Hot Wheels Rift Rally - AR Will Take Over Your Home (Hands On)

# Hot Wheels Rift Rally: Transform Your Home into a Race Track with Augmented Reality

Hot Wheels has always been synonymous with speed, style, and endless possibilities. Now, they’ve taken it to the next level with the **Hot Wheels Rift Rally**, an innovative remote-controlled (RC) car that combines augmented reality (AR), gaming, and physical play like never before. In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about this groundbreaking toy, straight from the video transcription.

## The Concept: Turn Your House into a Race Track

Every kid’s dream is to turn their entire house into a Hot Wheels race track or obstacle course. The **Hot Wheels Rift Rally** makes that dream a reality. This isn’t just an ordinary RC car—it has a built-in camera and augmented reality capabilities, allowing you to transform your home environment into a virtual race track on your screen.

The game system is developed by Bellin Studios, and it’s reminiscent of the popular **Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit** game, where you can drive around your house and have it feel like a video game on the screen. However, the Rift Rally takes it further by opening up gameplay to iOS devices (iPhone, iPad) and even the PlayStation.

## The Chameleon Car: 20 Variants, Each with Unique Abilities

One of the standout features of the Rift Rally is its ability to switch between **20 different car models**, each with its own unique variants. Whether you choose a sleek, fast vehicle or a harder-to-control model, the car will physically respond to your choices. It can go faster, slower, or turn differently depending on which model you select.

The car’s adaptability is truly impressive. For example, if you pick a car with a booster, it might feel faster and more responsive, while others may be trickier to handle. What’s even cooler? The car reacts to virtual opponents on the track. If another car bumps you in the game, you’ll feel the impact through the controller—it’s like the digital world is interacting with the physical one!

## Multiplayer Fun: Up to Four Players

The Rift Rally isn’t just for solo play. You don’t need to buy multiple cars for an entire family because up to four players can join in on the fun by passing the controller. Each player can switch their car model mid-game, making it easy to customize your experience on the fly.

As you play more, you’ll unlock new cars and challenges. The game offers various missions and tasks on a map, but if racing isn’t your thing, you can always just have fun doing stunt driving—like performing wheelies (even if the car itself doesn’t physically do it, the AR effect makes it seem like it does!).

## Building Your Race Track

To get started with the Rift Rally, all you need to do is **place markers around your house**. These markers help the game recognize the layout of your space and create a unique virtual track based on where you’ve placed them. Whether it’s through doors, under tables, or across carpets, your home becomes the race track.

This setup process is straightforward, but what sets it apart from similar toys is its **Wi-Fi connectivity**. Instead of being limited by Bluetooth range, the Rift Rally can connect to your Wi-Fi network, allowing for a much larger play area—limited only by how far your Wi-Fi signal extends. And yes, it works perfectly on carpets too!

## Augmented Reality: Bringing the Race to Life

The AR aspect of the Rift Rally takes the gaming experience to another level. While watching footage of the car zipping around your floor might not look very exciting, experiencing it through the screen is entirely different. You’ll feel every burn, crash, and acceleration as the game overlays realistic effects like tire smoke, burning rubber, and fiery dragons (yes, there are dragons in some challenges!).

The fun doesn’t stop there—**you can even perform wheelies** by jumping or tilting your car mid-game. The AR camera adds an extra layer of immersion, making it feel like you’re truly part of the action.

## Controller Options and Customization

Like Mario Kart Live, the Rift Rally offers multiple ways to control the car. You can use touch controls on the screen, tilt your device, or plug in a traditional joystick for more precise movement. For PlayStation users, there’s also an optional controller accessory that enhances gameplay.

For those looking to splurge, there are **two versions** of the Rift Rally available:

- The standard **Chameleon version**, priced at around $130.

- The **Collector’s Edition**, which costs about $150 and comes with a special diecast car and additional in-game features.

## Battery Life and Charging

The Rift Rally’s battery is designed to last about two hours of continuous play, depending on how much action you put it through. Recharging is quick too—expect to get back up to full power in just one hour of charging.

## The Future of Digital and Physical Play

Hot Wheels has long been experimenting with blending digital and physical play, and the Rift Rally is a testament to their success in doing so. With instant car transformations and real-time reactions, it’s hard not to get excited about the endless possibilities for creativity and fun.

## Conclusion: A Must-Try for Gaming Enthusiasts

While we’ve only had a brief demo of the Hot Wheels Rift Rally, it’s clear that this toy has the potential to be a game-changer in the world of RC cars and augmented reality gaming. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or just looking for a fun way to engage your kids, the Rift Rally offers something for everyone.

Stay tuned for our full review, where we’ll dive deeper into the gameplay experience and put this car through its paces. In the meantime, let us know in the comments what excites you most about the Hot Wheels Rift Rally or what your ideal setup would be to make the most out of this toy!

