Hot Wheels Showdown

Recently I bought this Aston Martin DBS and although usually I don't bother to pay any attention to the Hot Wheels packaging but this time around something caught my eyes and make me curious about it and I end up trying it for fun sake, it's a free service so no harm trying right?

How Wheels Showdown.... what can I say about it.... OK, first thing first, visit this Hot Wheels website to learn more about it:

http://www.hotwheels.com/en-us/showdown.html

If you want explanation from me using my own words, it is basically some sort of game platform or service but somehow it is related to the Hot Wheels toy cars that you purchased.

- Race the cars you unlock!
- Download the app or play the Showdown game on desktop!
1. Look for codes on the back of car packs.
2. Scan the QR code or enter the code to play online.
3. Build the ultimate collection and race your cars in the game!

In this case, you can see that logo or wording of "Hot Wheels Showdown" from the top left corner of Hot Wheels packaging from the picture below:

And you can read a little bit about it from the back side:

And so I went on and try it...

In my case, I use Android phone, so I go to "Play Store" and search for the apps "Hot Wheels Showdown", found it, download it and installed it:

And then I go into the apps and this what you will see:

By the way as a side note, in my case at least, I was asked to also installed "Google Play Games", I don't know what ever that is but I believe it's from Google and thus I have no problem with it and just installed it as well.

So OK, back to the apps, you will then see this on your phone screen:

The apps/game will ask you to login using your Hot Wheels account (if you have any) though even if you don't have any, you can just register/sign up right away. They just asked for your e-mail address and the password that you wish to assign, no big deal.

Make sure you touch that "Skip Tutorial" thingy....

So from here, I then go to "Scan":

You can either scan the QR Code (using your camera) or enter the product code, for this Aston Martin DBS the code is 9E0FY, it's stated there under the QR Code at the back of the packaging...

I choose to scan the QR Code:

And just like that, the Aston Martin DBS is in and you read to race....

So if you happen to bought many Hot Wheels cars with the label of "Hot Wheels Show Down" at the packaging, I believe you can scan them all and add them into your collection.

To view your car, go back to this main screen and go to "Collection":

You will see this:

To view the car you just scanned just now, go into "All Cars" and then "My Cars":

And there, we can see my Aston Martin DBS:

Select that car and the "Play":

Next you need to "Select A Terrain" - for this demo, I just select "City":

And then you need to choose either "Single" or "Versus" - Single means you play against the AI CPU while Versus probably means you can play with other user who happen to be online at that time... I believe that is the case, I don't bother to try LOL....

And you select the difficulty level, you will lock more as you progress further....

Next you choose your "steering wheel" type:

Wait a little while...

And the rest is ON.... go ahead and race your heart out LOL....

Personally for me, I don't really fancy racing using such aerial view but that's what available for now, maybe as you progress further you can get something else or maybe if you choose other terrain perhaps you can experience different things... go ahead and explore yourself.

I believe for those who use Apple iPhone will also able to enjoy this apps/game/service though sadly this thing is made available by Hot Wheels till October 1, 2015 only - probably they just want do a trial run and see the market response and maybe they will move on and create something else better in the future or probably they will continue this platform.... no body know for sure but let's wait and see...

For now, if you are interested with this, go ahead and try it.... good luck!!!

In my opinion, this is quite an innovative platform service created by Hot Wheels and although this is not really something new and maybe in the past many others have tried similar thing and I guess in Japan they have something like this using their wonderful mobile phone systems but even so I think Hot Wheels did a great job here and so far, I like it this idea and in this era of touch screen smart phones, all this things are made easier and easily accessed by many. I mean, many younger kids nowadays don't really appreciate or play with toys, they play more with the smart phones and tablets and what ever electronic gadgets there is they have at home supplied by their parents and Hot Wheels is try to do something good here, let them kids enjoy buying toys and "integrate" their Hot Wheels collection into a software platform accessible through the smartphones and tablets and so on.... brilliant, absolutely brilliant!!!

Oh yeah.... according to the Hot Wheels, you can also play this game on your desktop....



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