May 23rd 2012 5:58 am PT

Arcade: Joy Ride Turbo

Content: Joy Ride Turbo
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: Check availability in your Xbox LIVE region
Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) From the Kinect Joy Ride creators comes Joy Ride Turbo, a controller-based arcade racer delivering precision handling and crazy stunts with more thrills, speed, & mayhem! In the new Stunt Park, you’re free to show off! There’s no limit to the whacky tour de force you achieve with friends. It’s a vibrant playground for your car – jump off cliffs, shoot from a cannon, & more. Plus, explore and find collectibles that unlock cars – giving you an edge for faster races and death-defying tricks. Race new tracks, old favorites and 3 modes of play: Battle Race, Pro Race & Time Trial. Challenge family & friends to local 4-player split-screen or race up to 8 on Xbox LIVE. With Joy Ride Turbo, everyone’s in the driver’s seat in this madcap kart racer.

Add the free game trial to your Xbox 360 download queue

Arcade, Marketplace By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

permalink: http://majornelson.com/2012/05/23/arcade-joy-ride-turbo/

http://twitter.com/tanithfirst Andy Young

Isn’t this exactly was was promised at E3 all those years ago before they came up with the Kinect version??
- Hugoku
  
  I guess in principle, it is.
- mcmax3000
  
  That’s debatable.
  
  In theory, yes, but in reality, this version probably contains A LOT more content than the free game was going to. I was under the impression that when it was a free game, it was going to be pretty bare bones, and you’d have to pay for most of the content anyway.
  - http://twitter.com/GaussBb Bradley
    
    Oh hey, Walter Bishop. The Fringe division is calling you.
- scotttopic
  
  I looked up an article about the original announcement, and the original base game was going to be free with a pile of paid DLC to include tracks etc.
  
  So maybe they’ll make it up to us by having the DLC for this game be free?
  
  http://kotaku.com/5274698/xbla-getting-free-dlc+supported-racing-game
http://twitter.com/K1ll1ngderps r0ck

Wasn’t this originally free?
McWetty

Pass. And I hope a lot of other people pass on this too to send the message that you can’t bait and switch your core audience.
http://twitter.com/NickJAmbrose Nicholas J. Ambrose

Really tempted to try this out because I do love this kind of racing game – but given the bait and switch from when this was promised at E3 as a free title, then became a full Kinect game, and then finally released on XBLA as a $10 game, I think I may well just pass it up. Which is a shame, because I really do think I’d enjoy this.
- DarkNightRJ
  
  I agree with ya there. Since they finally made it a downloadable title, should have been free. That way they could have lived up to their promise even if it were this late.
Hugoku

Well, I’m as irked as anyone else but i’ll still give it a try.
Even if MS changes the name, this is basically what we were supposed to get free back then. Not that anyone is obligated to give away free stuff anyway.
- Russell Gorall
  
  They say something will be free, but they aren’t obligated?
  - Hugoku
    
    Well, they said originally that Joy Ride would be free. Then they added Kinect and more content then charged for it. This is a “different” game with more stuff included than in the free-to-play model. So while I understand how many people would feel cheated, MS are not obligated to release a full fledged game for free.
    - Russell Gorall
      
      So, it is the same game they had intended, which was supposed to be free. They made a game with Kinect under the same name-ish. Then they release the original game that was supposed to be free.
      
      I am not sure I see your logic.
      - Hugoku
        
        Well, there is no logic, *if* you are assuming this is the SAME game.
        Which is not.
      - Russell Gorall
        
        You just stated it its the same game. How is that not logical?
medveten

Nice one MS, after Kinect Joyride didn’t sell well enough, you give us the original Joyride game as it should be, only now it’s 800 points and not free…
Well, Greed ain’t good…
- Corellianrogue
  
  Yeah, Kinect Joy Ride was a total flop, it only sold WELL OVER A MILLION!!! /facepalm
  - ungeheier
    
    How many of those ‘well over a million’ people played more than the first day/week it was released?
    
