Review: Jelly Car 2

Nothing goes better with jelly than peanut butter, and that sticky quality exactly what the platform driving Jelly Car 2 needs.

It slathers on the sweet with cute graphics and crazy levels, but without online sharing to complement the level editor and better control options you won’t be stuck on Jelly Car 2 for long.

The game has you navigating a gelatinous car through 30 levels filled with platforms, pitfalls, and various moving obstacles. It’s a scribbled Super Mario Bros behind the wheel, of sorts.

Pressing a finger on either side of the screen moves your car left and right, respectively. Curiously, the accelerometer is used not for movement, but for managing your vehicle’s centre of gravity. Tilting shifts the weight left and right.

Although it helps stabilise your car through bumps and steep hills, splitting the controls causes much unneeded annoyance. Your instinct is to tilt to move and there ought to be an option to switch the controls.

The ability to swap between touch and tilt movement wouldn’t solve the bouncy physics that are both a draw and detriment to Jelly Car 2. Some levels delight as your car bounces, spins, and jumps to the chequered flag – others demand trial and error play for seemingly simple challenges.

It doesn’t help that you often are given no indication of where you need to go. Sometimes platforms abruptly end without any clue as to what to do next. A survey of each level when you begin would be good, or signs pointing the way.

What saves Jelly Car 2 from becoming a sticky mess is that for every irksome level there’s an equally fun one to counter it. Long Jump mode, which has you launching off enormous ramps to earn distance, is particularly amusing.

Two new modes – Factory and a level editor – look sweet, but unfortunately are sour grapes. Factory mode is an utter bore, having you sort shapes that fall down the screen. The level editor has the right idea by letting you create and save custom creations, but the inability to share them online with other players limits its appeal.

Adding online level sharing would give Jelly Car 2 the sticky quality it needs to keep you coming back for more. Together with tuned up controls, such improvements would turn a flawed game into a sweet treat.