If you haven’t met Jett Rocket from the WiiWare days, then don’t fret. Your opportunity to meet this fantastic character has come up. With Shin’en Multimedia’s help, you’ll be able to bear witness to all his glory in Jett Rocket 2: The Wrath of the Taikai, for the Nintendo 3DS.
Jett Rocket 2 plays off as a typical 2D platformer where the story stems from Kaiser Taikai who has kidnapped a bunch of robot companions.  You play as Jett Rocket himself as he ventures off to save his friends. So it’s a simple story with a simple premise.
The levels themselves vary in terms of overall layout. Some are mainly in 2D while others are presented in a 3D perspective where the camera is fixed at an angle. You also have levels that are completely in 3D. What you end up getting is quite a bit of diversity in terms of gameplay as well as a balance in challenges. Checkpoints are laid out at key locations, which minimize repetitive moments of frustration.
Jett Rocket has his basic moves, thus translating to an easy control scheme. Movement is somewhat responsive even though there are moments of slowness when trying to get your character to certain spot. And the commands are assigned to the buttons in a typical control scheme manner that’s straight forward to figure out. You have your typical jump, which you can also pull against a wall. Also, you can perform a rolling spin attack against your enemies. But this move can be used to break through certain obstacles. Every now and then, you’ll come across a jetpack which you’ll need to refuel if you want to take advantage of its benefits.
When you go through the game in Jett Rocket 2, you’ll be facing turrets, flaming barrels, and other dangerous obstacles. Besides dealing with your enemies, you also get the chance to explore the environments to find the Solar Panels as well as gain access to side missions. This is where the replay value kicks in. When you successfully acquire Solar Panels, you use them to play bonus mini-games in between stages.
Jett Rocket 2 consists of 15 stages in total spanning across three different worlds. Adding some difficulty is a few boss battles, that I wish they added a bit more to increase the game’s longevity. Nonetheless, the number of levels is abundant to say at the very least. Once you do complete the game, you’ll unlock a new Mirror Mode which a mirrored version of the levels you played previously. But in this case, your objective is to collect all five of the Solar Panels in order to free the robotic creature that is being caged at the end of the level.
Looking at the presentation, Jett Rocket 2 has a nice color scheme and a friendly character design. The game manages to run at a constantly smooth rate, thereby keeping the action looking fluid and impressive. When examining closely at the 3D effects, it’s unfortunate to say that there isn’t much depth offered on screen. Still, the environments have a high degree of detail, which ends up producing an overall fantastic visual quality.
There’s a lot of promise that Jett Rocket 2: The Wrath of Taikai delivers on, despite some of its shortcomings. You have plenty of variety in terms of content as well as challenges that will keep you occupied for hours on end. If you want a nice action-adventure platformer that’s suitable for all ages, then head on over to the eShop within your Nintendo 3DS and check out Jett Rocket 2: The Wrath of Taikai.