    I bought a Kinect on Day 1. I bought most of the launch titles. Guess how many times I actually played them… It wasn’t much. 99% of them should’ve been $10 XBLA games at best.
    
    The trending data that Major Nelson posts on this site doesnt show Kinect games being in the top ten often (ever?).
    - Corellianrogue
      
      Do you mean Xbox Live activity or sales? Either way there have been Kinect games in the top 10. Plus since the Xbox 360 itself not only has 3.5 times as many sales as the Kinect itself (and obviously loads more games since it’s over 6 years old whereas Kinect is only 18 months old) but also some games that have sold well over 10 million (Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for example has sold over 14 million) and load of games that have sold over 5 million it’s not surprising that the top 10 of either of those charts is dominated by joypad-based Xbox 360 games.
  - http://twitter.com/Superman64 Some Guy
    
    Because it was a launch title. It was one of the bigger fishes in a tiny pond at the time.
    - Corellianrogue
      
      There were 17 launch games so there were quite s few games to choose from. Also, do you know how many Xbox 360 launch games have sold a million or more? (And even then I’m counting launch games that have sold 1 million or more to date, so they’ve had 6.5 years to sell a million or more.) Just 2 – Call Of Duty 2 and Need For Speed: Most Wanted. And even then Kinect Joy Ride has already sold more than Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Want to know how many Kinect launch games sold 1 million or more? (And I’m not counting Kinect Adventures since that comes free with Kinect.) 6 – Kinect Sports, Dance Central, Zumba, Kinectimals, Kinect Joy Ride and Your Shape. Kinect Sports has sold well over 4 million. Also Sonic Free Riders has sold over 750,000 so it could reach 1 million by the end of this year. About half of Kinect’s launch games have sold over 500,000, most have sold over 250,000 and I think all of them have sold over 100,000.
      - http://twitter.com/Superman64 Some Guy
        
        *double post thanks to Disqus*
      - http://twitter.com/Superman64 Some Guy
        
        Yeah, and the sold that many because it appealed to the casuals. It’s not a secret there are more casual gamers than core gamers. When you have a bigger pool of people who are interested in your product…chances are the sales will be higher. But you want to pretend that because people bought it that it was a success. You seem to ignore whether or not they liked what they bought. I know from my own personal experience that Kinect Joyride was a joke. This game should have ALWAYS been controlled with a controller.
      - Corellianrogue
        
        Double post too, grrr.
      - Corellianrogue
        
        So you’ve asked every single person who bought Kinect Joy Ride whether they liked it or not then? Can you give me the exact number of how many people liked it and how many people didn’t? I haven’t got around to even playing the demo so I can’t say whether it’s good or not personally. But even if it isn’t any good that doesn’t mean they couldn’t improve it for a Kinect sequel.
        
        Anyway, the person I originally replied to claimed it didn’t sell well on Kinect and that’s just plain wrong, regardless of how many people liked it. Plus a demo was included on Kinect Adventures so everybody who has bought Kinect has the opportunity to try Kinect Joy Ride before they buy it. Like I said, I haven’t got around to trying the demo yet but when I do if I like it enough I’ll probably buy it, but I’m more likely to buy Joy Ride Turbo if it’s better than the original. Also the vast majority of the launch titles were casual games so even your theory about it appealing more to the casuals doesn’t hold up.
        
        The few core launch titles did pretty well really considering the ridiculous Kinect bashing by luddite “professional games journalists” who have repeatedly been shown up not even playing Kinect games properly and/or setting up Kinect wrong. (Gamespot infamously originally set up Kinect so that it could only see the top half of their body then complained that it wasn’t tracking their legs “for some reason”, lol!) For example Sonic Free Riders has sold about 770,000 so far which is more than Sonic Riders on the PS2 which has sold about 500,000 to date even though around 100 million PS2s or more had been sold by the time it was released back in 2006. (Over 6 months before the PS3 had been released, before you say PS2 owners were upgrading to the PS3 and not buying PS2 games anymore.)
http://twitter.com/ResetReflect Rob Kent

