PN Review: Jett Tailfin

Poor games aren’t much fun to review.  Even more frustrating are poor games that actually have potential.  While some titles are just bad all around, others have a good foundation but fall victim to regrettable decisions.  Jett Tailfin is in that latter camp.  It has some enjoyable elements, but a series of unfortunate choices sadly make it a highly disappointing Wii U game at present.

Jett Tailfin is a racing game with a fun cast of aquatic characters.  The game packs plenty of content.  It’s colorful, with cool movie style cutscenes.  It has nice multiplayer support, where I could race against my wife and each of us had our own screens.  There are fun bonus rounds.  These are all enjoyable things.

Now to highlight some of the regrettable decisions.  First and foremost, this game is currently selling for $35.  That’s quite disproportionate to the bulk of eShop games.  To be fair, this packs far more content than the 99 cent mobile version – there are more than three times the number of tracks here, along with exclusive fish, and some other additions.  For such a high price though, gamers should rightly expect great things from Jett Tailfin, and it comes up short.

Visually this game is dated – unsurprisingly as it was first announced nearly three years ago.  It looks better in still shots than in action.  While I did like certain aspects, the choppy movement, and overall lack of diversity were letdowns.  Some tracks are imaginative, but there’s no denying many look quite similar.  The murkiness of the water can’t completely hide draw in either, and the first person view gave me a headache!  The music likewise struggles with variety, offering up many similar sounding tracks.  Spanish guitar dominates the compositions – it’s repetitive, ill-fitting, and potentially annoying.  I respect that the characters are voiced, but the vocal clips quickly become grating as they’re shouted over and over while racing.  Thankfully they can be muted.

 While graphics and sound aren’t overly important, controls certainly are.  Alongside price, Jett Tailfin’s controls are another sizable concern.  The controls are awkwardly mapped.  There’s no option provided to adjust the layout.  You also need to juggle between the touch screen and buttons if using the GamePad, which is cumbersome.   Furthermore, motion controlled steering is much more of a hindrance than an asset!  Calibration is quick, but you’ll probably do it more often than you’d like as the game seems to pull you to one side.  Everything has a sluggish feeling as well, which very much dampens the excitement.

Even though there’s many new tracks included, they bring plenty of concerns with them too.  Long load times, poor hit detection, and unbalanced AI among them.  The track designs are such where going the wrong way isn’t uncommon.  Even the game itself can’t always decide which way is correct – I was told I was going backwards even though I hadn’t turned and was following the arrows!  Things like this made the game drag for me, and made progression seem more like a chore than enjoyable.

Possibly my biggest concerns with Jett Tailfin are bugs.  Twice I encountered game breaking glitches!  Once during a race, and once on a loading screen my game locked up.  Having to unplug my Wii U to make it power on again leaves a lasting and negative impression.  This is the biggest reflection of lack of polish in my mind.

Again, Jett Tailfin has a solid foundation here.  But there’s still much room to improve before this can even be considered a decent game.  A patch to offer control options will help.  An update that gets rid of game breaking bugs is essential!  A price drop to reflect its eShop peers and its own quality is needed.  When these things take place, I’ll gladly revisit this game.  In its present state though, I find Jett Tailfin to be of subpar quality, and quite disappointing.  At present, this game’s impossible to recommend sadly.