Jett Rocket II: Wrath of Taikai sees Shin'en Multimedia revive their 2010 WiiWare franchise, bringing it lovingly into the last embers of 2013 and onto a console which has had an incredible year for software, the Nintendo 3DS. And while Jett Rocket II doesn't quite join the pantheon of must have titles for the 3DS we have seen in 2013, it's still a very good eShop exclusive game.

The story is suitably daft and futuristic, the mechanical beast that is Taikai re-emerging from the edge of space to cause havoc and general mischief. Suffice to say, we are let loose in the game pretty quickly, and there is plenty to do. Three worlds consisting of five levels each, the game eases you in gently before becoming fairly tricky towards its conclusion. Your move set consists of jumping and attacking...and that's it, certainly to start with. As you progress you can have a limited number of extra abilities, for example a jet pack which allows you to jump higher. What the limited number of uses does do is make it much more tactical and vital when you use them. If you prat about using one to get over the smallest gap, later on you will be regretting it when you have to jump vertically further than you naturally can.

The game mixes levels between 2D side scrolling stages and open 3D worlds. It's the 2D ones which are most effective, however considering the amount of 2D side scrollers we've seen over the past year, this doesn't bring anything new to the genre. Maybe it's just me but I want to see more 3D platform games return rather than the influx of 2D we have had. Which is where Shin'en have tried to appease 2D fatigued gamers like me by including these 3D stages. Sadly they just feel sparse. Lovingly crafted and impressive to look at it, there isn't a whole lot else going on in them, save for the odd bad guy here or there and a few puzzles to solve. Personally I would have liked to see the developers put their efforts into these levels and flesh them out a bit more. As it stands however these stages are a middle ground of ideas, failing to be one thing or another.

The game is still fun though. The audio is fantastic, reminding me of N64 game Jet Force Gemini in places, with pleasingly hummable tunes and different scores for the worlds and individual stages in places being a treat.

I would say its direct comparison would be something like Mutant Mudds, which was a brilliant eShop game full of charm, fun, and became a heck of challenge on the later levels. Some of the power ups in Jett Rocket feel similar enough to have been inspired by Mudds, but it falls just short of Renegade Kid's platformer in terms of charm and challenge.

While this game can't be considered a must have title on 3DS, you could do much worse than spend an hour or two with this game, especially if you like 2D platformers with a few extras thrown in for good measure.