Punishing difficulty spoils the fun
This seems like a hidden gem. It's an early PS2 title, published BY SONY (though developed by a team that NEVER made another game: Killer Games), that seems like an above-average entry in the arcadey extreme racer genre. You remember; all those games that came out after SSX? Sony tried another one with Kinetica, but I honestly think Jet X2O controls and looks better than that game. The problem is when you actually have to play the World Tour mode to make any progress (there's only one vehicle available, half the riders, a pathetic number of tracks, etc. initially). The races in this game require you to place well AND get a high trick combo, and the other racers have horrible rubber-banding AI. They don't do tricks and they don't race better than you - you'll quickly notice they are just FASTER than you when you're in the pack (you'll constantly have others randomly pass you in stretches only for you to be able to overtake them after driving straight ahead), but they'll be slower if you're doing poorly. They always want you to know they're around, and they're BETTER THAN YOU, and it sucks. They also don't do tricks, yet they'll constantly outscore you at the end of the race, knocking down your place always. It's incredibly frustrating to try to unlock anything in this game, and completely unrewarding when you DO succeed, because it's so random. That's a shame, because besides the progression, everything here is great. But play it for an hour, and try to make progress, and you'll absolutely understand why this is so obscure and forgotten and why Killer Games went out of business :P
Still, for less than $3, I'll definitely recommend it if you're curious. Just make sure you've played other water racers like Splashdown 2 or even newer stuff like Riptide Renegade first. Once you've run out of stuff, then check out Jet X2O... just prepare to get frustrated.
Reviewed by: Vince from Pennsylvania on 6/10/2020
3 3
