Clustertruck

This fast-paced action game is an incredible amount of fun, even though it's based on an absurd Hollywood-like stunt premise. We've all seen that action-movie cliché where the hero leaps on top of a moving truck that's speeding through traffic, occasionally jumping from car to car to stop the bad guy. Now imagine that scene happening in an M.C. Escher painting, and you'll be pretty close to describing Clustertruck. The game takes a basic idea -- jumping off the top of moving semi-truck trailers -- and quickly turns into a physics-based nightmare, as trucks start flying off the road in all sorts of strange and inventive ways. That can't be emphasized enough. Just when you think you've seen it all, and of course found a way around it, the next level throws a new wrench (or meteor) into the mix and you're trying to sort out a whole new way to keep from hitting the ground. If nothing else, Clustertruck keeps things from getting stale.

As much fun as you'll have with the game, Clustertruck still manages to hit a few potholes. First off, the levels are extremely short, capping out at only a couple of minutes for the more difficult levels. Depending on how quickly you pick up on the basics, you could complete the whole thing in only a few hours. Also, since the game relies so much on actual physics, and since objects on each level don't always react in exactly the same way, it's entirely possible that a fluke hit might shift an object just enough so you lose through no fault of your own. These two things sort of cancel each other out, though, since replaying a level can be a new experience every time. Plus, losing a level is only a few seconds of time, so you can get right back into the action. Either way, Clustertruck is still a fun arcade road trip for anyone looking to try a wacky spin on a classic genre. Just remember to only try it in the game and not to try it at home.