Joy Ride Turbo

Last updated
Joy Ride Turbo
JoyRideTurbo cover.jpg
Developer(s) BigPark
Publisher(s) Microsoft Studios
Platform(s) Xbox 360 (XBLA)
ReleaseMay 23, 2012 [1]
Genre(s) Kart racing game
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer

Joy Ride Turbo is a kart racing game developed by BigPark and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360. The sequel to Kinect Joy Ride , the player controls their avatar as they drive vehicles in a combat racing tournament. Unlike its predecessor, Joy Ride Turbo does not use the Kinect peripheral. Originally outed via a rating on the Australian Classification Board on April 11, 2012, it was unveiled by Microsoft Studios on April 27 and released on May 23, 2012. It was later added as one of the first 100 titles on the Xbox One backwards compatibility list on November 9, 2015.

Contents

Upon release, Joy Ride Turbo was met with mixed reviews from critics. Reviewers gave high praise to the game's stunt parks, but cited the series' spotted development past as the cause for many of the game's issues. Critics further noted that the game made good use of the Xbox 360 player avatars, with one review specifically mentioning the animations as a high point of commentary. The use of gamepad controller instead of the Kinect peripheral was met with high praise, and many reviewers noted that the game had strong controls.

Gameplay

Joy Ride Turbo combines elements from other kart racing games such as powerups, split-screen multiplayer, and combat racing. Joe Ride Turbo Gameplay.jpg
Joy Ride Turbo combines elements from other kart racing games such as powerups, split-screen multiplayer, and combat racing.

Joy Ride Turbo is a kart racing game similar to the Mario Kart series. The game is controlled using the Xbox 360 controller, unlike its predecessor, Kinect Joy Ride, which utilized the Kinect peripheral. The player's avatar is used as the race driver, whilst computer-controlled characters have system generated avatars that are created randomly. Eight competitors race in a circuit, with powerups littered across the game's several race tracks. These powerups can be offensive, such as rockets, which can be fired at racers in front of the player, defensive, such as a shield, or simply provide a temporary charge in speed. Each of the game's tracks have multiple pathways to complete the course, with longer tracks having more diverse routes. While airborne the player can perform various tricks by moving the controller's analog sticks, which in turn fill their boost meter. Boost is stored in tiers, and each tier brings a more powerful effect when used. [2]

The player can select one of 42 fictional cars which are stylized based on several vehicle tropes such as muscle cars, tuner cars, the Volkswagen Type 2 van, and Hot rod roadsters. [3] Each vehicle has several colors to choose from, and can be customized with parts hidden in each of the game's tracks. Players progress by winning championships, which consist of three to four races. Each championship has three difficulty levels to choose from, and higher difficulty levels provide greater rewards. Performing well in races also earns coins, which can be used to unlock alternate paint colors for vehicles, additional variants of existing vehicles, or new cars entirely. All tracks can be played in a free play mode outside of championship racing. Two open-world areas, known as Stunt Parks, are also included in which the player can search for additional collectables or simply practice their skills. All game modes can be played locally with up to four players via split-screen or with up to eight players online via Xbox Live." [4]

Development

While Joy Ride Turbo is viewed as a direct sequel to Kinect Joy Ride, its roots span back to E3 2009. Known at the time simply as Joyride, the game was initially announced with the intention of it being released as a free-to-play Xbox Live Arcade title later that year. [5] Joyride Producer Andy Lang stated that players would be able to use Microsoft Points to "enhance [their] experience." [6] At the time the game featured various modes, including an unreleased team mode. In this mode racers would be split into two teams, and the winning player would claim the victory for their entire team. [6] Additionally the Stunt Park areas shown in the E3 demo allowed for spontaneous checkpoint races to be played, another feature which was cut from the final game. The game was eventually pushed back to 2010 and was made into a full retail title for the Kinect hardware under the name Kinect Joy Ride. [7] [8] Joy Ride Turbo was later outed via a rating on the Australian Classification Board on April 11, 2012. [9] It was officially announced by Microsoft Studios on April 27, 2012. [3] It was released on May 23, 2012, and later added as one of the first 100 titles on the Xbox One backwards compatibility list on November 9, 2015. [10]

Reception

Joy Ride Turbo received mixed reviews from critics. It holds an aggregate score of 68.21% at GameRankings and 67/100 at Metacritic. [11] [12] The highest score reported was that of an 80% approval from websites Strategy Informer and Worth Playing, while the lowest was a 50% from the website Destructoid. [12] The week following its release it placed seventh in weekly total sales for Xbox Live Arcade games. [16] It stayed in the top 20 games in weekly sales for five months, and ranked sixth in weekly sales in November 2012. [17] It returned to the top 20 weekly sales in October 2013, where it placed 19th. [18]

Game Informer 's Jeff Cork noted that the game was a slight improvement over its predecessor, Kinect Joy Ride. [14] Destructoid's Ian Bonds stated that while Joy Ride Turbo "isn't a good game, it's not a bad game, either." [4] He further went on to criticize the need to pick up vehicle-specific parts, and noted that it was frustrating to have multiple parts for multiple vehicles, but not a complete set for any one vehicle. [4] Christian Dolan of Eurogamer cited the game's spotted past as the source of many of its issues. He did note that the game's Stunt Parks were "clever places" where the player "never hit a dead end, never have to reverse, and never feel like [they've] taken the wrong turn." [13]

Paul Semel of Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game's light-hearted, cartoon atmosphere. He noted that the game had a strong sense of speed and "the tight controls to handle it." [2] Semel felt that while the game was enjoyable, it was too easy to play, and that it could have issues keeping players engaged for the long term. [13] Dave Rudden, a reviewer from Official Xbox Magazine US had similar opinions. Of the game's length they stated that it "runs out of value far too quickly." [19] He further expressed frustrations that the minigames from Kinect Joy Ride were excluded. Rudden did note that the gameplay was improved using a gamepad instead of the Kinect peripheral used in its predecessor. [19]

Related Research Articles

<i>Boom Boom Rocket</i> 2007 video game

Boom Boom Rocket (BBR) is a downloadable video game for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. Boom Boom Rocket is the first rhythm game for Xbox Live Arcade and was developed by Geometry Wars creators Bizarre Creations and published by the Pogo division of Electronic Arts. The game was made backwards compatible on Xbox One on July 26, 2016.

Xbox Avatars are avatars and characters that represent users of the Xbox network on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S video game consoles, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Mobile. Avatars originally debuted on the Xbox 360 as part of the "New Xbox Experience" system update released on November 19, 2008, updated on Xbox One with "New Xbox One Experience" Xbox One System Software on November 12, 2015, and reimagined with the release of the next generation character for Xbox One on October 11, 2018.

<i>OutRun Online Arcade</i> 2009 video game

OutRun Online Arcade is a racing video game and the most recent release in the OutRun series. It was developed by Sumo Digital and published by Sega. The game was released on April 15, 2009 on Xbox Live Arcade and released exclusively in Europe for the PlayStation 3 a day later via the PlayStation Network. Gameplay involves players racing their choice of Ferrari through a selection of fifteen stages in the shortest time possible.

BigPark was a Canadian video game developer owned by Microsoft Studios.

<i>Toy Soldiers</i> (video game) 2010 video game

Toy Soldiers is an action and strategy video game developed by Signal Studios released on Xbox Live Arcade on March 3, 2010. It is featured in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Store. It has been available since February 29, 2012, debuting alongside the Windows 8 Consumer Preview beta release. The game was officially released for Microsoft Windows on April 27, 2012. A high-definition port, published by Accelerate Games, was released on October 21, 2021, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows.

<i>Hydro Thunder Hurricane</i> 2010 video game

Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a boat racing video game developed by Vector Unit and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. The game was released on July 28, 2010 as part of Microsoft's Xbox Live Summer of Arcade promotion. It is the sequel to Hydro Thunder, originally an arcade game, and part of the Thunder series, developed by Midway Games and under license of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It was also released onto the Windows Store. The game was added to the list of Xbox 360 backward compatible games on Xbox One on December 17, 2015.

<i>Sonic Free Riders</i> 2010 video game

Sonic Free Riders is a motion controlled racing video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Xbox 360. The game requires the use of Microsoft's Kinect peripheral and was a Kinect launch title in November 2010.

<i>Kinect Sports</i> 2010 video game

Kinect Sports is a sports video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. The game utilizes the Kinect motion-sensing peripheral and was released in North America on 4 November 2010 as a launch title for Kinect, then, a few days later, in Europe and Australia.

<i>Kinect Joy Ride</i> 2010 video game

Kinect Joy Ride is a racing game for Xbox 360 and a launch title for its Kinect hardware in 2010. The game was developed by BigPark and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

<i>Dance Masters</i> 2010 Video game

Dance Masters is a Japanese dancing video game developed by the makers of the Dance Dance Revolution series. The game was unveiled at Konami's E3 2010 press conference, for Xbox 360 Kinect. The game was released in November 2010. It includes 30 tracks, including 28 Konami original songs and two licensed Eurobeat songs. The spin-off Rhythm Party, titled Boom Boom Dance in Japan, was released on the Xbox 360 for the Xbox Live Marketplace on February 1, 2012.

<i>Kinect Adventures!</i> 2010 video game

Kinect Adventures! is a sports video game released by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. Released in 2010, it is a collection of five adventure and sports minigames and was developed by Good Science Studio, a subsidiary of Microsoft Game Studios. The game utilizes the Kinect motion camera and was offered as a pack-in game with the console. It was unveiled at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo and went on to become the best-selling game on the Xbox 360, selling 24 million units worldwide.

<i>Fruit Ninja</i> 2010 video game

Fruit Ninja is a video game developed by Halfbrick originally released on August 12, 2010. In the game, the player must slice fruit that is thrown into the air by swiping the device's touch screen with their finger(s) or the player's arms and hands, and must not slice bombs. It features multiple gameplay modes, leaderboards and multiplayer.

<i>Burnout Crash!</i> 2011 video game

Burnout Crash! is a downloadable action racing video game in the Burnout series. It is developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iOS via PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and iTunes App Store.

<i>Kinect Star Wars</i> 2012 video game

Kinect Star Wars is a Star Wars video game developed by Terminal Reality and published by LucasArts and Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 that uses the Kinect motion peripheral. The game features four game modes: "Jedi Destiny", the primary game mode; podracing; Rancor Rampage; and Galactic Dance-off. In Jedi Destiny, players assume the role models of Jedi Padawans as they wield their lightsabers and use the Force to attack enemies mostly from the prequel trilogy using gestures. Podracing is a race-based game mode, Rancor Rampage is a destruction-based game mode, and Galactic Dance-off is a dance-based game mode similar to the Dance Central series.

<i>Kinect: Disneyland Adventures</i> 2011 video game

Kinect: Disneyland Adventures is a 2011 open world video game developed by Frontier Developments and published by Microsoft Studios on Kinect for Xbox 360, with a remaster for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows developed by Asobo Studio released in 2017 as simply Disneyland Adventures. It takes place in a recreation of Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, circa 2011, with themed games in place of many of the rides, while motion controls are used to play the game.

<i>Haunt</i> (video game) 2012 video game

Haunt is a horror-themed adventure game developed by NanaOn-Sha and Zoë Mode, and published by Microsoft Studios. It was made available for download worldwide on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade on January 18, 2012. The game requires the Kinect peripheral.