Thanks for watching!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhere's every kid's dream turn your entire house into a Hot Wheels race track obstacle course this is Hot Wheels Rift rally it's an RC car it has a camera it has augmented reality and you can drive around the house and do all sorts of things with the camera with the video game I'm going to show you what it's like multiple game system is from Bellin Studios and it's a lot like what you may have seen in Mario Kart live the home circuit game where you can drive around your house and have it be almost like a video game on the screen but here they've opened it up to where you can play with iOS devices the iPhone the iPad or the PlayStation they call this car the chameleon that's because you can make it be one of 20 different cars and each one of those cars has its own variants and depending on what kind of model you're picking on the screen maybe you have a really cool slick car that has a different kind of booster than something else might be harder to drive it will respond as you're driving you'll feel it go faster it physically goes faster or slows down or turns different ways depending on which model you've picked and it even reacts to Virtual cars on the track when you're getting bumped you don't have to buy multiple cars for a whole family in fact you can play a game where you're sitting on the couch passing the controller along and four players can change whatever car they want to have be their car as they go through a track play enough you'll be able to even unlock others cool so you can play by having different missions to accomplish in your map different challenges or you can just have some fun doing stunt driving so here's one example of a race mode challenge you're going through your ringing Bells under the gate those bells are making the dragon mad and it's blowing fire all over the track but enough talking it's time to play I'm not a good driver or you can change your car right in the middle of the game too I did a wheelie so the actual car didn't do a wheelie but that's the fun of having the augmented reality camera on there because it's making it seem like I just did even though the car on the bottom didn't you can build the truck however you want you just got to plop these down around the house go around the circuit so it knows where everything is and what makes it unique this time around is that it could be connected to Wi-Fi so your distance of your track is really just limited to how far your Wi-Fi extends and yes it works on carpet it is so much more fun to play in AR because of all the sensory reactions the you know the the tires burning the smoke the way you crash it must not look very exciting just looking at the footage of it running around the floor but you feel it more it's easier to drive when you're looking at the screen than looking at just the RC car zipping around so when this style of gaming was first executed with Mario Kart Live It was obviously tied to the Nintendo switch this really has opened up now to anyone and who wants to play on an iPhone an iPad or the PlayStation you can you know have additional controller accessories on your iPhone you can also just play by touching the screen or using tilt controls even a joystick option to drive it around but of course there's also the PlayStation controller like you would expect now there are actually two versions you can buy there is the version here in white the chameleon it starts at about 130 dollars and there is a collector's edition this one comes in Black it has a little extra special feature you're going to be getting with it a special diecast car and some features in the game as well and this one starts at about 150 dollars the battery is going to last about two hours and I'm told when you charge it you can get it back up to speed in an hour of charging I've been seeing more ways that toy companies are kind of trying to blur the worlds of digital play and physical play Hot Wheels has done a lot of experimentation in this world and it's always lending itself very perfect to that because who doesn't want to instantly change their Hot Wheels car and see how it reacts in real time so I like the execution of this just from our short demo here today but we'll have to definitely take it for a spin for the full version so stick with CNET to see our full review in the meantime let me know in the comments what you have questions about for this and what your ideal setup would be in the house to have fun with this thanks for watchinghere's every kid's dream turn your entire house into a Hot Wheels race track obstacle course this is Hot Wheels Rift rally it's an RC car it has a camera it has augmented reality and you can drive around the house and do all sorts of things with the camera with the video game I'm going to show you what it's like multiple game system is from Bellin Studios and it's a lot like what you may have seen in Mario Kart live the home circuit game where you can drive around your house and have it be almost like a video game on the screen but here they've opened it up to where you can play with iOS devices the iPhone the iPad or the PlayStation they call this car the chameleon that's because you can make it be one of 20 different cars and each one of those cars has its own variants and depending on what kind of model you're picking on the screen maybe you have a really cool slick car that has a different kind of booster than something else might be harder to drive it will respond as you're driving you'll feel it go faster it physically goes faster or slows down or turns different ways depending on which model you've picked and it even reacts to Virtual cars on the track when you're getting bumped you don't have to buy multiple cars for a whole family in fact you can play a game where you're sitting on the couch passing the controller along and four players can change whatever car they want to have be their car as they go through a track play enough you'll be able to even unlock others cool so you can play by having different missions to accomplish in your map different challenges or you can just have some fun doing stunt driving so here's one example of a race mode challenge you're going through your ringing Bells under the gate those bells are making the dragon mad and it's blowing fire all over the track but enough talking it's time to play I'm not a good driver or you can change your car right in the middle of the game too I did a wheelie so the actual car didn't do a wheelie but that's the fun of having the augmented reality camera on there because it's making it seem like I just did even though the car on the bottom didn't you can build the truck however you want you just got to plop these down around the house go around the circuit so it knows where everything is and what makes it unique this time around is that it could be connected to Wi-Fi so your distance of your track is really just limited to how far your Wi-Fi extends and yes it works on carpet it is so much more fun to play in AR because of all the sensory reactions the you know the the tires burning the smoke the way you crash it must not look very exciting just looking at the footage of it running around the floor but you feel it more it's easier to drive when you're looking at the screen than looking at just the RC car zipping around so when this style of gaming was first executed with Mario Kart Live It was obviously tied to the Nintendo switch this really has opened up now to anyone and who wants to play on an iPhone an iPad or the PlayStation you can you know have additional controller accessories on your iPhone you can also just play by touching the screen or using tilt controls even a joystick option to drive it around but of course there's also the PlayStation controller like you would expect now there are actually two versions you can buy there is the version here in white the chameleon it starts at about 130 dollars and there is a collector's edition this one comes in Black it has a little extra special feature you're going to be getting with it a special diecast car and some features in the game as well and this one starts at about 150 dollars the battery is going to last about two hours and I'm told when you charge it you can get it back up to speed in an hour of charging I've been seeing more ways that toy companies are kind of trying to blur the worlds of digital play and physical play Hot Wheels has done a lot of experimentation in this world and it's always lending itself very perfect to that because who doesn't want to instantly change their Hot Wheels car and see how it reacts in real time so I like the execution of this just from our short demo here today but we'll have to definitely take it for a spin for the full version so stick with CNET to see our full review in the meantime let me know in the comments what you have questions about for this and what your ideal setup would be in the house to have fun with this thanks for watching\n"