I played the heck out of some Hot Wheels as a kid. Not that I had some massive set I now keep under glass as a collector or anything, because most of the cars and trucks I had were literally played to pieces by the time I was 10, I think. Those things weren't made to be put under glass. Hot Wheels Velocity X Maximum Justice does the legacy proud, in my book. This is a hard-hitting, pedal-to-the-floor game that is perfectly over the top considering the source of inspiration.

Presented in Single Player with a Saturday morning cartoon approach, you play one of 5 modes as a young boy intent on stopping a threat to his father's experimental cars. Sure, it's a bit hokey, but the outline of a plot goes a long way to substantiating why you're out on the track doing things like money drop-offs and pick-ups, besting opponents on the drag strip and hunting down enemy cars intent on keeping you from accomplishing your mission. The environments you race in look great, and are fairly destructible. With over 30 distinct looking cars that perform differently and can carry one of a dozen weapons, all kind of cool combinations are available by the time you've unlocked 100 percent of Maximum Justice. The music rocks out, appropriately, and the voice acting is typical Saturday morning. The best thing going visually for the game is the sense that a track doesn't end with the road. I used to spend a lot of time just walking around my room 'driving' Hot Wheels cars anywhere that looked fun, pushing them up walls or along the ceiling. Here in Maximum Justice, you'll constantly find tracks leading up a sloped wall and with enough velocity you can drive along the ceiling, discover hidden ramps and cruise along a wall to get special pick-up items. It's awesome to see, and so true to the source material.

Multiplayer Battle and Drag Race will provide endless hours of fun for kids who want an electronic counterpart to their usual bedroom-floor game. Battle is the typical arena mode, and you play with unlocked cars and weapons to see who can survive the punishment and come out victorious. Not only are there many weapons to choose before the battle, but some pick-up items supercharge your weapon or offer a one-time power-up to use. Weapons tend to be split between simple restorative 'shield' items and menacing items for attacking the other driver. Oil slicks, mines and devastating proximity bombs coupled with guns and lasers can help you turn an enemy driver into a small soup can quicker than it takes to shift into second gear. The Drag Race is shared between both Multiplayer and Single Player modes, and is a point-to-point race for a quick one-shot victory. At times during Adventure Mode (Single Player only), you'll have to do a Drag Race against an opponent to progress. The main thing in this mode is to look for shortcuts and make the best time possible by avoiding anything that might slow you down.

Single Player modes include Battle and Drag Race against CPU opponents, as well as Adventure, Challenge and Joyride. The last one should speak for itself, and you can imagine Challenge is a more varied form of Drag. Instead of just racing from place to place, Challenge Mode asks you to do a bit more refined driving, veering around obstacles and going through a proving ground or simply pick up items before the clock runs out. Adventure Mode has the most story, and is the means by which you unlock all the cars and tracks in the game. Along the way, you'll try to beat each level by following objectives that range from simple pick-ups to races and seek-and-destroy style goals. The mechanics for following objectives include a nice arrow on screen, and you can always check in to see which objectives remain to be completed. Little cut scenes help to spin the story as you go along, and even when the fun is done in Adventure, you should have plenty of stuff unlocked that you can play with in other modes.

In the sometimes large and curvy levels you race in, a Helper Arrow is a nice thing indeed. Nothing new, considering long standing usage in games like this, from Crazy Taxi to any Rockstar driving game, but nice to have. Maximum Justice also includes pointers to where enemies or items can be located for missions that involve tracking something or someone down. And, if the AI seems a bit soft, you can always dial up the difficulty setting, from Easy to Very Hard. Joyride is the closest thing to a no-weapons racing experience, and what you'll find is that Maximum Justice isn't as much of a racing game as a car combat game with some racing sequences.

For a Racer that leans heavily toward the Arcade side of the realism spectrum, Maximum Justice still has some nice control. Cars are rated on several categories, and you frequently have the chance to make a change, so choose wisely. If traction around the corners is your thing, you can get it, but maybe at the expense of top speed. Ratings for Stunts and Armor round out the picture, and the Stunt feature is an easy way to rack up points. As you get air from jumps or find yourself in free-fall after cruising the wall or ceiling, you can press the shoulder buttons to make your car spin. Like any good stunt game, landing on all 4 wheels will earn a bonus you can apply to turbo and the reserve energy used for your weapons, or 'gadgets' as the game calls them. This is rated for 'Everyone' after all, so I guess we can't use the word 'weapon.' The flow through the game is quick, and extra levels and cars are unlocked easily as you complete objectives in Adventure Mode. The only thing missing is some kind of Garage option for you to store cars and maybe modify them somehow during the course of the game.

Especially at Christmas time, I get a little nostalgic for the days when Hot Wheels provided a major portion of playtime, along with Tonka, Matchbox and lots of other little vehicular toys whose brands have been forgotten. Although I doubt the virtual version, as seen in Maximum Justice, will take the place of real live toys, kids who already have a garage full of little cars will totally dig this excursion into a Hot Wheels' world. Getting behind the wheel of a Hot Wheel should pretty much be a little slice of heaven for any kid this holiday season.