A jet car is a near-untamable beast of a machine, but the important thing to remember is the word "near". You've got super-fast thrust, jets to go even faster, and a turbo overdrive to boost to Ludicrous Speed. It's a lot to control, and the trick is to know when to let loose and when to reign it in.

There are a couple of things you'll want to do first before jumping into the race, though. First up, the controls are set up through the Unity front-end. When the game loads for the first time you'll need to hit the Input tab before starting to set the buttons whichever way you see fit. This is what most of the lines are for, and how I like to set up my standard Xbox 360 game pad. Go nuts on any configuration that feels comfortable, though.

Steering (+) and Steering (-) are for, of course, steering. Left stick
ThrottleBrake (+)- acceleration. Blank on this entry, right trigger in analog section below.
ThrottleBrake (-)- braking. Left bumper
Air Brake- puts up all the flaps on the rear of the car evenly. B button
camToggle- runs through different camera views. Y button
camPassBy- Sets the camera at a point on the track to view the jet car whipping by. Back button
Booster- Activates the left and right jet boosters in the middle of the car. A button
DisarmASC- Disable/re-enable Automatic Steering Control. More details on this feature below. Right bumper.
Uber AfterBurner- Turbo-charges your already powerful main boost, but can overheat with extended use. X button.
Handbrake- Just what it sounds like. I have it mapped to the B button to use it and the air brakes simultaneously.

The next set of controls are for the analog sticks and triggers-

Steering- Left stick, again
ThrottleBrake- Analog standard thrust. Right Trigger.
Air Brake- Same as the button, throws up all air brake panels evenly. Left trigger.
Steering Direct- For when computer-assisted steering just isn't cutting it. Right stick.

Once you've got the game set up to your liking, the final piece of the control puzzle is found in the Settings menu. Steering is super-twitchy if you don't adjust the sensitivity, so go to Settings -> Controls to bump it down a notch. I like it at 50% but, again, experiment a bit until it feels right.

One of the major features of steering is the computer assist, which tries to keep steering reasonable at high speeds. Check out how the wheels turn when you're standing stock-still. Left and right turn them almost 45 degrees, which would be problematic when you're clearing 400KPH. Computer-assisted steering keeps the turning radius reasonable for the speed you're traveling at, to a point. DisarmASC turns off the steering computer, while Steering Direct gives you a secondary steering option so you don't have to remember to re-enable ASC. A good place to check the difference in steering types is on the first banked turn on the Main Circuit course. Turn off ASC or trying using Steering Direct and it's extra-twitchy on the handling, but with normal steering enabled you can fly through it at top speed.

There are two other important controls not mapped to any gamepad function- reset to checkpoint and de-turtle the car. The Menu tab in the upper-left corner lets you reset to the last checkpoint, which is great when you've crashed enough to make the car unusable. It requires taking a hand off the controller and using the mouse to access, but with as much crashing as you'll be doing it quickly becomes second nature. The other mouse-controlled major feature is for when you've flipped over completely, which requires clicking on the speedometer at the bottom-middle of the screen.


Once you've got all that in place it's time to burn down the track like a madman. The physics simulation is unforgiving so you can't just hit accelerate constantly and not become a cascade of explosive shrapnel, but Jet Racing Extreme is also at its best when you've pushed well past the edge of control. Have fun playing with the controls and enjoying the ridiculous deaths your poor driver suffers at your hands rather than get too upset at another firey wipeout. Once you've set up the controls to your liking the rest is down to a bit of practice at the car's handling, and learning when it's good to push on after a crash and when to reset to the last checkpoint. Jet Racing Extreme is not a kind, generous, or forgiving game, but once you start learning what its monstrous car can and can't do, you'll start blowing past checkpoints like a rocket-powered pro.