Game #1044: Jet X2O

 Splashdown was SO good it actually got its very own clone!

 Well, I don't remember exactly what brought me to Jet X2O, but I'm not complaining! Not to lose this extreme sport streak I've found myself in, this is another Jetski racing game that borrows quite a lot from Splashdown, from irreverent and wacky character designs to the controls themselves and, believe it or not, it ain't a bad clone.

 Jet X2O is a racing game, first and foremost, in which you must try to reach the end of a track before the other racers, no laps here, it's a straight A-to-B affair. But you are also graded on Points, obtained by performing tricks while on air, so even if you come up last you could potentially make up for it in trick points. You can either play individual events, normal races, Trick races or mixture of both, or tackle the World Tour, which is where you'll unlock more tracks and characters, and it challenges you to go through various races back to back.

 A core mechanic of the game is the Turbo, you can either hold on to your reserves, as charging it to the fullest will grant you a better turbo, or use it as you earn it. There are two ways to charge your Turbo gauge: Performing tricks on the air or going through colored gates. Tricks grant you way more turbo, and performing combos could pretty much fill the whole gauge, but, and it's a big but, if you don't land the trick combo... you'll actually lose turbo from your gauge.

 The game has about 8 tracks, which is a paltry amount in comparison to Splashdown, but I'll give it this... they are very lengthy and very well designed, it's a pleasure going through them. In racing games I tend to prefer A-to-B races as opposed to laps, so that also works in its favor.

 I quite liked Jet X2O, which surprised me a bit since I wasn't expecting to, considering the game is pretty obscure. As far as Jet Ski racing goes, I still think Splashdown is the superior game, it has more content and I found it overall more fun, BUT, this game is still pretty good for what it is.

7.0