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Doritos Crash Course wins Unlock Xbox challenge

by James Ransom-Wiley on Dec 30th 2010 6:00PM

You think little Jill Robertson ever imagined she'd grow up to be a game consultant ... for Doritos? As the winner of the Doritos "Unlock Xbox" challenge, Robertson will have the opportunity to work a six-month stint for the chip maker, baking up gaming ideas. She's also pocketed $50,000.

Robertson's Doritos Crash Course beat out Justin Carpenter's Harms Way in the three-week voting period that began earlier this month when the two finalists' games were released for free on Xbox Live Arcade. According to Frito-Lay, the games accounted for more than two million combined downloads during that time, and they'll remain available as free XBLA games for the foreseeable future.

In a "last-minute twist," Doritos also awarded Carpenter a $50,000 cash prize, though he would appear to be stuck at his plain old day job for now.

Source: Frito-Lay

Tags: doritos, doritos-crash-course, harms-way, jill-robertson, microsoft, unlock-xbox, XBLA, xbox

Reader Comments (31)

Given more time and a dedicated dev studio, I think harms way could have been a gem. It was a nice twist on an offroad racer. Sad to see Carpenter didn't win.

I couldn't get into Harms Way. I did vote for the WINNER though, Doritos Crash Course!

It reminded me of Trials HD and the show WipeOut!

@Ron Burgundy Both were great games for freebies but I think the right game won. It was very polished and more interactive. Harms Way was a grab achievements get out type experience for most.

@Ron Burgundy

I agree. Was anyone able to get into an online game in Harm's Way? That was the only thing I felt was lacking. My friends and I could play with each other via Live, but we couldn't do matchmaking and were never able to fill up all 8 spots with human players. That would've been more fun.

Well i'm glade it won this game reminds me of ninja warrior and the fact you can use your avatar make it even better.

As much as I wanted to like Harms Way, I just didn't really get into it. Interesting idea, but I guess Crash Course appealed to me because it was like doing Ninja Warrior, which always gets a +1 from me.

This was the best XBLA avatar game I've seen, it's fun and challenging too. It'salso the only Doritos game I wasn't able to get a quick 200G from.

This was the best XBLA avatar game I've seen, it's fun and challenging too. It's also the only Doritos game I wasn't able to get a quick 200G from.

Interesting. The source article says that the consultant position is for 6 months but the Doritos Unlock Xbox Video over Live said one year position. They also said that BOTH of them will be getting the one year position.

Unless Dorits was wrong when they told them, and that'd be incredibly disappointing news for the game designers to hear after the what they'd already been told.

This game pissed me off so much. God damn paint balls and hammers. Well played, Doritos. Glad this game won.

@Bubbameister33

I thought they were water balloons. =D

This game was fantastic. The achievements frustrated me forever, getting my last three gold medals and such. But it was very addicting, and I almost wish there'd be some free DLC with new tracks/maps/whatevers on it

I actually started out thinking I'd vote for Crash Course, but after playing all 15 challenges, I ended up voting for Harm's Way.

Crash Course initially would've gotten my vote for the presentation and polish, but once you get to the Tokyo maps, the seeming lack of precision in some of the mechanics becomes very noticeable - and very frustrating.

Harm's Way, I initially wouldn't have dreamed of voting for, based on the racing, which I found ridiculously hard to control. However, I quite enjoyed the turret half of the game, mindless as it might be, and it strikes me as much more towards a "core" game than Crash Course.

That said, they were both strong contenders. Kudos to all involved in the development of both.

This game is amazing, as is Harm's Way. But this game didn't really feel like it was missing anything, whereas with Harm's Way I felt like it could have been much much easier to play.

And the Xbl community proves me right again Avatar running game beats actual game looking game I doubt it really won probly picked by doritos ceo because it had Doritos in title...

@kyte420 You are a dumb ass on many levels.

@kyte420

"Actual game looking game"

Yes because Game looking Games have to be CoD rather than something actually fun.

So this game is some how better then the indie avatar running games?

@kyte420 Yes.

Best game definitely won. Harms Way was pretty crappy, great for easy achievements though.

Oh yeah I voted for Harms way nice little free four player racer even more better if everyone just races.

I guess this game is all that...and a bag of chips.

@SEGA Scream Yeeeaaaaah!

Saw this one coming. It's a fine game, but completely unoriginal and shallow. Just the idea of Harm's way is better than this entire game. Should have won on idea alone.

@Fuzunga I see your point but Crash Course was just really well done. They both were but Crash Course ended up being surprising fun.

Meh, couldn't get into this one, voted for Harms Way. Some of the levels were so damn frustrating, mostly because the check points were so far apart. Loved the turret idea of Harms Way, I'm a crack shot with that sniper turret. Racing part wasn't to bad... still need the multiplayer achievements, could never get a game going.

Doritos Crash Course is, just like the chips, highly addictive. I was more concerned with getting better times than my friends than anything else. It's also great that it's an avatar game - instant affinity with the character. It may not be too complex but all the big "time eaters" are simple.

That said, if it wasn't free, they would have to have added a lot more content to the game.

Crash Course deserved the win; it's not that original, but it was very well executed. Whereas Harm's Way had a great idea but terrible execution.

That said, both games are much better than that dinosaur game from last year.

That's sad. I guess all the new Kinect casual gamers put this over the obviously better game. The physics and animations were awful in this. It was like playing a crappy Wipeout platformer (I know, one already exists...).

Justin made out better me thinks.

This was rigged imo, Harms way wasnt available to alot of people outside of the US for some reason and crash course was... ahh well...

@Nint3ndofr34k I still can't find it on the Marketplace and I was really looking forward to play it. I think I would have voted for this anyways. I like the competition between times like in NFS: Hot Pursuit.

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