Don’t mean to change the subject (sorry) but can we please get a port of the N64 version of Conkers bad fur day? That’ll be an instant buy from me.
- metallicorphan
  
  I would certainly be up for that,I heard RARE are making games for next gen,my hope is that Conker features somewhere in the future
- DarkNightRJ
  
  I never played that so I’d definitely get it as well. But Rare titles are always a battle to port. A lot of different licensing conflicts or something.
- aStrangeDisease
  
  They did a re-release of Conker’s Bad Fur Day on the original Xbox already. It might be playable on the 360 if you can find a copy.
http://twitter.com/ghostspectrum Terrence

That’s ridiculous. “Hey you’re gonna get this game for free!” 2 years later “Just kidding it’s 10 dollars ”
metallicorphan

Lesson for the future Microsoft,don’t announce something will be free then charge for it

I’m personally getting very worried for my beloved Xbox brand,MS really need to start looking at its whole package again,if SONY have learnt anything this gen i feel MS are going to lose out next gen,and it will be a shame because the 360 started out fantastically,with original IP’s simple dashboard etc…but has just gone downhill since

I am hoping for a great E3 from you guys,but after the last few years of being very disappointed,that hope admittedly is not much

and why do the words on my screen take so long to appear on this site?
ElektroDragon

In other words, what the Joy Ride developers probably wanted to deliver originally.
DarkNightRJ

I wonder if you have to actually play this one to win. I saw a video of someone not steering at all on the kinect one and they placed decently. If you don’t steer in a car game you should just be driving into a wall…
loopingstar

Won’t be long before this is on sale at 400MS points . This will sell poorly having been promised as a free game .
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joe-Adanac/100001237455741 Joe Adanac

Since Microsoft has prostituted itself out to advertisers, the Xbox has been going downhill fast. Even then, they aren’t utilizing ad partners in good ways for gamers. They could have partnered with a car or soft drink brand to co-finance this game and then release it free as originally promised, like they did with Doritos Crash Course.
Donovan Westenburg

even though i love my xbox and the service. I will not buy this game because it was promised that it was going to be free. Why haven’t we seen a explanation why this game is not free anymore, i’ll tell you why because they stopped caring about us. e3 will be the last time that ms can prove to me that i made the right choice when i bought the system for gaming. If i wanted a media center then i would have bought a pc
arkhunter

So is this a Kinectless version as it should have been to begin with? It might have been a pretty big hit with out shoving Kinect support in it.
ElektroDragon

It’s a shame about paying $10 for what was supposed to be a free game, because having tried the game, it’s actually very good, much better than Kinect Joyride.

However, in light of the ridiculous price for Minecraft, a game I find completely devoid of fun, this doesn’t look so bad after all.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=674106424 Devon Edwards

Do people seriously buy this tripe?
Russell Gorall

Is this the free game from E3?
Nerdstick

How exactly do you people feel entitled to this for free if it was developed separately from the originally free title that became the Kinect game? Whine about them giving you the kinect game for free if they haven’t. Wasn’t it supposed to be DLC supported anyways? Perhaps for $10 you get a full package anyways.
- Russell Gorall
  
  Hurray for huge corporations?
  - Nerdstick
    
    No, nay for over-entitled gamers. Personally I’d much rather have this full game for $10 than be nickle-and-dimed for DLC, if it had decided to sell maps/cars at $1 each you’d be paying much more in the long run. You want your free one-map one-car DLC supported junk, feel free to continue whining.
    - Russell Gorall
      
      And continue whining about other whiners?
      - Nerdstick
        
        Since when was I whining about whiners? I was asking why people felt entitled to the game for free and making an argument, not going “waaah they promised this at E3, I hope it sells badly!”. Learn the difference, not that there’s really any merit in replying to you..
      - I Fight for the Users
        
