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| Titles | Pokémon Team Turbo also styled Pokémon: Team Turbo |
| Platform | Windows PC (CD-ROM) |
| Developer | ImaginEngine Corp. (Framingham, Massachusetts; a Backbone Entertainment studio) |
| Publisher | ValuSoft (a division of THQ) |
| Director | Randall Sanborn (technical director) |
| Producers | Bridget Erdmann (executive producer) · Richard Yasi |
| Players | 1 |
| Genre | Racing and mini-game compilation |
| Generation | Generation III |
| Racers | 20 Pokémon, each in its own giant Poké Ball |
| Courses | 6 race courses · 5 mini-games |
| Released | 28 October 2005 (North America; some listings give 29 September 2005) · not released in Japan, Europe or Australia |
| Launch price | US$19.99 |
| Requirements | Windows 98, ME or XP · 300 MHz CPU · 32 MB RAM · 8x CD-ROM drive · mouse |
| Re-releases | None |
| Rating | ESRB E |
| Predecessor | Pokémon Masters Arena (2004) |
| Successor | None |
| Sales | No figures published |
Overview
Pokémon Team Turbo is a racing spin-off title in the Pokémon series which was released for the PC in 2005. It was the second Pokémon PC title to be published by ValuSoft, then a division of THQ, and developed by ImaginEngine Corp., following on from Pokémon Masters Arena in 2004. Like Masters Arena, Team Turbo was only ever officially released in North America, and both titles fall under the Gen III spin-offs subcategory of games.
Team Turbo features six racing courses and five mini-games, and successfully completing the mini-games awards power-ups which can be used in the main races – the better you do, the more you earn. The player can either choose to play a specific mini-game or race track from the main menu, or they can select ‘Adventure Mode’, which will effectively take the player through each race track in order, with mini-games in between to allow the player to gain extra power-ups. The power-ups only carry over in Adventure Mode: a race picked on its own from the menu just has the pickups lying on the track.
The Evolution Continues!
It’s time to race and Team Turbo needs you! Challenge your Pokémon knowledge in 5 exciting games, each with multiple skill levels, to earn racing power-ups. The [sic] use these turbo boosts at just the right time on 6 tough race courses to cross the finish line first.
Dominate Squirtle’s Door Dilema [sic]
Can you guess Squirtle’s secrets and figure out who’s hiding behind the doors? Open all the doors to win a Water Balloon to slow your opponents on the race track!
Meet your match in The Street Race
This course may be straight, but it’s far from easy! Maximize the traction of your racing ball, collecting your character’s letters for double speed as you race to the finish line.
— Official description
Quick Answers
The questions people ask about Pokémon Team Turbo, answered first and explained further down the page.
How many Pokémon can you race as in Pokémon Team Turbo?
Twenty. The grid mixes Kanto and Hoenn favourites (Bulbasaur, Venusaur, Charmander, Charmeleon, Squirtle, Blastoise, Pikachu, Treecko, Torchic, Blaziken, Mudkip, Skitty, Plusle, Spheal and Metagross) with Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza and Deoxys, plus Munchlax, a Generation IV Pokémon. Each one races inside its own giant Poké Ball. More →
How do you get power-ups in Pokémon Team Turbo?
Play Adventure Mode. Between races you tackle a mini-game, and how well you do decides what you carry into the next course: unused hints in the crossword and domino games turn into Turbo Boosts and Spark Showers, spare guesses become Water Balloons, and the word search and Block Out games award Furret Speed and Nitro Nuts. More →
Was Pokémon Team Turbo released in the UK or Europe?
No. Team Turbo was only ever sold in North America, in English, as was its predecessor Masters Arena. There was no European, Australian or Japanese edition, so it never received a PEGI or CERO rating. UK fans who own it imported a US copy, which plays normally on a British PC. More →
Can you still buy or play Pokémon Team Turbo today?
Only second-hand. It was never sold as a download or re-released, and it isn’t on Steam, GOG or any Nintendo console. Used CD-ROMs do appear on auction sites. Because it was made for Windows 98, ME and XP, a modern PC may need compatibility settings or a virtual machine to run it. More →
What are Pokémon Team Turbo’s system requirements?
