Turbo Kid is a 2015 movie set in a post-apocalypse in which a comic book fan battles a local tyrant, with gory, comedic, ’80s-pastiching results. It was not a film I expected to get a metroidvania sequel, but here it is with a new demo and an April release date.
It follows on directly from the movie, with hack-and-slash combat and plenty of pixel art gore. I am mostly interested in it because it includes a BMX, with cycling used to aid traversing a world as seemingly filled with ramps and half-pipes as with genre-staples like moving platforms and flying enemies.
Turbo Kid – Official Release Date Trailer | IGN Fan Fest 2024
You can download the demo from Steam now. It’s not the first Turbo Kid demo, but apparently this one has more polish and more zones than the version that appeared back in 2022.
Back in 2016, Alice0 used the tease of a less interesting ’80s-referencing bike game as an excuse to talk about the Turbo Kid film, in which she explained why it did its homage the right way.
“It’s a really fun and earnest comedy-adventure-horror about teens and villains in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Characters are more than punchlines. As silly as the story is, it bounces and rolls along nicely. Yes, it throws in a few references to Things From The ’80s, but the best jokes aren’t ‘Remember this?’. It’s warm reminiscence, not reference-blasting kookiness. And dang, it has some cracking practical effects. Really good dismemberment, evisceration, and torso hats. Guts torn out by bicycle. Jaws ripped off. Gibs. Lovely.”
Hopefully Turbo Kid (the game) doesn’t overdo it by comparison. There’s not long to wait: the full game is released on April 10th.
