Jet Moto 3

"A Good End to a Decent Series"

Jet Moto 3 has gone into a transition of developers just as the Twisted Metal series did. The first two games of each series were developed by “Single Trac,” and the last games by “989 Studios.” Some fans may think this is for the worst, but Jet Moto 3 ultimately benefits from this transition. The game gets faster, a bit of a graphical facelift, and the best soundtrack yet. Read on to see if you'd enjoy the last Jet Moto game in your collection.

Graphics:

Some parts are great, some parts are just O.K. You'll notice right away that the FMV's are good looking. When the game first loads up you'll see the nice, clean, and crisp menus that fit perfectly with the theme of the game. The characters and bike designs look good when choosing them as well. When you pick a racer and a track finally loads up, (loading times are a bit long) you'll notice a few things graphically right away. First off, the tracks look stunning from a distance. Every course looks breathtaking. You'll be racing in locales such as arctic courses, volcanic waters, cities, and more. The oozing lava effects and steam when you race in the volcano level are amazing. The arctic level is portrayed perfectly, and you almost get a chill racing through it. Now if you race close up to a wall and actually stare at it, the textures are actually muddy looking and not detailed. It saves development time and memory doing that, and the levels still look good from a distance, but they're not perfect graphics. The only other complaint would be the rather small size your bike is on the screen. It looks fairly shrunken, and very little bike detail can be seen when you race. So the graphics are good looking at a distance, but blocky when truly scrutinized.

Graphics Score: (8/10)

Sound:

Many futuristic racing games all go for the same techno/trance beat theme, and not all of them come up being more than too cheesey. Jet Moto 3 however, pulls it off. You can thump to the beat of the menu theme a bit, and for every track you load up a perfectly fitting music track is played. The futuristic mexican sounding music in the first level, and the the chanting/native sounding music in the volcano level are among the best. Overall some of the music is quite memorable, and others serve to get you through a track I guess.

Sound effects aren't too plentiful in this game. There's a nice sound when you choose an option in the menu. There's the fitting sound of your jet bike as it races around. There's an odd thump when you hit a wall and fly off. And that's really all the sound effects there are in the game. Not that there needed to be more for something, but there's just really no sound effects in the game that detract from the pretty good music.

Sound Score: (8/10)

Gameplay:

Jet Moto 3 is a futuristic hoverbike racing game. These bikes float and go around 120mph, so it opens up a huge range of places where you can race. The game has a season, or a career mode where you race against the A.I. in three difficulties. You go through the difficulties trying to win the race, and getting points for how well you did. (1st place 10, 2nd 7, last 0, etc.) If you won at the end of the difficulty, you win a trophy and a new difficulty is unlocked, as well as three more tracks. You can do practice mode where it's only you and you can be familiar with the track before you race any actuall competition. You can do single, where you race one track against computer controlled opponents. There's also circuit, where you have to win a set number of tracks. There's multi-player in each of those modes as well. The A.I. of the game is sometimes frustrating, and during each race there isn't one particular bike who'll always be right up there in first which keeps things balanced. That may be good, but during later, more linear courses, you'll be struggling to keep up with the cheap A.I. They'll fall of edges, and teleport much further ahead than they died at, which you of course cannot do. This isn't apparent in the beginning, but in professional mode it really gets to you.

The overall track designs of this game are good. The first courses start out fairly easy, offering straightaways, and wider turns. The later couses get trickier though. These courses are full of sharp turns, objects that block the path, and pitfalls that lead you to restart at a checkpoint not too far back. If it was up to me, I would've stuck with more open and less tricky to navigate courses. When the courses are littered with obstacles you start noticing cheap cases of the A.I., and the overly touchy crash detection system which often has you flying off your bike and dying for light taps into walls. Level design is great though, and you'll have an excellent time racing through each unique track. Going over volcanoes is pure awesomeness, and the Catacombs and Lost City are amazing. The frame rate always remains smooth, but the camera isn't perfect. It's good everywhere except around sharp turns, where it seems to zoom straight into the walls, and not where you need to go. A bit frustrating but forgivable. Control is also quite tight. X to go, traingle for turbo, and powerslides are done with X+square. You can also perform tighter turns if you hold L1 or R1. Overall the gameplay is fun, but cheap A.I. and some courses being too narrow ruin it a bit, and may turn some people off.

Gameplay Score: (7/10)

Replay Value:

Jet Moto 3 is pretty fun to come back to and play, even in these days and ages. It was fun enough for me to come back recently and play, eight years after the game came out. Going through the tracks again is always pretty fun, and more fun with a friend. If you replay season you can collect 10 coins that will unlock a stunt mode. Stunt mode is pretty fun, and you try to rack up points pulling of backflips and such. If you beat circuit and season enough times you can unlock secret characters as well. There are also a ton of cheats for this game, and cheats always add some good times to the end of a game. You can change camera views, float higher, and just do a smorgasboard of cool things. This is a game that isn't too hard to come back to.

Replay Value Score: (8/10)

Overall, JM3 is a balanced futuristic racing game. Level designs are awesome and varied, but the A.I. can be cheap. Graphics are good, but not great. Music is great, but not sound. The overall length of the game may be short, but there are plenty of reasons to go back and play, which adds a lot to the value. If you can find it, and are a fan of this genre, or want to try a brisk new game, Jet Moto 3 is for you.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/08, Updated 06/09/08

Game Release: Jet Moto 3 (US, 08/31/99)