Very modest by today’s standards: Windows 98, ME or XP, a 300 MHz processor, 32 MB of RAM, roughly 80 MB of free disk space for the basic install, a 640×480 display, an 8x CD-ROM drive, a Windows sound card with speakers and a mouse. More →
Did Pokémon Team Turbo get any reviews?
Not from the gaming press. As a US$19.99 budget CD-ROM aimed at young children, it went unreviewed by the big magazines and websites of 2005, and Metacritic still lists no critic reviews and no Metascore for it. Coverage at the time was limited to short fan-site news items reporting its release. More →
Race Tracks & Mini-Games
Race tracks
The Street Race – Racing inside giant modified Poké Balls, you’ll go head to head against some of the best Pokémon racing drivers in the world. Using the mouse, steer your racer to the finish line as fast as you can. Stay on the road and try not to run into your opponents. Along the way, you’ll see letters on the roadway. Each time you run over a letter, you’ll get a turbo boost. Just click the mouse button for an extra burst of speed!
Dirt Track Insanity – It’s time for the second race! This time you’ll be racing on dirt, so it will be a little bit harder to control. Domino pieces are scattered around the track. Collect the dominoes with your character’s picture to get a quick speed boost, but watch out – if you run over a domino which does NOT have your character’s picture, you’ll spin out! Press the mouse button to use any Turbo Boosts you won in Charizard’s Crossword Challenge.
Grand Prix – Now you’re in the big leagues, racing on a Grand Prix course. Tight corners and long straights will test your racing skills. Just like in the first race, collect the letters in your Pokémon’s name as you move around the track. Each time you collect one, you’ll get an instant burst of speed. Press the mouse button to use any Spark Showers you won in the Domino Dash game.
Aqua Mania – It’s time to take the racing action to the water, so try to stay dry! This is a tougher race than the others you’ve faced. After all, it’s pretty hard to turn in the water! There are a lot of shapes floating in the water. If you run over a green one, you’ll get a quick turbo boost, but if you run over a red one, you’ll slow down for a few seconds. If you won Furret Speed or Super Furret Speed from the Word Finder game, it will be turned on automatically in this race.
Snow Insanity – Put on your boots and gloves, because it’s time to race in the snow! This treacherous race course is the toughest yet, because it’s all downhill! You’ll be going faster and faster as the race progresses. You’ll also see numbers on the track. Each one you run over in order (1, 2, 3, etc.) will give you a bigger instant turbo boost, but if you miss one, you won’t get any more boost for the rest of the race! Also, if you won any Nitro Nuts from the Block Out game, you can use them on your opponents! Just press the left mouse button to fire them. A hit will cause an opponent to lose control for a few seconds.
The Marathon – This is it, the final race! We’ve combined all five of the previous tracks you’ve raced on to give you the ultimate marathon driving test. Dirt, water, ice, snow – they’re all here, along with your toughest set of opponents yet! If you won any Water Balloons from the Door Dilemma game, you can use them in two ways: press the left mouse button to shoot one forward at an opponent. A hit will cause a loss of control. Press the right mouse button to drop a balloon on the track behind you and make a puddle of water. Anyone who drives into the puddle will slow down for several seconds.
Mini-games
Bulbasaur’s Domino Dash – It’s dominoes with a twist! Only this time, the dominoes don’t have spots on them – they have Pokémon portraits. You need to place pieces with the same portrait next to each other and complete the layout before time runs out. Use the mouse to drag and drop a domino onto the desired spot on the board. If you get stumped, you can press the Help button, which will place a random domino into its proper position on the board. If you complete the game with Helps remaining, you’ll be rewarded with Spark Showers, which you can use in the next race!
Squirtle’s Door Dilemma – A Pokémon is behind each of the doors, but you don’t know who is hiding where! Using the mouse, drag a Pokémon portrait on top of each of the doors, and then press the Guess button. Now, pay attention to the doors. If a door opens all the way, you’ve made the right guess for that door – good job! If a door only opens partway and then closes, it means that the Pokémon you put there is hiding behind one of the OTHER doors, but NOT the one you guessed. If a door doesn’t open at all, then the Pokémon you put on top of it isn’t behind ANY of the doors. Now you’ve got to re-arrange the Pokémon who weren’t behind the correct doors and Guess again. The game ends when you’ve put all the Pokémon in the right position or when you run out of Guesses. Finishing the game with Guesses remaining will give you Water Balloons for the next race.
