Jets (iOS) Review

Collecting stamps, clocks to prolong the time limit, flying through pipes, attacking birds, destroying crates, AND doing a barrel roll. What do all of these have in common? They are objectives in the latest runner title, Jets for iOS platforms. Instead of just the classical "going on for infinity," does the latest addition to the genre offer a lot of different objectives to keep on spicing up the experience and keeping a fresh feel all the way through?

These objectives are separated into missions. These missions can also, once beaten, be levelled up by completing them again with higher scores, which ensures that Jets always offers something to do. In the first mission, the goal is simply to collect stamps, which is this game's equivalent of coins in normal runners. As Jets goes on, more and more complex missions will arrive. The big highlight is Over the Top. Here, the goal is to perform a wide repertoire of different objectives on demand that are a mix of objectives from earlier missions and new specific ones for this mode, like doing a barrel roll. The heavy emphasis on the variety of gameplay compared to its competition helps to make this extremely fun.

To be completely honest, this variety is the only thing that Jets offers that is done better than most, if not all, of its competitors at this point. One major flaw that makes Jets end up on the shorter end compared to some other runners is the fact that it lacks the possibility to give permanent upgrades to the papercraft jet, something that is very important in the genre to give a sincere feeling of progress. A flaw that keeps Jets from achieving its maximum potential that exists there, as it truly does have the potential at its core to become quite something in the genre.

As times goes on, Jets might very well truly spread out its wings and soar through the skies. The potential is there in the gameplay's core, with varied missions and even a multiplayer system where players can challenge their friends. As it is now, though, Jets is a fun runner for a while that sadly lacks permanent power-ups, something truly needed to give a runner longevity compared to the competition. This might or might not get fixed in the future, but the product at hand is, while extremely fun and very varied while it lasts, short-lived.