Hot Wheels World Race (PlayStation 2, GameCube, Windows)

Hot Wheels World Race is a game based on the Cartoon Network movie of the same name to coincide with Hot Wheels’ 35th Anniversary. It is a surprisingly decent game which has a fair share of unused content.

Prototype Info Prerelease Info

Unused Opening#

CREDITS.PSS contains an early version of the opening developer credits with unused transitions. The final game has each developer credit as a separate file without transitions.

One thing to note is the end contains a "Highway 35" logo containing a different font from what's used in the rest of the series. Interestingly, this file is not present in the PC version. This is present in Milestone 9 and Version 303.

Unused Items#

Gallery Videos#

Along with pictures of every car, there were plans to have unlockable videos in the Gallery as well, as shown in gallery_info.xml (along with a frustrated developer's notes):

<!-- Gallery Videos - name changed below cuz we aren't having the movie anymore....but leave it here in case someone
changes their mind again-->
   <GALLERY_ITEM_NOT_USED internal_name="credits" locked="true" descriptive_name="GALLERY36" item_type="movie"/>

Unused Graphics#

Boy_Band.bog#

A poorly-rendered image of the team leaders, located in the frontend folder. Note that all drivers in the game use 2D drawings instead of 3D renders. This can be seen in a lot of early builds for a placeholder title screen.

Goat.bog#

A stock image of a goat, located in the init folder.

35_logo.bog#

Leftover from early development builds, located in the frontend folder.

track_select_backgrounds.bog#

A leftover from the May 12, 2003 prototype, located in the "frontend” folder. The only background used in that prototype is the Vast Jungle 2 one, leaving the rest unused.

logo_bar.bog#

The game's company logos, meant to display on the legal information but doesn't due to them already having a video file. Located in the frontend folder.

Tlang_blocker.bog#

According to the May 12 prototype, this graphic was meant to display on the barriers of blocked paths. Located in the models folder.

characters.bog#

Another leftover from the May 12 prototype, these are test renders of the team members. Located in the frontend folder.

Debugging Material#

In track_info.xml, setting "boost_boxes_visible" in any given track to "true" highlights all boost pads and ramps on that track with a green box.

Unused Models#

crate.rom#

An object shaped like a jack. It might have been used at one point by being an obstacle for the racers to avoid. This goes along with the smashcrate.wav sound file.

Unused Sounds#

Unused Music#

Despite it being there for the intro, Smash Mouth's "Hot" is never used for anything else in the game. It's probably a placeholder for Steve Rockett's remix later on in development.

Vulgar Developer Messages#

Located in the executable at hex offset 00201E50 is a vulgar message from a developer threatening another Climax developer named Duncan. The "Dodgy bog standard (Jesus, Duncan!)" is a common message used in other Climax PS2 games.

Unhappy with texture '%s'!
Can't set ARGB4444 for '%s'!
Unhappy with targa '%s'!
Failed to load texture '%s'!
Fuck off!  Unsupported image format '%d' in '%s'!
Dodgy bog standard (Jesus, Duncan!)

Located at hex offset 001FA340 is a funny little message about fragmented memory.

Warning, you have fragmented memory!
Oops Fragmentation Increase
twat

Located at hex offset 001EE720 is a message about the stats of tricks in the air, with fails colorfully labeled as "FuckRate".

RewardTorqueScale...
RewardMaxSpeed...
RewardMaxSpeedRange.
RewardTime..
FuckRateReturn..
FuckRate

Obscene Filenames#

Located in the Tracks folder, for CLNG (Tezla's Cube), VJ1 (Emerald Crater) and VJ2 (Vast Jungle), there's a file called "greyshit3". It is a texture of a sewer grate.

Internal Project Name#

The game's internal project name is hotwheels, to nobody's surprise.

Oddities#

Unused AI Opponents#

Power Rocket and Greased Lightnin' cannot be raced against as an AI. As it turns out, this is because their hitboxes are too long and the AI driver isn't designed for it.

Attempting to load them as AI opponents will crash the game.

Old Track Names#

Mist Mountain is referred to as "Oriental Mountain" in the folders for the track itself and in the game's executable. Similarly, Lava Twists is called "Oriental Mountain 2" in the executable.

PC Version Issues#

Demo#

The game crashes sometimes whenever the demo appears after a loading screen.

Unplayed Sounds#

A lot of the sounds from the console versions of this game don’t play in the PC version.

Unloaded Fog Effect#

Even though it is still in the code, the fog effect for both cloud levels are missing, making the levels look unfinished.

PS2	Windows

Sound Effect Pitch Changes#

Due to the developers hastily porting over the PlayStation 2 version's code to the PC version, the sound driver got messed up, resulting in all the sound effects being higher-or lower-pitched in some cases. This can be easily heard with the tire screech sound effects.

Missing Flame Aura Palette#

Even though it is still in the code, the Flame Aura palette whenever the player performs three tricks in a row with button combos is missing in the PC version.

PS2	Windows