        No, you’re going “waaah I’m better than everybody else, no one has merit
        but me even though I don’t know what I’m talking about.” Do your
        research. Yes, the originally planned free game was going to be fairly
        bare bones (doubtfully one map, one car, but I’m guessing in your
        opinion cynicism trumps logic); however, it wasn’t going to
        “nickel-and-dime” anyone. It was planned that you could use DLC you
        didn’t own as long as someone you played with owned it. People aren’t
        overly entitled for feeling a bit ripped off that a pretty
        decent-sounding promise to them was broken. Reading over these comments
        most people stated their point pretty well. Only immaturity was in your
        “quote.” When Person A stupidly imitates Person B’s voice because Person
        B said something they didn’t like, who is it that really ends up
        looking like a jackass? One might say there’s no merit in replying to
        you either, but what kind of a loser says they’re too good to do
        something they’re already doing? It’s really a shame that people like
        you populate xbl when there are so many others who are capable of
        stating their beliefs with intelligence and etiquette. Believe it or
        not, both qualities can be achieved online
      - Nerdstick
        
        My ‘quote’ was my interpretation of all the whining comments, never directed at a specific person. The point was to show what I considered whining, which was complaining about not getting to have it for free. Yet you’re one to accuse immaturity when you’re the one doing exactly that, saying I think I’m better than everybody else? Is it intentional that your entire post is filled with hypocrisy, because you also point out your dislike for responding to posts like mine. There’s little merit to responding to Russell because he’d rather argue the definition of whining and false comparisons than actually answering my question, pointless.
        
        As for your only points, neither of us know how bare bones it actually would have been so regardless of whether or not you think my guess is cynical, logic plays no part. For a free version of a budget racing game I’d expect no more than 1-2 of each. Getting free access to content the friends you’re playing with own isn’t any special exception; you can play any Arcade games your friend owns as long as they’re logged in with you on the same system, and so you’re still being nickle-and-dimed for the actual content you’d otherwise get in the full game (which this thankfully is).
        
        I can emphasize with people disappointed that the originally promised freebie is no longer coming, really. But when you’re riddling the comment section of an eventual successor to it only to whine and whine about the fact is a waste of everybody’s time, and you’re definitely over-entitled if it comes to that point, get over it.
      - Russell Gorall
        
        Which is why you replied in your whiny keystrokes? No biggie, you were just whining about the whiners. I am a whiner, I guess, so you are whining against me.
        
        Seems like you keep doing it. I am going to eat a Kashi honey almond flax bar, yummy.
http://twitter.com/Navarin Jim E. Rustler

Got it (via code, not paying for it) and sure it’s not bad, I can see why they dropped the pay to win model they were originally gonna use.

Let’s be honest if it was a free game it would have been as free as Pinball FX2 or Crimson Alliance. You’d have gotten maybe one car and one track.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Randy-Ramsgate/1826021235 Randy Ramsgate

nothing……. and i mean NOTHING will ever beat a control pad for gaming as far as control, responsiveness, and overall feel is concerned. i have never owned kinect but the slight lag i hear about, even the smallest amount, means non-accurate gaming for me. having said that i thought the joyride demo was pretty good actually. probably cause i used a pad. also im someone who loves pgr and burnout!
Russell Gorall

Why does my free copy of the game cost ten dollars?
I Fight for the Users

Yeah, I hate people who are constantly giving away free games. That’s why I love MS and no one else.
TruthHurts

I’m in the ‘Go fuck yourself’ camp on this one.
Microsoft are so full of shit!
http://www.facebook.com/darwin.ellis1 Darwin Ellis

This Game is way to glitched. The servers can not either handle the load or the seriously need a patch to fix connection issues. Collision Detection is Is off. You get bounced left right and center. Sent flying in different directions because of it. Make its it hard to play with the glithcing of the servers. Weapons are cool but the don’t aways work the way they should. Pass if you can. Would be a good game if not for the bugs.

Xbox has really let me down when it comes to games being released this year.

May 23rd 2012 5:58 am PT

Arcade: Joy Ride Turbo

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