Stunt Paradise (Xbox Series) Review

Have you ever dreamt of being a stuntman? Most of us probably have at some point in our lives as the wonders of movie magic enraptured our young souls. Those amazing falls, flashy fight scenes, and explosive car stunts – especially those glorious car stunts from the golden age of “do it for real” stunts that have yet to be topped. The thrill of seeing a five-ton steel beast barrelling down a highway, narrowly avoiding other cars, pedestrians, and giant buzz saws. And yes, you heard right. GIANT BUZZ SAWS! The bane of every perfectly timed stunt and a recurring obstacle in the world of Stunt Paradise. Along with massive jumps, loop de loops, and plenty of explosives to set your tailpipe on fire.

Stunt Paradise plops you down behind the wheel of a variety of cars and tasks you with driving through a wild gauntlet of stunts to make it to the end of the stage without blowing up or missing a stunt. You’re the stuntman and it’s your time to shine!

A big part of Stunt Paradise’s appeal is just how simple it is to play – but with just enough complications to test both your skills and patience. The objective is simple: make it to the end of the stage as fast as you can while collecting coins and a slightly tricky-to-collect gold star. The difficulty comes from the stage design, which looks like a Hot Wheel track built to scale across the environment. There are ramps for massive jumps, plenty of loop-de-loops that’ll punish you for going too slow, and hot takes on classic action scenes, all thrown into a blender to make a kid-friendly obstacle course.

While Stunt Paradise sports cartoonish full-3D visuals, it is, functionally, an on-rails 2D game. The camera may pan at times to give you a more explosive view of the action, but it is still a game with controls based on a 2D plane.

Talking control, the inputs are fairly limited. You can accelerate, break, reverse, and you have some air control to tilt your car forward or back for when you’re taking jumps or trying to land. For the daredevils amongst you, you can roll the car while it’s in the air by tilting far enough to perform stunts. Just remember to get it the right way round again before the lip of that ramp comes speeding towards you.

The difficulty, which isn’t all that high honestly, comes from the escalating complexity of stages with more and more objects placed in your path. Eventually, you will have to start taking the foot of the gas to judge the correct speed to make it over a hill without getting so much air that you hit the buzz saw near the apex. Thankfully, Stunt Paradise remains exciting without ever frustrating you with unfair gauntlets.

To keep you engaged, there are twenty cars to collect – most recognisable non-licensed versions of real-world vehicles. There are the usual supercars along with Humvee lookalikes, each with their own top speed and handling, so you need to adjust the way you play. Earning them, however, can be a bit of a grind, even with the game’s casual difficulty. You can replay stages to keep earning cash but there’s only so much you can earn per stage. With the escalating costs of cars, it means grinding through earlier levels on repeat for a bit if you want the most expensive motor.

Visually, Stunt Paradise sports a stylised low poly look that fits the game perfectly and emphasise that feeling of playing with toy cars on makeshift tracks, while heaping on the feel of an action movie run. The clean lines and slightly cartoon style visuals are rather attractive in a minimalist way but, sadly, there’s no soundtrack to complement the death-defying. At least the sound effects themselves are effective enough to boost their impact.

Overall, Stunt Paradise is a rather brief game befitting it’s budget pricing. Most levels can be finished in just over a minute or less with the only longevity coming from whether or not you want to unlock multiple rides. You may not return to it once done, but while it does last, it’s a fun, entertaining, and light-hearted spectacle of vehicular gymnastics.

Stunt Paradise was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.