Announced at the THQ Digital Showcase 2022 event, Wreckreation is a new arcade open-world racer from the creators of Burnout, blending the best of Burnout and Trackmania. With highly customisable tracks and chaotic combat racing, Wreckreation is shaping up to be the Burnout spiritual successor we’ve been waiting for.
What is the Wreckreation release date and which platforms can you play Wreckreation on? Here's everything we know about Wreckreation - the new Burnout spiritual successor.
Latest news - Wreckreation THQ Nordic Digital Showcase trailer
One year after the game was announced, a new Wreckreation trailer was shown at the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase 2023. The trailer showcases Wreckreation's unique track builder, but with no release window, it's unclear if it will still release in 2023.
The spirit of Burnout is back
Burnout is one of the most beloved arcade racers of all time. But despite this, we haven’t had a new Burnout game since Burnout Paradise way back in 2008 aside from 2018’s Burnout Paradise Remastered. With Wreckreation, the spirit of Burnout is back.
After the Need for Speed Most Wanted remake was released in 2012, developers Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry left Criterion Games to form Three Fields Entertainment in 2013, an indie studio specialising in arcade racers.
The studio’s first release was Dangerous Golf, a destructive golf game in which you score points for destroying indoor environments with a golf ball. Golf balls were then replaced with cars in Danger Zone and Danger Zone 2.
Inspired by Burnout’s Crash Mode, the Danger Zone games awarded points for deliberately crashing into traffic and causing as much mayhem as possible.
2019 saw the release of the underrated Dangerous Driving, the studio’s first arcade racer. It was effectively a spiritual successor to Burnout 3: Takedown with high-speed races in heavy traffic, takedowns, and spectacular crashes.
Dangerous Driving 2 was announced in 2020 as an open-world sequel. After an extended silence, Three Fields announced that Dangerous Driving 2 has evolved into a new game called Wreckreation.
This time, Three Fields is working with THQ Nordic, which will publish the game. With a bigger budget and longer development time, Wreckreation is a more ambitious project than any of Three Fields' previous games.
Create your own open-world race track
Track customisation is nothing new in racing games, but Wreckreation takes it to a new level. Wreckreation lets you create your own open-world race tracks called “MixWorlds.”
Set in a massive 155-square-mile city called Sledgehammer County, up to eight players can race around the map online while building their own tracks, filling the environment with stunt ramps, loops, or even giant rubber ducks and cows.
With the ability to change the weather or time or day and add civilian traffic, waypoints, and hazards such as moving blades anywhere you like, Wreckreation lets you create the ultimate driving playground for other players to explore.
Players also have the power to create custom game modes, whether it’s a short race to the next junction or a team stunt event where the team that catches the most air and lands the most barrel rolls wins.
In a nod to Burnout Paradise, MixWorld can have three different types of billboards to smash into. Ad Breaks are easy to destroy, while Promotional Stunts need a special stunt to break them. Wrecktaculars, on the other hand, track your biggest Stunt score as you hit them.
Adding structures to empty areas also affect MixWorlds. For example, adding a police station increases the police presence.
Races aren’t restricted to roads, either. Wreckreation lets you race through lakes, off-road, and even high in the sky on aerial stunt tracks.
Once you’ve created your world, you can challenge friends to beat your best scores for drifts, jumps, near misses, stunts, fastest times and crashes, which can be locked to different roads.
Whereas Dangerous Driving lacked an official soundtrack, Wreckreation will feature music from 16 stations from disco to gospel to movie music to smooth jazz, along with a talk radio providing updates on your MixWorld. If you have a Premium Spotify account, you can also stream your favourite playlists to accompany your driving adventures.
Announcement trailer
Wreckreation was first shown in August 2022 at the THQ Digital Showcase. You can watch the Wreckreation trailer below, which showcases the game’s unique track customisation and high-speed combat racing. The trailer shows you can allow another player to add objects to the map that fall from the sky while you race.
While the trailer focuses on creating MixWorlds, Wreckreation is also a combat game. As you would expect from a game with former Burnout developers on the team, driving into oncoming traffic, boosting at crazy speeds, and ramming opponents off the road is encouraged.
Platforms
Wreckreation will be released on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
It won't be released on Nintendo Switch, however - even though Dangerous Driving 2 was originally announced for the portable platform. Given the game’s scale, it’s surprising that Wreckreation is coming to PS4 and Xbox One but not Nintendo Switch.
Release date
Wreckreation doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet. However, THQ Nordic confirmed that Wreckreation will be released sometime in 2023. A summer 2023 release seems likely, around a year after the initial announcement.