Velan Studios has announced Hot Wheels: Rift Rally for iOS, PS5, and PS4, a mixed reality racing game where players can remotely control a car through a race track set up inside their very home. If that sounds familiar to Nintendo's Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit game, that's no accident, as Velan Studios was the developer behind it.

　　For Rift Rally, the studio will be using the technology that helped it bring Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit to life a few years ago, but with a Hot Wheels spin. The game package includes the Chameleon RC car, which can digitally transform into one of 22 core vehicles and more than 140 vehicle variations such as the Twin Mill, Bone Shaker, Mach Speeder, and Gotta Go, while the core gameplay will focus on custom tracks, multiplayer, and new cross-platform features.

　　Similar to Mario Kart Live's RC kart, the Rift Rally car comes equipped with a 1080p onboard camera and a battery life of around two hours. The RC car has working headlights, brake lights, engine belts, and fans, and when active, the camera feeds back a live version of your racing area that has been designed to look like a Hot Wheels track. In Campaign mode, players can set up Rift Gates to create a mixed reality track and explore different challenge maps, each one having multiple challenges to complete. In Stunt mode, players drive while chaining together drifts, wheelies, and burnouts to hit high scores and earn rewards.

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　　Hot Wheels: Rift Rally will launch on the App Store for iOS and PlayStation Store on March 14, 2023. Like Mario Kart Live, the software to play it will be free, while the physical standard edition that includes the RC car and four rift gates will cost you $130. A collector's edition version will also be available for $150 and includes a special edition Chameleon car with black deco and gold accents and a limited edition McLaren Senna Hot Wheels die-cast car in a display case.

　　If you'd prefer something more traditional when it comes to Hot Wheels, there are two great options available right now. A Hot Wheels expansion for Forza Horizon 5 launched last year and lets you build your own gravity-defying tracks, and Hot Wheels Unleashed is a solid racing game that mixes original vehicle designs with iconic rides from the silver screen.

　　Darryn Bonthuys on Google+