I have this uneasy feeling that, in a different life, I was a speedrunner. Not because I'm doing the videogame equivalent of 'I could paint that' at an art exhibit, but because whenever I sit down to play one of these games, I wind up glued to my screen for an hour in a self-perfecting trance.
Jetrunner is a nifty upcoming speedrunning game, described on its Steam page as "Trackmania meets Titanfall, that sees Nina White trying to be the very best that no-one ever was at zipping around dangerous construction sites. Also, Matthew Mercer's there and he's doing a somewhat-okay French accent.
If the demo's any indication, the full game—which releases tomorrow, September 4, making it one of the few games to not dodge Silksong's release window—will be stocked top-to-bottom with cleverly designed levels, each with some well-placed level geometry to skip half of them with.
Nina's basic kit has a wall-run, a walljump, and a dash (which refreshes when you hit a wall). Expanding this toolkit are a handful of in-level powerups, like a massive jump boost that you can execute midair, and every speedrunner's favourite implement: A gun.
Most levels have targets you need to shoot to progress, so you aren't just solving for speed, but accuracy as well—which is a nice puzzle to whittle your hours away with. The story's charming enough (and entirely optional), as Mercer-voiced Mick Acaster and Nina banter about Nina's terrible work-life balance. Sometimes a girl's just gotta parkour in a sewer. Get on that grindset, you know.
The only real downside is how the game looks, sometimes—mind, I've only touched the demo, so some of these art assets might be a work-in-progress. However, Jetrunner's levels can sometimes look a little… bare. This was particularly apparent when Mick invited a bunch of people to the sewers for some good ol' fashioned jumping fun and they were… uh, just sort of orbs.
But really, with a game like this, the gameplay's the focus—I don't need raytraced high poly-count vistas to have a good time—and Jetrunner is slick. If you've ever broken your thumbs over strawberries in Celeste, you could do far worse than Curveball Games' latest.
1. Best overall:
Xbox Wireless Controller
2. Best budget:
GameSir Nova Lite
3. Best premium:
Xbox Elite Series 2
4. Best customizable:
Scuf Instinct Pro
5. Best haptics:
Sony DualSense
6. Best Hall effect:
Razer Wolverine V3 Pro
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