Charizard’s Crossword Challenge – Never had Charizard down as a crossword type of mon? Me neither, but we were wrong. Test your Pokémon knowledge to the limit! Click on any part of a missing word to see its clue appear at the bottom of the screen. Type in the answer and press the Enter key to see if you’re correct. If you are stumped, press the “Free Letter” button, and a random letter in the current word will be revealed. If you finish the puzzle with Free Letters remaining, you will get that same number of Turbo Boosts, up to four, for the next race.
Mudkip’s Word Finder – It’s a big word puzzle filled with Pokémon names, and you need to find them all before the time runs out! The names you need to find are at the bottom of the screen, along with a mystery name (which appears as ??? on the list). Names appear forwards, not backwards, and always either across or down, never diagonally. When you find one of the names, use the mouse to click on its first letter, then click again on its last letter. When the whole word is highlighted, press the Enter key to see if you’re correct. If you get stumped, press the Hint button to reveal the starting letter of one of the remaining names. If you get all of the names in the puzzle, you’ll get Furret Speed in the next race. If you get all of the names PLUS the mystery name, you’ll get Super Furret Speed!
Skitty’s Block Out Game – It’s time for a fast-paced game of shape recognition. Pokémon pictures are falling from above, and it’s up to you to put them into the proper combinations. Look at the window on the left side of the screen to see how many of each combination you’ll need to make. Click the left mouse button to make a falling piece move to the left, and click the right mouse button to make it move to the right. Each time you make a combination, those pieces will disappear and cause any pieces that were above them to drop down. Make sure you don’t let the pieces build to the top of the screen, or you’ll lose! If you make enough combinations, you’ll be rewarded with Nitro Nuts that you’ll be able to shoot at the other players in the next race.
Racers, tracks & power-ups
Team Turbo puts 20 Pokémon inside giant Poké Balls and sends them round six courses that get tougher in order, from a straight street sprint to a marathon across every surface in the game. Each course has its own pickups, and in Adventure Mode every race after the first also has one power-up type, won in the mini-game played just before it. Doing well in the puzzles, and leaving their hints unused, is what decides whether you start a race with nothing or with a stack of boosts and weapons.
- 20playable Pokémon racers
- 6race courses, from tarmac to snow
- 5mini-games that earn power-ups
- 6kinds of power-up
The 20 racers
Twenty Pokémon can be picked as racers, mostly first-stage and fully evolved favourites from Kanto and Hoenn. Each rides its own racing ball, and the pickups follow whoever you choose: the letters to collect spell your Pokémon’s name and the helpful Dirt Track dominoes carry its portrait. Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza and the Mythical Deoxys, all stars of the Hoenn era, join the grid, and so does Munchlax, from a generation that hadn’t started yet: its first main-series games were Diamond and Pearl.
