Review by: Shawn Quigley
Published: December 17, 1997

Sony Entertainment of America is starting to bring hit titles over from the Playstation platform to the PC. One of Sony’s hottest games this past year has been the wildly successful Jet Moto. Jet Moto was developed by Sony as competition for the Nintendo 64′s Waverace jetski game. Even though both titles are similar in nature, Jet Moto offered greater gameplay and a more varied level of difficulty, thanks to the multitude of opponents and varied terrain that you race over. Can Sony successfully take this hit Playstation title and sell it to the PC gaming world?

Jet Moto is a racing simulation at heart, but it adds a different twist to the types of races that gamers are used to participating in. The game centers around driving a bike, more like a jetski, across different terrain to get to the finish line first. Since your bike can cross over land and water, the different tracks bring some unique elements to this racing title.

There are a total of 20 different riders that make up the game’s opponents. These riders are grouped into 4 different teams. Each team has a different skill or different abilities that make the riders on that team different from the riders on the other teams. Every rider has his or her own bike, and each is different from the others. The way that the bikes are different is in their ability to accelerate, the way they handle, their mass or weight, and their ability to lift off the ground. By learning the strengths of each team and the differences between using a lighter bike compared to a heavier bike, racers can gain more strategies for each race they compete in.

Along with the 20 different riders are 10 different tracks, with the 10th track being a bonus track. The tracks are arranged in different groups. When the game starts out you have access to only the first three tracks. As you win the full season with these first tracks, a new set of tracks is enabled, and then the final set is enabled. You have to win the season using the intermediate skill level, and then the pro skill level, to release the last set of tracks. As you gain access to the later tracks, they will become increasingly difficult to win.

Each track offers different challenges. In the first three tracks there is a suicide track that spins you around to go against traffic during the race. This makes for a challenging run since there are so many other racers on the track to avoid. Some of the tracks are mainly land-based, and some are a mixture. There are courses that have a lot of ice, making for some unique challenges along the way. The final course, and the most difficult to win at, is a suspended course that does not forgive the player for going off the track.

Gameplay in Jet Moto centers around winning each race, but to do this you have to use every little bit of strategy you have. Each course and rider bring numerous different ways to win. Just because you find a short route around each track does not necessarily mean you will win the race. Depending on the type of surface and the rider you are using, the shorter route may be the slowest route on the track. All of this has to do with the physics that are used in Jet Moto.

Jet Moto features real-life physics. This means that your bike will react differently to surfaces and other elements in the game. Harder surfaces cause you to move faster than softer surfaces. If you have the right suspension and the right traction for certain surfaces you will move across them differently. This adds more playability to the game, allowing every racer to find his or her own happy medium to race with.