Car Stunt King

Summary

Think of Car Stunt King as a ‘trials bike’-style game, but instead you’re behind the wheel of a varied selection of vehicles (some of which are huge), with hundreds of levels, all the obstacles you can think of, crazy jumps, and endless chaos.

Unlike the usual open-world browser stunt game offerings, in this one, you’ll be constantly rotating mid-air, desperately trying to land on all four wheels while everything around you does its best to wreck your run.

The levels are wild, unpredictable, and will never fail to surprise you throughout the 200+ levels. Challenges and rival races provide plenty to work through. Fair warning, though, the currency system is pretty unforgiving, and unlocking new vehicles takes near-perfect runs and plenty of patience.

If it’s got you thinking about the two-wheeled trials games, Stunt Bike Extreme is the best modern-day offering, providing stunning graphics, along with 270 levels and tournament knockouts to work through.

Features

• Release date – February 20, 2024
• Difficulty – Beginner/Intermediate
• Levels – 200+
• Number of vehicles – 11
• Vehicle customization/upgrades – Yes
• Multiplayer – Coming soon (currently AI-only rivals)
• Mobile – Yes
• Developer – kaachingo

Physics

The physics are arcade-y, and built with the purpose of flipping cars through the air rather than keeping them planted. Think Hot Wheels track meets Trials HD.

You’ll soon get a feel for the weight of the vehicles, and how you rotate mid-air directly affects whether you nail the landing or lose your wheels on impact.

Speed management matters more than you’d expect, too. If you go too fast on a jump, it’ll sometimes send you slamming into shipping containers overhead. Too slow, and you won’t clear the gap.

If you’ve enjoyed the destruction aspect, Car Crash Test: Abandoned City gives you similar BeamNG-style physics in an open sandbox with crushers, giant ramps, slow motion mode, and the ability to swap between AWD, FWD, and RWD on the fly. There are also plenty of other alternatives in our stunts and crash games category.

Graphics

While the graphics won’t be giving Drift Hunters MAX a run for its money anytime soon, they’re still decent for a browser game. Expect no shortage of explosions, fireworks, and flames to fill the screen from the moment you hit the throttle.

Shadows are the main performance drain, so if your device is struggling, you can switch them off in the ‘Settings’ menu.

Controls

PC/laptop/Chromebook

• W/Up arrow – Accelerate
• S/Down arrow – Brake/reverse
• A/Left arrow – Tilt car left
• D/Right arrow – Tilt car right
• N – Nitrous

Mobile/tablet (iOS/Android)

• On-screen touch controls

It’s worth checking out the ‘Settings’ menu, as it has a bunch of mobile-specific options (tilt sensor, air control, reverse touch control) for fine-tuning, making it one of the better-optimized mobile games for touchscreens.

How to Play Car Stunt King

Initial Setup

A character called Scarlett greets you with some tips when you first load in (she’s… not super helpful, but it’s the thought that counts!). Your starter car is a General Lee-style Charger that looks like it drove straight out of a Dukes of Hazzard episode, sitting in a desert area.

Press the forward arrow before you start, and you’ll get your first taste of the bouncy suspension as it lifts up like it’s on hydraulics, which tells you everything you need to know about what’s coming.

Your ‘Note’ and ‘Coin’ balances sit in the top-left (yeah, two separate currencies, unfortunately!). Next to those are tabs for ‘Garage’, the level select (checkered flag icon), ‘Versus’ (coming soon), and ‘Shop’.

Head to the ‘Garage’ first and spend some of your free 2,000 starter coins on a nitro bottle before jumping into any levels. We’ll cover the full upgrade system below.

Getting Started

Flames fire out of your exhaust the moment you accelerate, and a gigantic ramp immediately launches you into the air with explosions going off everywhere. It’s about as far from a relaxing cruise as it gets.

Your main job to focus on initially is simply landing on all four wheels. Tilt left to angle your nose up and right to angle it down, and keep the adjustments small. Overcorrect and you’ll crumple into whatever’s ahead of you. Land on your roof, and your car explodes into a fireball.

Keep your eye on the floating coins, as these give you a rough guide of the height and trajectory you should be aiming for. There’s a checkpoint system too, so you won’t have to restart the entire level every time you mess up (and you soon will). Even with just one star, you can advance to the next level, so don’t stress about perfection on your first run.

Stars are how you unlock new areas, and you earn up to three per level along with flip bonuses and per-level challenges. The star requirements are pretty brutal for the later areas, and we’ll break down exactly what you need for each one shortly.

If you want to be able to keep going when you lose a wheel or two, Deadly Descent lets you keep going (even if you’ve only got one wheel left) in a nail-biting downhill race where your body panels peel off for fun.

Game Modes

Levels

This is where you’ll spend most of your time, as there’s no shortage of them to keep you entertained for a while!

Arizona is the starting area with 23 levels, and each one is a completely different obstacle course, with flammable barrels, swinging sledgehammers, shipping containers on stilts, fire rings, and freight trains you need to jump through (it’s trickier than it sounds, especially given the angle of the jump).

Beyond Arizona, there are six more areas to unlock:

• Port – 35 stars
• Street – 90 stars
• Golden Gate – 155 stars
• Wasteland – 205 stars
• Racing – VS mode – available free from the start
• Cop Chase – 215 stars

The 215-star requirement for Cop Chase shows how much time and effort you’ll need to spend to unlock the full contents. Even if you’re averaging two stars per level consistently, you’re looking at a long haul to get there.