Kanto racers and the Hoenn starters
| Racer | No. | Of note |
|---|---|---|
| Bulbasaur | #001 | Kanto starter; hosts Domino Dash; on the box |
| Venusaur | #003 | Bulbasaur’s final evolution |
| Charmander | #004 | Kanto starter |
| Charmeleon | #005 | Charmander’s evolution |
| Squirtle | #007 | Kanto starter; hosts Door Dilemma; on the box |
| Blastoise | #009 | Squirtle’s final evolution |
| Pikachu | #025 | Centrepiece of the box art |
| Treecko | #252 | Hoenn starter |
| Torchic | #255 | Hoenn starter |
| Mudkip | #258 | Hoenn starter; hosts Word Finder |
Bulbasaur
Venusaur
Charmander
Charmeleon
Squirtle
Blastoise
Pikachu
Treecko
Torchic
MudkipMore of Hoenn, the legends and Munchlax
| Racer | No. | Of note |
|---|---|---|
| Blaziken | #257 | Torchic’s final evolution; on the box |
| Skitty | #300 | Hosts the Block Out Game; on the box |
| Plusle | #311 | On the box |
| Spheal | #363 | On the box |
| Metagross | #376 | Beldum’s final evolution |
| Kyogre | #382 | Legendary; on the box |
| Groudon | #383 | Legendary; on the box |
| Rayquaza | #384 | Legendary; listed as ‘Rayquayza’ |
| Deoxys | #386 | Mythical; on the box |
| Munchlax | #446 | The only Generation IV racer |
Blaziken
Skitty
Plusle
Spheal
Metagross
Kyogre
Groudon
Rayquaza
Deoxys
MunchlaxThe six courses
The six courses ramp up through surfaces rather than layouts. The Street Race is a straight run on tarmac, Dirt Track Insanity loosens the grip, Grand Prix tests cornering on tight bends and long straights, Aqua Mania makes turning sluggish on water, and Snow Insanity is a downhill run where your speed keeps building. The Marathon stitches all five surfaces together and adds the strongest set of opponents in the game.
| Order | Course | On-track pickups | Adventure Mode power-up | Earned in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Street Race | Letters of your racer’s name, each a turbo boost | None | – |
| 2 | Dirt Track Insanity | Dominoes with your racer’s portrait speed you up; other racers’ make you spin out | Turbo Boosts (up to 4) | Charizard’s Crossword Challenge |
| 3 | Grand Prix | Letters of your racer’s name for instant speed bursts | Spark Showers (up to 3) | Bulbasaur’s Domino Dash |
| 4 | Aqua Mania | Green shapes boost you; red shapes slow you for a few seconds | Furret Speed / Super Furret Speed | Mudkip’s Word Finder |
| 5 | Snow Insanity | Numbers collected in order give growing boosts; miss one and they stop for the race | Nitro Nuts (6) | Skitty’s Block Out Game |
| 6 | The Marathon | All five earlier surfaces in one course | Water Balloons (one per spare guess) | Squirtle’s Door Dilemma |
Power-ups
Three of the mini-games give you a safety net and then pay you for not using it, so leaning on hints makes the puzzle easier but sends you into the next race with less to fire. The power-ups split into speed and sabotage: Turbo Boosts and Furret Speed simply make you faster, while Spark Showers, Nitro Nuts and Water Balloons are aimed at your rivals.
Three ways to play
The main menu offers Single Race, where any of the six courses can be raced on its own; the five mini-games, each playable separately at a choice of skill levels; and Adventure Mode. Single races use only the pickups lying on the track, so the stored power-ups earned from the puzzles only come into play in Adventure Mode, which strings everything together into one run from The Street Race to The Marathon.
Regional Variations
With a single North American release, Team Turbo’s regional story is a short one:
- Team Turbo was released only in North America, in English, with no localised editions.
- There was no Japanese, European, Australian or Korean release, so the game carries an ESRB rating and nothing from PEGI, CERO or the Australian classification board.
- Its predecessor, Masters Arena, followed the same pattern and was also a North America-only PC release.
- Players outside North America could only get the game by importing the US CD-ROM, which runs on any Windows PC that meets the requirements, as PC discs had no region lock.
System requirements
The CD-ROM’s minimum requirements were modest even in 2005:
- Windows 98, ME or XP
- A 300 MHz processor and 32 MB of RAM
- About 80 MB of free hard disk space for the basic install
- A 640×480 display
- An 8x CD-ROM drive
- A Windows-compatible sound card and speakers
- A mouse – the word games also use the keyboard
Left in the data
- A leftover version of the title screen survives in the game’s files with markers plotting the coordinates where each menu button is meant to sit, an internal layout guide that was never meant to be seen by players.
Trivia & facts
- This game appears to feature only one music file, which can easily be replaced with something else by moving the file out and putting another in its place.
- Rayquaza has been spelt wrong in-game: the racer selection list calls it ‘Rayquayza’. Luckily, this doesn’t affect the spelling or crossword games, as Rayquaza never appears in them – the word puzzles leave out every Pokémon that had no evolutionary relatives as of Generation III.
