Sony is holding a big digital sale to commemorate the launch of the PS1, and I picked up Jet Moto 2 because it was $1.60 and there's almost no game I won't mess around with for under $2.

I never owned a Jet Moto game during the lifespan of the PS1, but I played demos of the various games in the series when they came out. My memory of Jet Moto was as a series that encapsulated the worst parts of the PS1. An ambitious, fun, idea let down by technology that just wasn't up to the task. Playing it now in 2015 it's a little better than I remember, but not much. The music is pleasant if forgettable, the Mountain Dew stuff is less intrusive than I thought (Oh yes, there was product placement back in 1997 young 'uns) and while the controls can be slippery and frustrating, they're not outright terrible; it's definitely a playable game, if a tough one.

But oh those graphics. Now I am not one to complain about graphics. I grew up on the NES and have been gaming my whole life. I understand old technology. I am perfectly happy playing obsolete games, when Rare Replay came out I put like 7 hours into Slalom because Slalom is a fun and challenging game, even if it's very simple looking. Jet Moto 2 literally hurts my eyes to play. There's an old Giant Bomb video where I believe Jeff and Ryan talk about how 5th generation games often look like they're literally falling apart. That fits Jet Moto 2 perfectly. Not only does the camera regularly clip through the world but the low-res textures on the polygons shift and swim as you race, and the pop in is pretty atrocious. Everything is jagged and looks like it is built out of scrap metal, and even when there are no technical problems the graphics look abstract and weird. On the third track the supposedly flooded skyscrapers are completely out of scale with what they should be, and the water is just a flat blue texture with crappy animation where there are waterfalls or obstacles.

People say these graphics haven't aged well but to me they looked like complete garbage at the time, and I didn't understand how anyone with eyes could think they looked good. Coming from clean pretty sprite work like F-Zero this seemed like a huge step back (To be fair the N64 F-zero didn't look nearly as bad as Jet Moto 2.)

Jet Moto 2 was not considered a bad game either. It was a second tier, but still important, Playstation franchise, and Gamespot gave it an 8.1 Jet Moto 2 wasn't a launch game. It was released in fall 1997, which means it was further into the PS1 lifecycle than we are now into the Xbox One and Ps4. 2 years in relatively big releases were still coming out that were just fundamentally broken graphically. To compound the problem, it was widely reported that Sony objected to 2D games being brought out for the system in America, even though the PS1 is a very capable 2D machine (and many of those 2D games have aged beautifully) and there were lots of good 2D titles in Japan. It was the worst of times.

Of course that doesn't mean that there weren't good and even beautiful games for the PS1. RPGs and Fighting games generally looked pretty good (Tekken 2 was a standout at its release) and programmers eventually figured the system out to the point where environments looked solid and lighting improved. Heck Gran Turismo came out the next year and that game looked fantastic at the time. The PS1 is deeply beloved by many and justifiably so, but man, those first couple years could be rough, and at the time when I played demos of games like Jet Moto 2 I would think "If this is the future I'd like to go back to the past please."

Today people complain because not everything is 1080p 60fps, but all it takes is a little peek into the past to realize that hey, it could be worse. Much much worse.

But the music was pretty awesome.

I LOVED The first game and still do. I'll pop it in my PS3 if I'm bored and play for a bit. I never got into the sequel which is surprising since I loved that first game so much.

In regards to the graphics, yeah they don't hold up today at all but when these games were released the scale of the tracks were mind blowing. You could not do the large drops and huge jumps of those game in 2D. I never minded the "broken" look of those games because the scale of those tracks were unbelievable.

I forget which Jet Moto game I had but I thought it was pretty great. I might still have it somewhere.

The thing about early polygonal stuff is that the 3d itself was the novelty. No way around that, our glorious three dimensions had to come from somewhere

I dug a lot of the ideas behind Jet Moto. Frankly, it's been too long since I've played one to really give a straight, unbiased opinion of them today, but it's a concept I wouldn't mind revisited for a PSN budget title, particularly with modern racing touches like rewinds or the like.

Loved both the Jet Moto and Twisted Metal series (sure it was single track that did both) i loved the broken low budget look of both, sure it was super rough around the edges but the games played well. The original Jet Moto was superior but the second was a good bit of fun not just for its time, even today.

Polygons don't age well. That's why almost all retro games are pixel art, and no one seems to be going for the look of an early PS1 title.

Well, except for maybe the developers of the new Tony Hawk game. Zing!

Seriously though, I just watched some Jet Motto 2 on You Tube, and it looks pretty good for a super early polygonal game to me.

Jet Motto has reverence to me and hopefully other people, only when wearing rose colored glasses. Even when the first game was released, it was painfully obvious the controls were on the verge of unplayable, but there was something very charming about the entire presentation. The soundtrack stands out as a really memorable part.

With Jet Motto 2, the game looked a little better, but the courses were lacking in compared to the first entry. There was something "pure" about the first game, and its sequel just screamed "bigger and better". The only two thing I remember clearly about Jet Motto 2 is the Heaven and Hell level, and the ability to unlock and play all the courses from the first game.

Also, Technician is dope.