For madcap, silly fun, look no further than Stuntman: Hollywood. It might be hard to fathom, but the Stuntman franchise can legit be described as venerable. Starting with the original Stuntman for PlayStation 2 all the way back in 2002, this will be the third entry in the series. Yes, you are old. The Stuntman series has existed almost twenty-five years! Unlike previous Stuntman titles which featured a fictional film that your character was pulling off major stunts for, Stuntman: Hollywood features a variety of licensed IP from famous films which you get to recreate scenes from.
In our hands-on demo with the game, we got to play through one of the famous scenes from the beginning of Back to the Future, where Marty McFly flees in the DeLorean from a machine gun wielding group of terrorists. We also got to traverse an intensely dangerous series of collapsing freeways a la the 1974 Charlton Heston-starring disaster film, Earthquake. Stuntman: Hollywood has the standard drive and drift mechanics of a conventional racing game, but this is more about successfully following instructions and staying on point per the director’s instructions as he constantly barks them in your ear.
The game does a good job of being forgiving in a good way, you can easily wreck your stunt car, inadvertently kill on set cameramen and just generally blow a ramp jump. Whereas in conventional racing games you feel punishing guilt if you crash, knowing your odds of success are now borderline impossible, in Stuntman: Hollywood it becomes a hilarious test of skill. The set destruction and horrible failures are a massive part of the fun. And when you do succeed to get a passing score on your stunt driving, it feels like a massive win.