Further trivia
- Minun stands beside Plusle on the box art, but only Plusle made it into the line-up of 20 racers.
- Charizard hosts the crossword yet can’t be raced. The Kanto starters are oddly split: Bulbasaur and Venusaur, Charmander and Charmeleon, Squirtle and Blastoise, with no Ivysaur, Charizard or Wartortle.
- Munchlax is a racer, almost a year before Diamond and Pearl, its first main-series games, launched in Japan on 28 September 2006.
- Furret, a Generation II Pokémon, isn’t a racer but gives its name to two power-ups, Furret Speed and Super Furret Speed.
- ValuSoft had been owned by THQ since July 2002, so Team Turbo, like Masters Arena before it, was a Pokémon game from the THQ family, an unusual home for the series.
Legacy
What came after
- Pokémon Masters Arena – 2004. ImaginEngine and ValuSoft’s first Pokémon PC game, a collection of eight mini-games, also North America only.
- Pokémon Team Turbo released in North America – 28 October 2005. Windows CD-ROM at US$19.99 from ValuSoft; some listings give 29 September 2005.
- THQ sells ValuSoft to Cosmi – 25 April 2012. The label continued as ValuSoft Cosmi; Team Turbo was not reissued.
- ImaginEngine closes – October 2012. Foundation 9 shut the Framingham studio, ending the team behind both Pokémon PC games.
- THQ files for bankruptcy – 19 December 2012. THQ began liquidating its assets in January 2013.
- No re-release – as of October 2026. Never sold as a download, never on Steam or GOG, never ported to a console.
Where to play it today
Pokémon Team Turbo has never been re-released and cannot be bought new in October 2026. It was never sold as a download, has no Steam or GOG edition and was never ported to a Nintendo console or Nintendo Switch Online. ValuSoft was sold to Cosmi in 2012, ImaginEngine closed that October and THQ was liquidated in 2013, so nobody has sold the game for years, and copies offered as downloads online are unlicensed. Second-hand CD-ROMs are the legitimate route, and modern Windows may need compatibility settings or a virtual machine running an older version of Windows.
How it was made
Team Turbo was the second Pokémon game that ImaginEngine made for ValuSoft, coming a year after Masters Arena (2004). ImaginEngine, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, specialised in children’s and educational software; it had become part of Backbone Entertainment in 2003, and Backbone in turn joined Foundation 9 Entertainment in 2005. ValuSoft, the Minnesota budget-software label THQ had owned since July 2002, published the game and priced the CD-ROM at US$19.99. The credits are short: Randall Sanborn is technical director, Bridget Erdmann executive producer and Richard Yasi producer, with the three sharing the game design. Brian Weed was system architect, Fred Nespoulous handled engineering and Aubrey Ankrum and Mat Matera produced the art. Sanborn, Erdmann and Weed had all worked on Masters Arena. There was little fanfare: news of the release spread from ValuSoft’s own website on 28 October 2005.
Sales & reviews
Sales figures
No sales figures have been published for Pokémon Team Turbo, which was sold only in North America, as a US$19.99 budget CD-ROM from ValuSoft.
- US$19.99budget launch price on CD-ROM
- 2005North America only
- 0critic reviews on Metacritic
- 2ndPokémon game from ImaginEngine and ValuSoft
Review scores
Pokémon Team Turbo has no critic scores to show: no reviews from the gaming press of the time are on record, and Metacritic lists no critic reviews or Metascore for it.
Team Turbo slipped past the gaming press almost entirely. A US$19.99 CD-ROM from a budget label, pitched at young children and released only in North America, it was not the kind of game the big magazines and websites of 2005 sent out for review. Coverage at launch amounted to short fan-site news items describing it as a set of puzzles and games for younger players built around a Pokémon race. Since then it has survived mainly as a curiosity among collectors and fans of the series’ more obscure spin-offs: a licensed Pokémon racer on PC that few people knew existed, best remembered for its giant Poké Ball karts and the ‘Rayquayza’ misprint.
Media & artwork
Further reading
More Pokémon PC games and Generation III spin-offs on the site: