I'm infamously bad at games like Mario Kart (just ask my coworkers), but I still found beginner difficulty to be a little too constraining. I do think it's great for younger kids still trying to figure out the basics. Advanced mode was a little more my speed -- you get enough guidance to keep you on the track, but it's still possible to maneuver around a bit and it's not annoyingly slow. I still ran off the track a few times, especially after being rammed by my human opponents. The AI is a fair enough driver, and a good way to learn the ropes.

Model cars and track racing are the bread and butter of Hot Wheels, but they might look a little long in the tooth compared to flashy console games like Gran Turismo and Need for Speed. With the new Hot Wheels AI set, toy autos get a bit of a boost -- not just in speed, but in intelligence. Each Hot Wheels AI set comes with two cars, 20 pieces of track and two controllers. The 1/32 scale models look like normal toy cars, with snazzy shells not based on any existing real world vehicle -- the blue design is called "Fast Fish" and the orange one is "Spin King." Flip them over and underneath you'll find two infrared sensors similar to the ones on a Roomba.