It’s a tricky thing, to make a solid JetSki racing game. The recipe for success: Making sure your game has excellent water physics and recreates the sensation of bobbling along the water, run in opposition to what makes car racing so much fun.
A realistic JetSki game has a natural choppiness to it that doesn’t lend itself to a high-speed chase. Even the stunts aren’t as cool as those found in, say, a motorcycle racing game. But here we are, and Aqua Moto Racing 2 is quite a fine JetSki racer, in spite of the natural sacrifices of the genre.
Aqua Moto Racer 2 comes with two main modes. A Quick Race mode that lets you jump right into a single race, and its main game mode, the Championship mode where you take part in a series of races of escalating difficulty, attempting to earn money to upgrade your JetSki.
Money isn’t the only thing you’ll need to upgrade to a better JetSki. Aqua Moto Racing 2 more or less forces you to play the Championship mode, as winning races increases your rank, and the better JetSkis are only released once you’ve achieved specific rankings.
This isn’t an entirely bad idea, as it prevents a player from needlessly beating up on the weak AI early on, only providing players with the better crafts when they’re facing better competition.
Aqua Moto Racing 2 also comes packed with a nice list of achievements. Some relate to actual racing, such as the Crash Course achievement, which you earn by crashing during a race and then recovering to win it. While others are more focused on individual skill, like the Hydroplaning achievement, which you earn by diving and then performing a stunt.
Visually, Aqua Moto Racing 2 has decent-looking environments, JetSkis and riders. The water doesn’t look fantastic, but the wave effects are impressive. Waves will absolutely interfere with your ability to gain speed or negotiate around your opponent. It’s easy to forget in games where the JetSkis might as well be flying around on ice, but water is actually a pain to race through. Luckily, Aqua Moto Racing 2 uses that aspect of the environment to great effect.
Ultimately, this racing app is only as satisfying as the amount of time you put into it. The amateur ranking JetSki you start out with chugs along at a depressing pace, but if players stick with the game long enough to unlock some speedier crafts, they’ll find a well-constructed racing experience that everyone can enjoy.
