Is the Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels DLC expansion worth it?
Best answer: Until Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels, officially releases, it’s not clear whether it’ll deliver on all its ambitious promises. From what we’ve seen, however, it seems FH5’s first DLC expansion will be an excellent addition to the open-world racing game, with hours of new content delivered to players alongside a diverse new map, standalone campaign, and more cars.
Return of a legend
Forza Horizon, the long-running open-world arcade racing franchise from Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios, and Hot Wheels, the legendary toy franchise creating toy cars for decades, have teamed up in the past with Forza Horizon 3’s Hot Wheels DLC. The dynamic duo is returning once again with the first DLC expansion for Forza Horizon 5, an expansion to the Mexico-inspired map that has players race among the clouds along exciting Hot Wheels tracks and circuits.
While the idea isn’t original, Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels is certainly a departure from its predecessor, and features an all-new world with four incredibly diverse and unique biomes to explore, a new lineup of cars to collect, and a wide variety of Hot Wheels tracks that players can even use to build their own custom races with EventLab.
Forza Horizon 5 has long since proven itself as one of the best racing games you can play, but many players have been waiting for months for its first expansion to deliver fresh content and cars to the game.
Some of the headlining features of Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels include:
- Four new biomes to explore in the Horizon Hot Wheels Park, all of which are available to explore immediately after completing the Initial Experience. Free Fast Travel will also be available to all players across the entire park from the beginning. The four biomes include:
- Forest Falls, a gorgeous, vibrant green forest filled with stunning, grand waterfalls and water features
- Giant’s Canyon, a rugged and imposing rocky valley that dwarfs the base game’s Copper Canyon with its depth and variety
- Ice Cauldron, an intimidating juxtaposition between a frigid, frozen tundra and boiling lakes and rivers of molten lava
- Horizon Nexus, a Festival Site that hangs suspended in the clouds, and that acts as a hub for the Horizon Hot Wheels Park
- Over 100 miles of tracks inspired by Hot Wheels playsets. To be exact, Playground Games promises over 120 miles (200 kilometers) of Hot Wheels tracks, with multiple varieties that aim to make every race and experience entirely unique. The different track variants include:
- Standard tracks, which will be most common throughout the Hot Wheels Park
- Magnet tracks, which help players defy gravity with stomach-lurching loops, flips, and turns
- Ice tracks, which test the traction of even the most capable off-roading vehicles with slick, frozen surfaces
- Water flume tracks, which combine waterpark fun with high-speed racing by cascading water along the track
- Rumble tracks, which will threaten to disrupt the control of even the most experienced racers with uneven, bumpy surfaces
- Power boosters, which will catapult your cars to greater and greater speeds, enabling you to pull off even riskier stunts and jumps
- A standalone campaign known simply as the Hot Wheels Academy, in which players will start off limited to B-Class cars, and slowly rise up the ranks to X-Class and the coveted Hot Wheels Legend championship title. Players can progress through the Horizon Academy by completing tailored events and activities.
- New world and gameplay features for players to discover while they explore the Hot Wheels Park, including:
- New Accolades for various Hot Wheels Parks actions, events, and accomplishments
- New Bonus Boards to smash for various perks and bonuses
- New Floating Piñata collectibles to find and smash
- New PR Stunts to test your abilities
- A new, five-part Horizon Story exploring the origin of Hot Wheels
- Special Hot Wheels Heats events that can be unlocked by completing specific missions
- Seasonal Hot Wheels events courtesy of the Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist
- A more connected experience that aims to bring players together, including:
- Online co-op open from the very beginning and throughout the entirety of Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels, including the Horizon Academy
- Horizon Open and Horizon Tour Events and races
- A new Hot Wheels Creation Kit with over 80 pieces and props for EventLab, enabling players to design and build their own races and events that can be shared with the community
- 10 new cars to collect that range from brand-new Hot Wheels additions to the Forza Horizon franchise, as well as other additions to the rapidly growing Forza Horizon 5 car list. The new cars we know of include:
- 2000 Hot Wheels Deora II
- 2006 Mosler MT900 GT3
- 2012 Hot Wheels Bad to the Blade
- 2013 Hot Wheels Baja Bone Shaker
- 2018 Hot Wheels Chevrolet Camaro COPO
- 2018 Subaru WRX STI ARX Supercar
- 2019 Brabham BT62
- 2020 SIERRA Cars ALPHA #23 Yokohama
- 2021 Hennessey Venom F5
Yet to prove itself
All of this sounds excellent on paper, but the fact remains that Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels hasn’t released yet, and so hasn’t had a chance to properly prove itself. What we’ve seen looks amazing, but we’ll have to wait for the final release to really dive in and see whether Playground Games managed to craft another masterpiece with FH5’s debut DLC expansion.
Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels officially releases on July 19, 2022, and is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC platforms. It’ll also be available through Xbox Cloud Gaming for DLC owners, and Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can enjoy discounts on purchasing the new DLC or any bundles in which it’s included.
There are numerous ways to acquire Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels, including:
- A standalone purchase, which only includes this DLC expansion and nothing else. The retail price is $20, and is now available to preorder
- The Forza Horizon 5 Expansions Bundle DLC, which includes Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels and one other, currently unannounced DLC expansion. The retail price is $35, and is available to purchase
- The Forza Horizon 5 Premium Add-ons Bundle DLC, which includes the aforementioned Expansions Bundle, as well as various other DLC like the VIP Membership, Welcome Pack, and Car Pass DLCs. The retail price is $50, and is available to purchase
