Jet Moto 3

by 989 STUDIOS

Product Features

• Complete

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001X5BE
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 14, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,128 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Editorial Review

Superb graphics and fast action characterize 989 Studios' daredevil motocross game Jet Moto 3. Designed for one or two players, this game expands on the original two Jet Moto games with improved visuals and controls.

After choosing from a selection of characters (each with varying strengths), you can traverse four different courses using a futuristic all-terrain cycle. The well-designed tracks will challenge even veterans of the earlier Jet Moto titles. You will feel the cycle slipping on the ice of the Khumbu Icefall and develop a lump in your stomach as you jump over Devil's Canyon. On the down side, close-up views are difficult to manage, as the field of vision can easily be lost. This is especially a problem in the two-player, split-screen view.

While some gamers may grow tired of this game fairly quickly, there is enough meat here to keep racing fans interested until the courses are mastered. Learning the subtleties of each course can prepare hard-core racers for the game's more advanced seasonal competitions and racing circuits. --Sal Barcia

Pros:

• Superb graphics
• Design improved over previous Jet Moto titles

Cons:

• Close-up views are difficult to manage
• Non-racing fans may grow bored quickly

GameSpot Review

If Jet Moto was needlessly difficult, and Jet Moto 2 was even tougher, then the third incarnation of the Jet Moto series reaches the summit of crafty tracks and challenging racing. I just couldn't see Jet Moto existing as a real life sport - the careers of racers in the league would be horribly short, until the up-and-comer blazed around a corner and right off a cliff. Jet Moto 3 indeed brings the pain - but it does it in a nice, cheerful way.

If doing a flip on a pair of roller skates these days is considered extreme, Jet Moto racing needs a brand-new term to describe it. Jet Moto is hard-core, in your face, fall-into-a-bottomless-pit-and-like-it racing. Want more brutal, daring tracks? Jet Moto 3 has got them. In fact, Jet Moto 3 boasts ten of the most difficult tracks I've seen in a racing game. Nothing will frustrate you more than when you accidentally miss a 2-inch-wide ledge and lose a lap because of it. But somehow, Jet Moto 3 makes this all bearable, and the adrenaline-fueled racing combined with sadistic track design make Jet Moto 3 one hard game to put down.

The graphics say one thing to you - speed. The graphics engine was built to show off exactly how fast you can blaze through the tracks. As such, attention to details is sometimes sketchy. Your Moto racer himself looks a little on the stickman side, while the backgrounds are nice and pretty unless you get too close. The grapple effect looks downright lame, and the poles themselves stick out like a sore thumb. All the CGI in the game is frightful - none of the characters look even fractionally human. But most of this really doesn't matter when you're flying through a volcano at 150mph and the frame rate is just humming.

The soundtrack is good - not good enough to record and play while you're in traffic, but good nonetheless. Each track has its own theme song, which usually has to do with the track itself. Catchy Spanish guitar strums away on the South American track, while haunting chords and menacing voices whisper one liners through the forbidden temple track. The sound effects are standard racer fare - a growling engine peppered with boost-like noises.

But Jet Moto 3 confuses me. A lot of the game takes place in tunnels, or in a series of banked turns. Surely a game dedicated to speed would take advantage of it with better track design? Too many of the tracks have speed-killing turns, and the grapple poles suddenly seem to be on the endangered species list. Jet Moto 3 also relies a lot on you shifting your weight on the bike to compensate for banked turns and jumps - but while this is a great concept in theory, in application it's almost not worth it. You can get through most of the tunnels pointed up, down, left, right, inverted - you name it, as long as you're holding on to that accelerator button and tapping boost every now and again.

Still, obvious improvements have been made over the other Jet Moto games. Now there are only five other racers on the track with you, so collisions are less common and regaining rank after a disaster is much easier. The graphics are noticeably better, the courses are more inventive, and there are a lot more racers to choose from. But definitely the best aspect of Jet Moto 3 is the fact that there's an escaped prison convict who races a Slim Jim bike. If you're playing as anyone but him you're just playing yourself.

Jet Moto 3 is by no means an easy game. It's a difficult, brutal romp through a ton of unforgiving courses applied in a futuristic setting. But it still manages to be a whole lot of fun, and it almost guarantees that you'll be playing through each course more than once. The feeling of badass-ness from placing first on a difficult track is more rewarding than any CG sequence in the game. And the gameplay itself is sure to make you hope that one day you'll be seeing the Jet Moto championship on your favorite sports network. And while sequels in the movies usually never reach the same status as that of the original, Jet Moto 3 proves that the higher the number, the better the game. --Ben Stahl
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This game looks and plays great!, November 18, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Jet Moto 3 (Video Game)

The graphics for this game are awesome -- way better than the first two Jet Moto's. It's hard to master at first, and you have to learn to use the grapple, which makes it different from other racers, but once you've got it down you can pull off moves that no other race game allows you to do at super hi speeds.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Racing game ever!, December 30, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Jet Moto 3 (Video Game)

I love every Jet Moto game. I own all three of them! It's a game that pushes racing games to the limit with extreme stunts and radical wipeouts(which I mostly do but I still think the game is great)! I got this game for Christmas from my dad and I love winning the races when when I'm racing against him. Although Jet Moto 3 is easier then the first two, it's graphics out run them both. This is the best game I have in my collection and it will be for a long time so put it in your shopping cart to buy it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If it's action you want, you'll find it here, October 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Jet Moto 3 (Video Game)

I guess I don't know where to begin. This game is really good. It's got its share of flaws but it's still fun. The good sides first. The gameplay has a really fast, fluent style and the grapples work much better than they did in the previous game. The novice courses aren't too hard, but they get harder. Catacombs seems like a pure nightmare at first. Then, the professional courses get even harder. The Machu Picchu course is out of control and almost every part of the terrain is extremely narrow. I won't tell you what happens after you beat Professional mode. Another fun thing is the stunt courses you get when beating certain levels of the game like the deformed Circus Park you get for beating Semi-pro mode. The graphics aren't the greatest in the world, but they do. But the thing is, if you don't have a memory card, you'll get pretty sick of the game because you need to save your progress on a memory card, or you'll be playing Novice courses the whole time which isn't much fun. Also, some of the courses are extremely hard to figure out like they don't have a set path. Courses like Shipwreck Cove, Volcano Island, and Machu Picchu can be very hard to understand at first because the levels are too open. Besides that, it's a blast. Buy it but get a memory card too.