''Yaris'' is a
Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
-licensed
racing
In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...
advergame
An advergame is a form of advertising in video games, in which the video game is developed by or in close collaboration with a corporate entity for purposes of advertising a brand-name product. While other video games may use in-game advertising (s ...
based on the
line of Yaris subcompact cars. It was developed for the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
and distributed for free on
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...
. The game was released on October 10, 2007, but was later delisted from the
Xbox Live Marketplace
Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) is a digital distribution platform used by Microsoft's Xbox Series X, S, Xbox One and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The service allows users to download or purchase video games (including both ...
in November 2008.
Gameplay
The game is a simplified futuristic combat racing game featuring three Yaris models, each with prehensile robotic gun called a "mechanosymbiont" emanating from the hood. The default color of the car is red. The available models include:
*3-Door Liftback
*4-Door Sedan
*4-Door S Sedan
Gameplay consists of racing through U-shaped tube racing tracks while picking up coins, similar to the 3D minigame called "Special Stages" in ''
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
is a 1992 platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute (STI) for the Sega Genesis. It follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic as he attempts to stop Doctor Eggman from stealing the Chaos Emeralds to power his space stationnamed T ...
''. The tracks are populated by abstract enemies such as
MP3 players
A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...
, flaming wheels with deadly trails of fire, and odd motorcycle racers. The enemies can be attacked with the car's "mechanosymbiont" laser gun; some destroyed enemies release coins as well.
The cars can be upgraded with collected coins, from improving the chassis or wheels, changing the color, increasing the weapon storage, or increasing the shield strength.
The weapons that can be obtained include:
*sawblade
*gatling laser
*rocket launcher
*shotgun laser
*gauss cannon
Multiplayer
The game features two player multiplayer, both on the same machine and on
Xbox Live
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...
. The players can simultaneously help and hinder each other with various "auras" that occur when the cars are close to one another. Pressing each of the four controller buttons has a different effect:
*A: Regenerates both cars' shields
*X: Extra coins from enemies
*B: Drains the opponent's shields
*Y: Causes coins to emanate from the opponent
Reception
The game was met with largely negative reviews. It has a score of 20% on
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 17 out of 100 from ]Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the lowest ranked Xbox 360 game on the entire site.[
In the ]Joystiq
''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''W ...
review, Dan Dormer gave ''Yaris'' a scathing review, writing that "''Yaris'' does nothing right, and everything wrong. Every element, from the graphics to the controls to the online play, is just busted. Even at the price of free, this lemon isn't fun or worth the sticker price".
The Videogametalk.com reviewer Mike Flacy wrote of ''Yaris'', "As the title is completely free, you should ask yourself different questions related to value. For instance, "Is the title worth the 17.5 seconds it will take to download it?” That's a tough one. You could take out the trash in that amount of time, a much more rewarding task than playing ''Yaris''." This sentiment of "not being worth the free price" was widely echoed across major video game review sites.
Just one positive review came about from the game: Ars Technica
''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...
, in its review titled "Yaris: the Xbox Live Arcade sleeper hit of the year" by Frank Caron wrote, "It's simple, it's small, and it's fun. Go download it; I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised." However, the article included a subscript qualifying that other staff members of the site disagreed with Caron's assessment. Gamesradar ranked the game 33rd on their "The 50 Worst Games of All Time."
See also
* ''Dash of Destruction
''Dash of Destruction'' (also known as ''Doritos Dash of Destruction'') is a racing advergame developed by independent software developer NinjaBee for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. It was released on December 17, 2008 for free. The conce ...
''
* ''PocketBike Racer
''Pocketbike Racer'' is an advergaming title developed by Blitz Games for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles. On November 19, 2006, Burger King started selling it for an additional $3.99 USD ($4.99 in Canada) with any value meal. It is on ...
''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaris (video game)
2007 video games
Advergames
Freeware games
North America-exclusive video games
Racing video games
Xbox 360 Live Arcade games
Xbox 360-only games
Xbox 360 games
Toyota
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Video games developed in the United States