Turbo Kids is a new game by YailenkoGames, where your goal is to win each race in a competition of nine races. The winner of this competition wins 1,000,000. What is untold about this game is why there is a competition and the storyline is quite empty. What makes up for that though are the smooth controls, the fun and fast-paced gameplay and the wonderful graphics. Your goal in each race, obviously, is to try to get first place. Although, it isn’t as easy as that, you must avoid falling off the platforms and must collect multiple power-ups each race. Turbo Kids brings depth to the world of running games with actual competition between runners with the ability to slow competitors down and to swap positions with them.

Turbo Kids

One of my only problems with the game is that every level, each time you start it up, or hit the retry button, the level is randomly generated. I don’t like this because the developer looses control over how difficult the level design of each level is and some earlier levels can be more difficult that later ones giving a very unbalanced difficulty ramp. Many of the levels seemed much the same and most of the races could be won on your first attempt. What I would have liked to see is a bit more control in the level design and later levels being more difficult and trickier to navigate. I realize that most running games are randomized, but they also have a fair difficulty ramp that continues throughout the character’s existence, unlike Turbo Kids. Overall, a bit more control in the level design would have been great hopefully, making some of the later levels more challenging.

Many running games are based around the idea of trying to survive for as long as you can. Instead, Turbo Kids goes in a different direction and breaks the game up into different levels. This is an interesting take on the genre and is something that I haven’t seen before – it also helps that the genre consists of only a few games. I liked this set-up, because it gave you something to strive towards and kept me playing longer than if it was just survival, or the marathon mode. I also liked the ability to be able to affect the other runners. The other running games, which have includes enemies don’t allow you to do this, and being able to toss a snowball at them and slow them down, or fire a rocket at them spiced up the game and made it unique. The power-ups, picked up while running were also unique and gave advantages to people who used them and set back others who skipped or missed them. Overall, the gameplay was unlike any other running game that I’ve played and definitely ranks high for me in its genre.

Turbo Kids

The game was very pixel-art oriented and feature beautiful art. The scenery is of winter, with snow and ice, low-lying fog and mountains in the distance. To me, this created a beautiful scene. The game holds a primarily blue color to top off the winter feel and the background, with bold, dark, blues, drawing depths of forest and rolling hills. My only problem with the art aspect of the game, was that far in the distance there are a few hills that appear pure white and light grays. Its a really sharp contrast to the rest of the scene and even things in front of it are dimmed out, which I thought these mountains should be as well. Besides that issue, I thought that the artwork was executed perfectly and looked amazing.

I really liked the music as well. It was calming and very upbeat. I thought that it fit the artistic style of the game and the, mostly, bright colors that accompanied the game. It also paced well with the speed of the game. One of the interesting points about Turbo Kids was that there were a few announcer sound effects, where in the beginning of the game the announcer would say something along the lines of “Start your engines!” and would continue by announcing short tidbits, such as combos and remarking reactions of the crowd. This reinforced the idea of a competition and was also a neat feature. Overall, the music worked very well with the game and I thoughts that the sound effects in place, especially the announcer added more to the game and gave more depth the idea of a competition.

All in all, Turbo Kids is an exciting, fast-paced game that brings the running genre to a whole new level. If you liked games like Canabalt or Ninja Run (also by YailenkoGames) then you’ll love Turbo Kids as it continues the idea of the running genre, but also takes its own unique spin with power-ups and individual levels. In review, the game wasn’t too difficulty, which I was disappointed to find. Many of the levels were much like one another and there was virtually no difficulty ramp. With a bit of tuning and more controlled level design for each level this game could be more challenging. The gameplay was something that i did not expect. I loved the addition of various power-ups as you progressed through the game. The gameplay is where Turbo Kids really sets itself apart from all other running games that I’ve come across. Another big plus for me was the artwork. It featured detailed pixel art and created a wonderful winter scene. Finally, the music was spot-on and the announcer was a nice touch to this game. Overall, Turbo Kids is one of the best running games that I’ve come across so far! Be sure to check it out today on Kongregate!

Play Turbo Kids on Kongregate!