Game Reviews

Jet Car Stunts 2

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| Jet Car Stunts 2
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Jet Car Stunts 2
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| Jet Car Stunts 2

I imagine it is intensely difficult driving a car, or any vehicle for that matter, around a loop.

It must take years of practice and nerves of steel to be able to point the front end of your vehicle into a gravity-defying upside-down corner with the confidence that you'll still be alive on the other side.

On the one hand, this makes such actions prime fodder for video game adaptation. If we all decided to start trying out things we take for granted in our digital entertainment in real life the population would see a dramatic decline overnight.

On the other hand, it can make for some frustrating gameplay. And that's what you get with Jet Car Stunts 2. An awful lot of play, with just a dash too much frustration at times.

Jet set go

The game is split into a series of bite-size levels, each with a three medal rating system, spread across a number of different disciplines. Sometimes you're racing against other drivers, sometimes you're darting through checkpoints, and sometimes you're using afterburners to fly between different chunks of the track.

You control your car, which is selected for you by the game, by tilting your iPad. Buttons arranged around the edge of the screen let you accelerate, brake, fire your rocket booster, and deploy your air brake.

It's not the easiest system to get to grips with, which is part of Jet Car Stunts 2's appeal. Unlike a lot of arcade racers it forces you to use the brakes - especially the air brakes - to make sure you make it around corners safely.

Don't jet on it

The tracks in the game are gorgeous, abstract concoctions, put together from various floating blocks to create mind-bending raceways. It's rarely clear from one leap to the next where you're likely to be twisting, and this adds a frantic sense of desperation to your runs.

Unfortunately, it can add some frustration too. In a game that downgrades your score for retrying, it's sometimes impossible to complete a course on the first go without careening off into oblivion when the track disappears from underneath you.

The sliced-up progression that sees you hopping from vehicle to vehicle means it takes a good long while to get a real handle on the different cars, and while the difficulty is reasonably lenient your path through the game can feel a little disjointed.

Despite that, there is a lot of fun to be had here. When you finally get your head around the controls, and when you've started to understand the tracks a little better, you'll find a first-rate arcade racing experience.

And jet...

It's just a shame that it takes some digging to actually reach the heart of the game, because not everybody will persist long enough to find it.

Throw in a huge track editing system that lets you share your creations with players around the world, and you're left with an impressive bulk of content that will take you hours to acclimatise yourself to and weeks to work your way through.

Performing a loop in Jet Car Stunts 2 might not be as difficult as it is in real life, but this is still a game that demands practice and perseverance. If you can get past those roadblocks, and the frustrations they cause, you'll find a pretty entertaining game.

Jet Car Stunts 2

Not one for the faint of heart or slow of finger, Jet Car Stunts 2 takes a long time to master, but it's just about worth the effort
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.