I guess you have a point. They're both strategic racers but for different reasons. The hoverbikes rely on magnetic grapples to slingshot around tight turns. It would look out of place in a MotorStorm game. But it would be really interesting to see what a new Jet Moto would look like on the PS5. Especially the unique race tracks across all three games.
Realistically, I know big publishers like Sony want to play it safe. They will leave the experimenting to other multiplatform developers.
Jet Moto on a MotorStorm engine, with that kind of dedication to heavy physics, and that level of terrain physicality with deformation and dust and destructability, that is my dream...
I totally get why you see a Jet Moto bike fitting in a Motorstorm race (and I'm mostly kidding that it's a wrong idea... I look at
tightly-packed races like this and think, "What doesn't this game have?",) However, I think that A. a hoverbike would largely negate the rock-paper-scissors of track design that Motorstorm tries to balance with its variety of vehicles and lane lines, and B. I feel like I play like a different type of maniac when I play Jet Moto compared to when I play Motorstorm. It's similar, but Jet Moto has you working to solve the tough stuff and die a bunch so you build up the muscle memory to do it at ludicrous speed, Motorstorm has track strategy but I'd say you ultimately have to live with the muck you've landed in.
Realistically, I know big publishers like Sony want to play it safe. They will leave the experimenting to other multiplatform developers.
I don't know if I'd assign the publishers of Destruction All-Stars the label of "safe". Sony has tactics, but if they see a risk worth taking, they'll hang their asses out and try it.
Jet Moto is of course way far from safe, though. It wasn't even a huge game in its heyday, gamers were just more comfortable trying a lot of stuff back then even if it wasn't their thing all the time. (Multiplayer parties were also more common, so anything you could play split-screen was a viable purchase.) Now, there's a dedicated audience of people who fight for JM, but it's not a big group. There's not a rush of Jet Moto clones on Steam; PlayStation Dreams isn't packed with Jet Moto fangames. You would think that PS1/PS2 nostalgia would have brought back some of these well-loved brands, but seeing as how Activision just recently folded up both teams that brought back Crash, Spyro and THPS, that craze may have already run out of juice as well. (Godspeed, THQ Nordic...)
Much like Downhill Domination and Kinetica, the right people are saying these were awesome, but you just don't see enough influence or demand to fuel another go. Back when Sony had both PlayStation consoles and PlayStation portables to supply games for, there was more chance of them trying titles that weren't "safe", but budgets are too high and competition is too plentiful these days. Would love it if they tried, and stranger things have happened (Sony made a few more Hardware games, for whatever reason, and somehow Medievil keeps getting dug out of its grave,) but even as a fan, I get it.
Since I mentioned the indie scene BTW, there is a
little bit of solace out there for Jet Moto fans. The game Hoverbike Joust is a one-man Moto project in the works for over half a decade already (and still probably has another half to go) that looks real physical and fun, and there is a Dreams module called Project Moto to look at as well. Both haven't had an update in a year, so get used to not getting what you want, but maybe take a look anyway to see what JM fans are trying to do without a new JM to play.
Race, joust, and play CTF on hoverbikes. No punching, kicking or weapons allowed, though. (Yes that complicates things, but don't worry. The riders can't seem to stay on their bikes anyway.)
www.indiedb.com
