Jet Car Stunts is another indie game where you’re just left
with questions without answers. Why was
it built? Who is the audience supposed
to be? How can this game actually cost
real human money? It is a vehicular
racing / time trial game sort of like Trials but closer to Trackmania since
it’s 3D, but it has neither the tight controls or flawless level design of
those games, which means it is just totally awful to actually try to play. Jet Car Stunts is a total waste of time.
Game Details
- Publisher: Grip Digital
- Developer: Grip Digital, True Axis
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Racing
- Pros: Pretty skyboxes
- Cons: Bad controls; ugly visuals; not fun
- MSRP: $5
Jet Car Stunts has you driving a sort of F1-looking car with
a jet boost through a series of time trial courses that were all built floating
in mid-air for some reason. The courses
have jumps and loops and all sorts of crazy stuff and navigating them requires
proper management of your speed so you can actually clear gaps and land where
you want to. You have only limited
control over your car while in the air, so you had better hope you judged your
speed correctly while on the ground because you’re at the mercy of nature while
in the air. Your only objective is to
get to the end of each course as fast as possible.
This all sounds just like a Trials game, but it is closer to
Trackmania since it is also a 3D racer.
The difference, however, is that Jet Car Stunts has shockingly terrible
course design. Trials and Trackmania
work so well and are so addictive because they have perfect and responsive
controls, but also clever track design that lets you know what is coming up
just in the nick of time so you are prepared for it. Trials and Trackmania also generally have a fair bit of wiggle
room so that you don’t have to be absolutely perfect to get through each
course.
Jet Car Stunts, on the other hand, has awful, loose, floaty
controls and the course designs require absolute precision – which the controls
obviously can’t provide – in order to even finish them (forget about setting
good times). It becomes a grueling
exercise in trial and error and frustration that wears thin extremely
quickly. Trials and Trackmania are also
definitely about trial and error too, but you actually feel like you’re in
control and that the courses are fairly designed. There is a sense of skill growth and satisfaction in Trials or
Trackmania. You don’t feel that way in
Jet Car Stunts. You just feel
frustration and anger because it isn’t any fun.
Jet Car Stunts features very simple graphics made up largely
of huge chunky polygons like the Super FX chip from the SNES is running
it. It is definitely distinct looking,
but also kinda ugly. The backgrounds
are all just big skyboxes, but I have to admit I rather like them. They’re usually colorful and pretty. The sound is totally forgettable, though,
with bland engine sounds and music that may as well not even be there.
Jet Car Stunts might be an okay game in a world where
Trials or Trackmania don’t exist, but they do exist which makes the flaws here
really, really stand out. Even at the
cheap $5 asking price there is no reason to play Jet Car Stunts. It is bad.
It is ugly. It is
frustrating. Play Trials Fusion or
Trackmania Turbo instead.