Dreamwork’s next CG-animated major motion picture, ‘Turbo’, was released to movie theaters on July 17. Those not wanting to wait to see it, however, can get their snail racing (no joke) fix in video game Turbo Super Stunt Squad from developer Torus Games and publisher D3Publisher. But be forewarned: this game isn’t nearly as super as its title might suggest.
Instead of making a title that follows the events of the movie or providing a collection of minigames featuring the film’s characters, Turbo Super Stunt Squad is a racing title. Best referred to as kart racing lite, the game pits four suped-up snails in a series of circuit races and, as a kart racing lite game, players have a small variety of power-ups and attacks to either temporarily buff themselves up or take out an opposing player. By very small, by the way, I mean four.
Not that any of them are overall useful, mind you. Sure, the speed boost is handy and growing large to open up an alternate route may be to one’s advantage, there is such strong rubber banding between racers that they don’t really matter in the long term.
Controls and gameplay follow industry standards for this type of a game, which is actually to the developer’s credit. Sometimes the wheel doesn’t need re-inventing. On the Wii, players have the option of using the Wiimote with motion controls for steering or hooking up the Nunchuk for a more traditional setup. Kids might find motion controls fun, but the better scheme really is with the Nunchuk. It’s a bit of a pain, however, that the same button used to make a sharp turn is also used for jumping.
In terms of graphcs and sound, Turbo Super Stunt Squad neither looks nor sounds all that good. Tracks appear visually bland, as do the snails themselves. Whatever charm these gastropods may have in the film is all but lost in the game and whatever personality they may have is chocked up to short, annoying quips during and after races.
One area in which Turbo Super Stunt Squad actually does fairly well is in its track design. While they may not look all that snazzy, players will find themselves racing literally up and down walls. One of the big features in next year’s Wii U exclusive Mario Kart 8 is antigravity. It’s a good taste of what’s to come in that title. As it is, it works fairly well in Turbo and is one of its few true redeeming qualities.
Usually, Turbo Super Stunt Squad would be one of those games that should stay on store shelves until it receives a massive clearance discount. The fact that it’s a licensed game actually helps it, as fans of the movie will probably be the only ones racing out to get this while it’s still full price. To that end, it’s a kid-oriented game based upon a kid’s movie and it should be taken as such.
That stated, it’s still far from super.
