Yaris XBLA

[MegaManFan]

I admit before posting this I haven't even done two seconds of research on Google. I just want to share some thoughts...

 

After a long night of playing XBLA games (including some intense four person Aegis Wing) I stumbled across a new free game that had automatically been downloaded to my console - Yaris. I'm thinking "Yars Revenge" in my head, that's the Atarian in me, so I open it up to check it out - after all either way you can't go wrong with a free XBLA game.

 

Well, maybe.

 

This seems like the most bizarre example of product placement I've yet come across in my 33 years on planet Earth. Apparently this game is sponsored by Toyota, is all about driving a Toyota, only you're driving it through a tubed grid of roads. Tubed grid of roads - that doesn't even make any sense. Let me try again - it's ostensibly a highway, but some sort of futuristic highway in some futuristic city - and of course it's infested with critters. So your Toyota drives down these roads, only they have curved walls on either side that remind me of the tubes from Sonic the Hedgehog 2's gem bonus stages. In fact whoever designed this even put coins down the middle of the "tube" in various places - damn near ripping off rings except that you don't need X amount of coins to advance.

 

Back to the critters - your Toyota has a gun sticking out of the top. Great, says you the player. Shoot the critters. YOU CAN'T AIM THE GUN THOUGH. You have to hope you fire it when your car is in the right place and when the critter HAPPENS to pass through the sight. Here's one way to look at it - imagine if you were playing virtual skeet shooting, had a rifle in your hand, and as soon as the clay pigeons started flying the owner of the range said "by the way we're not allowed to shoot up by the FAA, so keep your gun level and just walk left or right 'til you get one in the crosshairs." Freaking retarded, especially since the controller has dual analog sticks. If I can run and aim at the same time in Halo 3 it wouldn't be that hard to do in a crappy driving game.

 

And when I say crappy, boy do I mean crappy. These graphics are crude by PS1 standards. Wait 'til you see the "flames" that run down the side of the road next to your car.

 

I'll probably keep this game just to see if it has a few Achievements that could boost my XBLA store, but I don't recommend playing it. At this point I can only suspect it may be intentionally bad on purpose, just to get people like me posting about Toyota and using the word Yaris. That's probably what they want - a game so crappy it creates accidental viral marketing that's in no way accidental.

[Gabriel]

You can aim the gun with the right analog stick.

 

I thought it was crap too.

[moycon]

I downloaded it but haven't tried it yet.

I dunno, I was kinda underwelmed at Aegis Wing first time I played it, but where that game excelled was online play.

It's one of my favorite online Arcade games now. Does this game have online play?

[Atari5200]

game is terrible. Can you invert the gun? I hate aiming with up as up and down as down, i'm so used to having inverted controls and so far every game i've played for the 360 lets you invert them but this game, unless i'm missing something, i tried from in game options, played 1 round and haven't touched it since.

 

EDIT: but what do you expect from Free? Still, this definetly wouldn't make me want to go out and buy a Toyota, if their cars are as shitty as their games, then no thanks. And i know their not a game company, but neither was BK and the pocket bike racer was actually pretty damn good for $3.

Edited October 11, 2007 by Atari5200

[Lastblade]

I know this is free, but it still sucks. I actually liked some of the Burger King games in terms of advertisgames.

[Lord Helmet]

Meh. Its free. I'll take free.

[Gabriel]

game is terrible. Can you invert the gun? I hate aiming with up as up and down as down, i'm so used to having inverted controls and so far every game i've played for the 360 lets you invert them but this game, unless i'm missing something, i tried from in game options, played 1 round and haven't touched it since.

 

There's a setting on the main dashboard somewhere which determines if up/down controls like that are inverted or not. I don't know if that will work or not.

[Atari5200]

it doesn't and I tried again to find inverted option for this game and there's none anywhere, so this game will be deleted as it's unplayable for me.

[Lord Helmet]

Man, this game is a real turd. Forget what I said earlier...a free turd is still a turd.

[Atari5200]

yep, i agree, it's not even worth playing to attempt to get the achievements.

[compacho]

I just played it today. Worst game ever. I thought to myself, "Oh I'll just stick with this until I get a few achievement points." Wrong! I deleted it 5 minutes after it was downloaded.