JetMoto Review

Rev up your engines, it's time to boost!

Blast off from the start line, you've got to beat the Mountain Dew, Butterfinger, and K2 teams. But, you'd better hurry - they're just behind you and about to use their boosters too! No time to look behind you, shoot out your magnetic grappling hook before you fly off the edge. Wouldn't want to miss the corner, might loose your head!

In JetMoto, your jetski is no longer constrained to water, you can fly across freeways, beaches, snow, dirt roads, and an assortment of other racing surfaces. The tracks are gorgeous. They all feature a multitude of different textured environments and have their own cool special effects. For example, on the first track, you start on a highway. All of the sudden, you begin up a hill, and bam - you're flying in the air over an ocean. Some of the other levels include: swamps, forests, icebergs, rivers, and freeways. The characters move fluidly and look good, but, alas, your jetski is not as impressive.

The controls are great, besides the ability to turn, lean forward, and lean backward, you can also roll left and right, as well as lean left and right for those tight corners. By using your magnetic grappling hook, you can grab onto posts and swing yourself around a corner, and with a little practice, you will be able to fly around corners at will.

With over 20 characters from 4 different teams, your options are huge. There is room for finding a combination of acceleration, mass, lift, and handling that you like. But, some of the characters have similar stats, so why include them in the game? With fewer vehicles on the track, they might have been able to make the jetski look better. Each of the characters has a cool image associated with them, that is hand drawn and looks great. The winning character is shown at the end of the race receiving a trophy from either a large-busted woman or a muscular man. Either way, you're bound to find it pleasing.

There are a total of 10 different courses, and their quality is a testament that quantity isn't always the best thing. The only thing I found disappointing about them is that on initial start-up, you can only choose three courses. You'll have to beat the first three courses at the intermediate skill level to unlock three more. This put me off because without being pretty good at racing, you can't see most of the levels without immense practice. But, then again, if your great at racing games, you should have no problems. To unlock the final three levels, you must play at the professional skill level, which would be a complete nightmare for most of us. To top all of this off, if you beat any skill level and are able to reach the new courses, they will dissapear when you turn off your system - unless you have a memory card. There are some great options in the variety of racing modes. Besides the single race, full season, and practice mode, there are two more types of play. There is the rally, where you must use your boosters more wisely than your opponents, time of the laps count here. You've also got the Elimination, where the point is not to be last, but, if you are, you'd better watch out, you'll be booted out of the championship! The sound is realistic and crisp. When your jetski smashes on a concrete road, you'll hear its crunches and scrapes. Or when you get rammed from behind and fly off of your jetski, you'll be yelling you head off. Take a quick dip in the water, you'll hear it splashing around you. No matter what you do, the sound associated with it will be great. The music at the title screen is reminiscent of spy tunes from James Bond movies. It sounds cool and fits the game extremely well, the art follows the same motif. During the courses, you will be treated to a suspenseful score that sounds like it is directly from an orchestra, getting you really pumped up and into the game. All in all, JetMoto is a fun racing game, with good graphics, and great sound and music. It's not the most realistic racing game, but it will attract both the passive racing game player, and the racing fanatics.