Hot Wheels Unleashed update makes game borderline unplayable on the go for Nintendo Switch

I love my Nintendo Switch. You’ve probably caught that by now if you follow my articles. And one thing I’ve been really loving on my Switch is Hot Wheels Unleashed.

Not only is the game surprisingly beautiful with its true to scale sizing and its realistic bent plastic tracks, but it also has a bunch of fun licensed stuff like the Ninja Turtle fan, K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider. And soon, a ton of Batman stuff including the Dark Knight and his Super-Villains.

With its quick tracks, it has become my go to game on the go, especially when I’m sitting in my car waiting for my kid to get out of school. Because of traffic, sometimes I get there 20-30 minutes before he gets out, so I just chill in my car and game.

That came to an end today when I went to play it in my car. Immediately I was met with this message.

It then tried to get me to pick a near by network of which I had none to access. I hit cancel and I got it again. I got it between every logo and menu screen. I was making my way through it, but through a slew of internet requests.

Finally, I got into the screen where I could race after getting an error telling me I wouldn’t be able to save any progress I made. Then it let me go to the vehicle selection.

Not only did I not have access to the one DLC car I have, but all my liveries were gone. Liveries are the graphic design you give to one of your vehicles to make it your own. The game allows for you to put up to 1,000 layers of design to your vehicle and with some people’s cars it shows. It’s a huge draw for the game. But they were all gone.

And honestly, if my bus isn’t going to be half-covered in checkers, say “SKA” on one side and “PICK IT UP” on the other, then why even drive it?

I spent a lot of time making every vehicle look the way I want it. I made a car look just like the Portal gun. I turned a truck with a hamburger into a Soylent Green delivering vehicle. And yes, I painted my Raptor vehicle to look like Yoshi despite the fact that everyone else did too. Sue me. But that was all gone.

I went to go work on a custom track I’ve been fiddling with. That was gone too. Everything I had created in the game was gone. Luckily, it got back when I got home but I had to restart the game so it could upload my work from a cloud I never realized I was saving to.

That sucks though. Why would a game that was perfectly playable on the go, suddenly remove that option? I reached out for a comment but haven’t heard anything yet about it. Here’s hoping this gets fixed.