Doritos has done a lot of promotions with Xbox LIVE, and one of those are contests where game makers can submit their homegrown titles to win a chance to be featured on the Xbox 360. Best of all, the winner’s game is free to play by all! Such is the case with the newest contest winner, Doritos Crash Course.

Crash Course is modeled after the obstacle course style game shows you see on TV like American Gladiators, Most Extreme Challenge, Ninja Warrior, and WipeOut (I like the humor in MXC, as juvenile as it is). You play as your Xbox avatar, and the game makes sure that your avatar looks as stupid as possible in the game. The game is a simple 2-D platform jumping challenge. Make your avatar jump over pits, dash past hammers, climb swinging ropes, jump on trampolines, among other things. Try to make it to the end with the fastest time possible. You can skip particularly hard sections, but the game won’t record your time if you do that. Race against your friends online, too.

I guess you can’t really complain about a free game, but I actually prefer Doritos last contest winner better. It was called Dash of Destruction, and you played as a Doritos delivery truck driver trying to avoid a hungry T-Rex. Or you could play as the T-Rex! It was more creative than Crash Course and much less frustrating. Plus I was able to get all achievements in it (granted, that wasn’t very hard to do). But, hey, Crash Course is free and worth checking out anyway.

Kid Factor

Crash Course is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief. Your avatar can get smacked into the water, knocked silly, or be sent flying into the TV screen. If you’re OK with your kids watching shows like WipeOut, they’ll be OK with this game, too. Kids who love those kinds of shows will especially enjoy this. Reading skill isn’t necessary, but younger players may get frustrated at some of the tougher challenges.

Tags: Game Reviews