King of the Road. Today we have more information on the wide release of this title that was originally developed by Coin Crew Games, now rechristened as Hot Wheels – King of the Road.
The original version we looked at was first shown at the Two Bit Circus micro amusement park in LA. Supporting up to 8 players, each with their own steering wheel and foot pedal, the objective is to “drive and survive,” being the last person on the road as you drive along busy, obstacle and traffic packed streets.
Now, one well-known manufacturer has grabbed the game and is rebranding it for a release using the popular Hot Wheels license. Here’s a trailer, then more info. Note that this is the second trailer posted for the game, but Adrenaline removed the initial one and replaced it with this more complete and informative version:
This rebrand of the game was first seen at the AAMA Gala last month, where it’s been oddly difficult to get a hold of any photos of product at the event (photos of people playing unknown games are always easy to get from the Gala, for whatever reason). While I don’t have any of those, here’s a cabinet photo that I extracted from the video above:
Some major revisions have been made to the Two Bit Circus version to better fit with the license. Instead of driving a city street, you are now driving along an orange Hot Wheels track that is full of ramps, obstacles and coins that translate into tickets. They also have brought the number of players down to six from eight. I believe that this will operate in a non-ticket mode (every time I ask Adrenaline about that on their videmption content, they say it is possible. That said, this trailer just highlights tickets), but will confirm such when I see the game at IAAPA 2019, where the game will make it’s official industry debut. If it does support fun/scoring-only mode, it will need to offer more than 60-second races.
It’s always good to see indie developers make the transition from indie to “the big time” – as we also learned recently, Coin Crew is developing Battle Bowling, although it is not one of Adrenaline’s next pick-ups, as of this writing. What do you think about this new entry into videmption gaming from what has been shown so far?
When I hear “Hot Wheels” or “Micro Machines” I instantly think about tracks made of household stuff. The tracks on the video are too boring for me.
To each their own, although this wasn’t designed as a simulator (and they get Hot Wheels tracks right, by how I recall them with the plastic orange track pieces and loops). This game will do well with kids.
True, it’s OK for a younger audience or many (3+) older players. The unique feature at this game is that it can handle 8 players without split screen. To keep them all visible on screen, they had to make compromises in track design.
PS: correction: 6 players