Jet Car Stunts Review

Jet Car Stunts has been sitting in my steam library for over a week now, and I’m still having trouble processing exactly what the game is. You would have thought that a game with such a descriptive title would be pretty easy to work out, right? Well, not for me. With its fingers in many, many pies, it seems I’ll have to think a little harder about how to approach it.

So, Jet Car Stunts is a title that’s come, via a significant development time, from the mobile arena. Now, don’t fly off the handle just yet! It’s not as bad as some out there. While the core of the game is almost identical, as far as I can tell, the visuals and other additions to gameplay make it the kind of offering that may suit a very particular type of gamer. Who exactly that might be is beyond me though.

The game itself is a part arcade racer, and part trick-based, over-the-top time attack effort. It’s basic in the extreme, and gives you blocky tracks with huge gaping holes in the road, which must be navigated using the rather floaty flying mechanics and some suspicious gravity.

First off, there’s a definite hint of Trials in here. The tracks are a good deal more abstract than most in the trials stable, but are no less challenging to get right. I get the feeling that this kind of quick-restart gameplay was the core of what the developer was looking for. If you’re not a fan of that kind of perfectionist attitude, stay away, as this will only irritate.

Then there is also a significant touch of Trackmania in here as well. While the comparisons might seem sizable to begin with, actually, Jet Car Stunts is a much more approachable game for my money. The flip side of that comes in the somewhat stunted longevity. Sure, you don’t necessarily want a game like this to be super long, but you want something to come back to. In that respect it satisfies my criteria, but only just. I imagine there might be some DLC or user-made content for this, so perhaps that’s not an issue to be concerned with.

The visual style, understandably, harks back to the good old days of PS One (if not a little before), but it could be argued that this works in Jet Car Stunt’s favour, giving a clear and uncluttered environment in which to race. Personally, I dislike the graphical style. For the asking price I would have preferred to see a tidier looking game, but that’s personal taste, I suppose.

So what do you get for your tenner, then? A handful of cars, a pretty sizable array of tracks, three different modes, and a bit of a rubbish multiplayer. I just find it a very paltry package, and not something that’s easy to recommend, given the strength of the competition, namely Trackmania and Trials. It does have some value, for sure, but I suspect that value will come during a 50-75% off Steam sale. Of course, if you’re a lover of the original, this very much retains the feel of the 2009 iOS game. I guess my biggest problem is exactly that, though.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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