Joy Ride Turbo
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''Joy Ride Turbo'' is a
kart racing game A kart racing game, also known as cart racing game or go-kart racing game, is a subgenre of Racing game, racing games. Kart racing games have simplified driving mechanics while including unusual racetrack designs, obstacles, and Vehicular combat ...
developed by
BigPark BigPark was a Canadian video game developer owned by Microsoft Studios. History Microsoft acquired BigPark in 2009, a few months prior to the announcement of the Kinect sensor (known then as "Project Natal"). Their first project was to be ''Joy ...
and published by
Microsoft Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...
for the
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...
. 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 Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...
peripheral. Originally outed via a rating on the
Australian Classification Board The Australian Classification Board (ACB or CB) is an Australian Government of Australia, government Statute, statutory body responsible for the classification and censorship of films, television programmes, video games and publications for ex ...
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 The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
backwards compatibility list on November 9, 2015. 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'' is a
kart racing game A kart racing game, also known as cart racing game or go-kart racing game, is a subgenre of Racing game, racing games. Kart racing games have simplified driving mechanics while including unusual racetrack designs, obstacles, and Vehicular combat ...
similar to the ''
Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games based on the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up item (game terminology), items. It features Characters in ...
'' series. The game is controlled using the
Xbox 360 controller The Xbox 360 controller is the primary game controller for Microsoft's Xbox 360 home video game console that was introduced at E3 2005. The Xbox 360 controller comes in both wired and wireless versions. The Xbox controller is not compatible wit ...
, unlike its predecessor, ''Kinect Joy Ride'', which utilized the
Kinect Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...
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. The player can select one of 42 fictional cars which are stylized based on several vehicle tropes such as
muscle car A muscle car is an American-made two-door sports coupe with a powerful engine, marketed for its performance. In 1949, General Motors introduced its 88 with the company's OHV Rocket V8 engine, which was previously available only in its lux ...
s, tuner cars, the
Volkswagen Type 2 The Volkswagen Transporter, initially the Type 2, is a range of light commercial vehicles, built as vans, pickups, and cab-and-chassis variants, introduced in 1950 by the German automotive industry, automaker Volkswagen as their second mass ...
van, and Hot rod roadsters. 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."


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 "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...
Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...
title later that year. ''Joyride'' Producer Andy Lang stated that players would be able to use
Microsoft Points Microsoft Points, introduced in November 2005 as Xbox Live Points, were a digital currency issued by Microsoft for use on its Xbox and Zune product lines. Points could be used to purchase video games and downloadable content from Xbox Live Marke ...
to "enhance
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
experience." 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. 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 Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...
hardware under the name ''Kinect Joy Ride''. ''Joy Ride Turbo'' was later outed via a rating on the
Australian Classification Board The Australian Classification Board (ACB or CB) is an Australian Government of Australia, government Statute, statutory body responsible for the classification and censorship of films, television programmes, video games and publications for ex ...
on April 11, 2012. It was officially announced by Microsoft Studios on April 27, 2012. It was released on May 23, 2012, and later added as one of the first 100 titles on the
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
backwards compatibility list on November 9, 2015.


Reception

''Joy Ride Turbo'' received mixed reviews from critics. It holds an aggregate score of 68.21% at
GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and 67/100 at
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
. 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. The week following its release it placed seventh in weekly total sales for Xbox Live Arcade games. It stayed in the top 20 games in weekly sales for five months, and ranked sixth in weekly sales in November 2012. It returned to the top 20 weekly sales in October 2013, where it placed 19th. ''
Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'' is an American monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and video game console, game consoles. It debuted in August 1991, when the video game reta ...
''s Jeff Cork noted that the game was a slight improvement over its predecessor, ''Kinect Joy Ride''.
Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017 and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. Histor ...
's Ian Bonds stated that while ''Joy Ride Turbo'' "isn't a good game, it's not a bad game, either." 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. Christian Dolan of
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...
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 hey'vetaken the wrong turn." Paul Semel of ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...
'' 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." 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. Dave Rudden, a reviewer from ''
Official Xbox Magazine ''Official Xbox Magazine'' (''OXM'') was a British monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released at E3 2001, with another preview issue in November 2001. The maga ...
'' US had similar opinions. Of the game's length they stated that it "runs out of value far too quickly." 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.


References

{{Reflist, 30em 2012 video games Microsoft games Racing video games Video games developed in Canada Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Xbox 360-only games Multiplayer and single-player video games Split-screen multiplayer games Xbox 360 games Video games using Havok