Game Reviews

Stick Stunt Biker 2

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| Stick Stunt Biker 2
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Stick Stunt Biker 2
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| Stick Stunt Biker 2

Being a competent stunt bike rider is a bit like being a competent skydiver or a competent Premier League football player.

You might be rather uninspiring within your specific field, but you still possess sufficient skills to impress Joe Public.

Similarly, Stick Stunt Biker 2 is a deeply adequate stunt bike game in a field of plainly superior alternatives, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have the potential to excite.

Leap into the known

In the spirit of the subject matter, let's jump straight in: we've seen this kind of game plenty of times before, and done with considerably more panache.

Recently, we've seen excellent stunt racers like Joe Danger and Fearless Wheels, but Stick Stunt Biker 2 is closer to the roller coaster thrills of Xtreme Wheels and Bike Baron. Both are prettier, slicker, and more fun.

But there's no denying that Stick Stunt Biker 2 plays well.

Touching the right side of the screen sees your little goggle-eyed biker accelerating, while touching the left hits the brakes. Tilting your iOS or Android device shifts your biker's weight accordingly, allowing you to rotate in the air and put your weight over a specific wheel when going up or down hill.

Stick Stunt Biker 2 is full of hills. Each level is an obstacle course filled with sharp inclines, perilous slopes, extended flats, half-pipes, loops, and assorted one-off level furniture.

All down hill

The goal, as ever, is to get from start to finish - which usually lasts around 20 seconds - as quickly as possible without crashing.

What's vital in games of this type is that the controls, physics, and level design align sufficiently to prompt you to hit that 'restart' button time and time again - not just when you fail, but when you know you could have gone faster.

In these terms, Stick Stunt Biker 2 passes comfortably. It's as compelling as many games of this type have proven to be in the past.

And that's the core problem, which we've touched on already. Stick Stunt Biker 2 isn't remotely fresh, and it doesn't excel in any one area.

It sports a natty new silhouette art style, which is a big improvement over the scrapbook original. But it's hardly original, and it's been done better elsewhere.

There's also a Game Center-based online multiplayer mode, but we struggled to find a game at the time of writing - and, to be honest, it's all about the competitive high score side of things anyway.

Stick Stunt Biker 2 has enough talent to stand out from your average iOS or Android game, then, but in the elite world of stunt games it's merely an also-rode.

Stick Stunt Biker 2

An undeniably competent stunt bike game that suffers through the sheer weight of superior alternatives
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.