Jet Set Go Review

Jet Set Go is a departure for Chillingo – a first entry into the ever-popular time management genre. And they offer up a title with a lot of polish and some nice twists on a familiar theme.

April has big ambitions and a small travel agency located first in Montreal, Canada. With speed and catering to customers every need, players help her accomplish a variety of tasks to upgrade both the services and accoutrements of her storefront. She must accrue enough customer excitement, appeal and satisfaction to complete at least four of five levels, which unlocks the next agency located in London and then Hong Kong.

She rushes around her business, moving customers from station to station, offering them travel brochures, booking trips and accommodations while of course collecting their cash as fast as possible.

If this brings the iOS classic Sally’s Spa to mind there’s good reason. Canadian devs BigStack Studios, owned by Ph03nix New Media, made both titles, and Jet Set Go incorporates the same general gameplay dynamics.

What sets Jet Set Go apart from other time management games, however, are the variety of settings and tasks.

While April levels up only within three largely interchangeable travel agencies, she also helps her customers upon arrival by providing services there.

She waitresses at a New York restaurant, helps sun bathers on the Mayan Rivieara, snaps souvenir pics of tourists at the Grand Canyon and more all in an almost successful attempt to keep the game fresh.

The trouble with the game is that despite the myriad destinations, the tasks are essentially the same: move people from station to station and quickly select the items they desire. It gets repetitive very quickly and while new tasks are added in later levels, the difficulty doesn’t really increase.

Also, while the in-game currency is used to purchase upgrades necessary for the agency - everything from chairs that increase patience to faster boarding pass dispensers, players can engage employees in the form of cashiers and brochure and ticket agents, which are are indispensable for harder levels.  But, not with in-game currency. There are no IAP's either. Instead, any extra manpower is accessible only by sending “gifts” using Crystal Network and finding game-spam tolerant friends on Twitter and Facebook. Players will need 18 forgiving contacts to unlock them all.

Jet Set Go is not going to win over folks who generally avoid this genre, but it’s a great pick for anyone who enjoys resource management titles. The game serves up casual fast-paced fun in graphically rich and diverse environments and will keep fingers busily tapping for hours.