Jet Car Stunts 2 review: putting jets on cars does not make them safer

Jet Car Stunts 2 is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Yes, it’s the sequel to the original Jet Car Stunts. Yes, it involves doing stunts in cars with jets attached. For some of you, that might be all you need to know.

For the rest of you, though, Jet Car Stunts 2 is a free iOS game from Australia’s True Axis that has been burning up the app charts in Asian countries including China and Singapore since its release on Saturday. (An Android version is coming but isn’t available yet; don’t be fooled by this sham knockoff version on the Google Play store). But as I’ve learned, games that get a lot of downloads aren’t necessarily any good. So does Jet Car Stunts 2 crash and burn, or can it do a barrel roll?

Gameplay: jet car stunts!

Jet Car Stunts 2 puts you behind the wheel of one of a few different models of cars for a variety of races that take place across abstract-looking futuristic racecourses in the sky. Some levels are all about beating a specific time, and others are more like platforming levels where the challenge is to rocket from one drop-off to the next without falling into oblivion too many times.

The car is controlled via tilting your device to steer while accelerating and reversing using two on-screen buttons on the right, and firing your rocket or using your “handbrake” (which doubles as a sort of parachute when you’re flying) via two buttons on the left. When you’re in the air and firing your rocket, you can also tilt your device backwards and forwards to tilt the nose of your car up or down. It’s a simple enough control scheme to understand, and for the most part, it works well.

Jet Car Stunts 2 does suffer from the same problem as all racing games using tilt controls though: when things get really hairy, it becomes very hard to effectively control your car. Say, for example, you’ve gone off a ramp sideways, and need to re-aim your vehicle in midair. You’ve got to tilt to the side, and also tilt the device back, meaning that your screen is now sideways and tilted at an awkward angle for viewing. But despite this, you’ve still got to manipulate the buttons on the screen too. It’s not easy (or particularly comfortable).

But it’s hard to get too mad at a game that’s so patently ridiculous in the first place. And don’t get me wrong; although it’s phone-smashingly hard at times and the controls can be frustrating, the game is really fun. You can expect to plummet to your death early and often, but I found myself mostly doing a little better each time, and the feeling of accomplishment when you do finally navigate a tough rocket jump successfully is pretty great.

Moreover, Jet Car Stunts 2 offers a lot of bang for your buck, in part because the game is actually free, and in part because there’s a ton of content. There are a boatload of courses to race, so whether you like the jet-car platforming or prefer the more traditional time-trial approach, there’s something here for you. And if you can’t find the the perfect track, you can make it yourself using the game’s create a track mode (it does cost money to download the module that allows you to save your tracks, though) or download other user-created tracks. Of course, there are also online leaderboards and social features for those who want to burn rubber with their friends.

But if a picture’s worth a thousand words, a video’s worth a thousand pictures, so here are some videos of Jet Car Stunts 2 in action. Here’s a basic early game time trial level (which I fail):

And here’s the first platforming level, followed by a little experimentation with the create-a-track mode (my track is terrible):