<i>Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD</i> 2012 video game

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is a 2012 skateboarding video game in the Tony Hawk's series. Developed by Robomodo and published by Activision, Pro Skater HD is a high-definition remake of classic levels from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Pro Skater 2, and, via download, Pro Skater 3. It was released in 2012 for Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade on July 18, for PlayStation 3 through PlayStation Network on August 28 and Steam on September 18. The game was delisted from Steam and all other digital marketplaces on July 17, 2017.

<i>Hulk Hogans Main Event</i> 2011 video game

Hulk Hogan's Main Event is a professional wrestling fighting game starring Hulk Hogan created by American studio Panic Button and published by Majesco Entertainment for the Xbox 360. The game requires the Kinect peripheral.

<i>Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed</i> 2012 video game

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a kart racing video game developed by Sumo Digital and published by Sega. It was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U in November 2012; for PlayStation Vita in December 2012; for Windows in January 2013; for Nintendo 3DS in February 2013; and for Android and iOS devices in January 2014. The PS3 and Wii U versions of the game were released in Japan on May 15, 2014.

<i>Motocross Madness</i> (2013 video game) 2013 video game

Motocross Madness is a motocross racing video game that was developed by Austrian studio Bongfish and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on April 10, 2013 on Xbox Live Arcade. It is a sequel to two Microsoft Windows games, 1998's Motocross Madness and 2000's Motocross Madness 2, which were developed by Rainbow Studios, who have since moved on to making the MX vs. ATV series.

References

  1. ↑ Mitchell, Richard (May 15, 2012). "Joy Ride Turbo skids onto Xbox Live Arcade May 23". Joystiq . Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 Semel, Paul (May 23, 2012). "EGM Review: JoyRide Turbo". Electronic Gaming Monthly . Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Dutton, Fred (April 27, 2012). "Joy Ride Turbo announced for Xbox Live Arcade". Eurogamer . Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Bonds, Ian (May 31, 2012). "Review: Joy Ride Turbo". Destructoid . Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Totilo, Stephen (June 1, 2009). "XBLA Getting Free DLC Support Racing Game". Kotaku . Retrieved June 6, 2009.
  6. 1 2 "E3 2009: Joy Ride Demo". GameSpot . June 4, 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  7. ↑ Gilbert, Ben (February 17, 2010). "Joy Ride slides into 2010, BigPark still tinkering under the hood". Joystiq . Retrieved May 5, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Joy Ride becomes Project Natal launch game". Computer and Video Games . June 4, 2010. Archived from the original on June 5, 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  9. ↑ Ivan, Tom (June 4, 2010). "Australian classification board outs Joy Ride Turbo". Computer and Video Games . Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  10. ↑ Perez, Daniel (November 2015). "First 100 Xbox One backwards compatibility games includes Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and more". Shacknews . Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  11. 1 2 "Joy Ride Turbo Reviews and Articles for Xbox 360". GameRankings . Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  12. 1 2 3 "Joy Ride Turbo Critic Reviews for Xbox 360". Metacritic . Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  13. 1 2 3 Dolan, Christian (May 30, 2012). "Joy Ride Turbo Review: Look, ma: hands!". Eurogamer . Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Cork, Jeff (May 23, 2012). "Joy Ride Turbo Review – Marginally Better Without Kinect". Game Informer . Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  15. ↑ "Joy Ride Turbo review". Official Xbox Magazine UK. August 2012. p. 107.
  16. ↑ Hyrb, Larry (June 13, 2012). "LIVE Activity for week of June 4th". Major Nelson . Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  17. ↑ Hyrb, Larry (November 5, 2012). "LIVE Activity for week of November 5". Major Nelson . Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  18. ↑ Hyrb, Larry (September 23, 2013). "LIVE Activity for week of September 23rd". Major Nelson . Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  19. 1 2 Rudden, Dave (May 23, 2012). "Joy Ride Turbo Review". Official Xbox Magazine US . Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.