While there’s plenty to keep you entertained, the slow progression won’t suit everyone. Madalin Stunt Cars 3 goes back to the typical browser car stunt game format, providing all 60+ supercars and levels for free from the moment you start. No worrying about stars or currencies, just an open-world playground with massive ramps, online multiplayer lobbies, and instant respawn.

Escape Road 3 also provides a HUGE map with a gigantic selection of cars you get to win with slot spins, along with plenty of mini-games buried in the achievements.

If you do stick with it, the levels will undoubtedly keep entertaining throughout, which stops things from feeling stale even if it is a little slow. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, a fresh obstacle you’ve not seen before appears out of nowhere, or you’re suddenly racing alongside a train.

Racing

You can jump into Racing from the start, and it’s not too obvious in the levels menu. It pits you side by side against a rival on the same obstacle course, and with a stock car, your opponent is almost certainly faster… but are they more skilled? Don’t worry about being down on power, as you’ll stand a good chance of winning if you clear the obstacles cleanly while they crash into things.

There are seven rivals to beat (with seven races against each), and the final boss is (surprisingly) a full-sized school bus.

Even if you fall behind, don’t write off your run. There’s so much going on that your rival can easily wipe you out in a split second, and the race isn’t decided until you cross the finish line. Survival Race fans will know the anything-can-happen chaos feeling, with online rounds where you can jump, drift, fly, and smash your opponents off the hexagonal platform that collapses under everyone’s wheels.

Online

An online VS mode is shown on the menu, but it currently says coming soon (and we think you might be waiting a while).

If you want to get into the action right now, Drift King has real-time online lobbies where you can tandem drift with friends on an enormous mountain touge, and our other multiplayer games will keep you busy until Car Stunt King catches up.

Car List

There’s 11 vehicles on offer, ranging from a chopper motorbike with oversized exhausts to a full-size school bus, with pickups, modified Beetles, a hot rod, and various jacked-up American muscle cars in between.

Although there’s no dedicated drift cars (although plenty of capable RWD options), when you’re worrying about flipping end-over-end through a ring of fire, sliding sideways isn’t really the priority!

Unfortunately, all of the vehicles are locked behind notes (the annoying premium currency), and some require you to complete specific levels first. Given how hard notes are to earn, you’ll be spending quality time with your starter Charger. Thankfully, it’s more than capable of getting you a long way if you’ve got the skills to push through, even without needing upgrades.

If you don’t want to spend hours grinding away trying to unlock the chopper, we’ve got plenty of awesome motorcycle games that’ll scratch the two-wheel itch instantly. Traffic Road is a recent standout that has taken the category by storm, offering first-person highway threading, with a selection of 30 bikes and two islands to work your way through.

Tuning & Customization

There’s a LOT more upgrades than you’d expect for a stunt (or trials-style) game. Each vehicle has five upgrade categories:

• Engine – 20 upgrade levels at 20 coins each initially, adding 5 HP per level. Your stock engine caps at 400 HP, but the best engine swap pushes that to 800 HP (engine swaps cost notes and unlock as you progress)
• Exhaust pipe – Upgrade the stock exhaust, or swap for flashier options
• Tires – Some funky options in here, including spikes and chains
• Suspension – Adjusts friction, which affects how your car handles landings
• Coin magnet – 400 coins, attracts more coins during levels, and helps you reach three stars. Often worth buying to progress quicker.

Stat bars show you exactly how much each upgrade will boost your car before you spend anything.

You also get the option of ‘Paint jobs’ in the upgrade menu, which are actually a selection of liveries rather than solid colors. They cost 10-40 notes (yep, notes again) depending on the design.

Advanced Tips & Tricks

Don’t just focus on your car while you’re driving

Each level scrolls left to right, so the further ahead you can see, the more time you have to react.

Try to keep your eyes on the right edge of the screen while also ensuring your car is staying upright during critical sections. The endless obstacles will soon arrive, whether you’re watching them or not!

Free nitro during a level is usually a warning for what’s coming

Your initial 2,000 coins are enough for several nitro tanks (300 coins each), and you should grab at least one before your first run. Nitro isn’t a single burst, it’s a full tank that carries over between levels. If you use half on one level, you’ve got half left for the next.

When the game hands you free tanks floating around during levels, that’s usually a hint that a massive jump is coming up. Consider whether you’ll need to use it immediately.

Reading the arc matters more than reacting to it

Start rotating early on longer jumps rather than waiting until the peak. The car has enough hang time to let gravity help, and you’ll land cleaner than if you panic-adjust at the last second. Fans of Drive Mad will undoubtedly master this part, given that you have to get to grips with a (totally) different vehicle on every level, from stretch limos to rocket trucks and cars with square wheels.

One clean flip beats a greedy double, so use jumps wisely

Save the tricks for jumps where you’ve got plenty of height and a clear landing ahead. Front flips and backflips earn bonus coins, and it’s tempting to squeeze in one more whenever you’ve got airtime, but try to resist the urge. One clean flip is better than blowing up, failing the second (or third), and getting sent back to the start.

The shop’s cash conversion only goes one way

Coins are only good for upgrades, so spend them on engine and tire improvements to make your current car competitive. But consider whether you want to max out your starter Charger when you could be saving for upgrades on your next vehicle.

Whatever you do, don’t assume the shop lets you swap coins for notes. I found out the hard way, as I nearly had enough notes saved for a new car and tried to top up in the shop, turns out you can only convert notes to coins, not the other way around. Suddenly, my new car purchase was off the cards… Super annoying.

Car Stunt King FAQ