Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years

As a lifelong movie buff, I’m always enticed by games about movie stunts even though they usually suck. Regular driving or flying games do a better job recreating movie stunts. Remember Stunt Island for the PC? Hopefully Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years will be the one that makes me feel like I’m in the movies.

Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years is one of the worst games ever for any system, certainly for iOS. It’s a driving game you can’t drive, a stunt game you can’t control and it’s really slow. There is literally no steering in the game. There’s gas and brake, that’s it. There isn’t even reverse, you can only go forward. And the flip buttons are the same as the gas and brake. Why would gas and brake make you flip? That’s stupid.

A producer gives you assignments for each stunt and tells you which vehicle (trucks or motorcycles you buy with credits earned from previous stunts), to drive. You draw your own ramp on the screen, but it doesn’t really seem to matter what angle you make it or how long it is. Well, if it’s too steep some of the trucks won’t be able to drive it, but it’s basically the same line every stunt.

Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years
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You hit the gas and sometimes your vehicle will flip backwards before you even clear the ramp. Again, no steering, so there’s nothing you can do to balance this out. Just tap the gas sporadically so you don’t build up too much speed, but then you never get enough speed to make a jump. Maybe you happen to clear the level if you awkwardly bounce around enough to clear the gap and reach the finish line. You actually have to outsmart the game, since the actual controls don’t work. You won’t finish a stunt by flooring it and landing flips. You’ll clear it if you drive slow enough so that nothing kills you and you can stop before you go past the goal.

In addition to purchasing vehicles, you can purchase add-ons that improve your stunt runs. The only one that actually makes a difference is the parachute brake. Without it there’s no way to brake before you overshoot the finish line. The NOS boost doesn’t really make you go faster. The front and rear tire groundings don’t really stop you from flipping unintentionally. The jump boost doesn’t really give you more air.

Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years
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Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years is such a crappy game. It doesn’t do any of the things it sets out to do. You don’t really drive or jump, you just try to exploit the game’s flawed mechanics well enough to move on to the next level. But I just saved you trouble of that. Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years is one giant iOS crash and burn.

 

Store Link: Stunt Star: The Hollywood Years for iPhone or iPad | By Three Phase Interactive |Price: $2.99 | Version: 1.0.1 |  29.7 MB | Rating 9+
1.0 out of 10 arcade sushi rating

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