Stunt Rider

Summary

Despite the name, Stunt Rider is also a (surprisingly) awesome drifting game that throws endless crazy stunts and plenty of destruction into the mix.

You’re treated to $100k from the start to spend in the varied garage, before picking from several huge sandbox playgrounds, then earning even more cash from skids, jumps, barrel rolls, and coins rather than needing to win races or complete missions. Needless to say, hooning and causing chaos are the main focus here!

Additional earnings go towards improving your rides with engine power, turbo, gearbox, and handling upgrades, while the free tuning lets you tweak your ride height, camber, and more. After that, you respray your body and wheels in any color you can think of (along with several paint types), and the generous payouts let you try (and fully upgrade) a selection of cars and builds without much grinding.

The drifts are smooth and predictable, the near-bottomless nitro tank is super generous, surfaces range from grippy tarmac to slippery grass and ice, and large ramps, loops, crushers, and saws provide endless carnage. Although your car will undoubtedly get trashed as soon as you start exploring what the game has to offer, the instant (free) repairs are available at the press of a button, so don’t hold back!

Features

• Release date – February 13, 2024
• Difficulty – Beginner
• Levels/environments – 4
• Number of vehicles – 17
• Vehicle customization/upgrades – Yes
• Multiplayer – No
• Mobile – Yes
• Developer – FreezeNova

Physics

Players who are used to the mediocre drifting physics in stunt games like Madalin Stunt Cars 2 will be pleased to hear that drifting is Stunt Rider’s unexpected second identity.

The cars slide how you’d expect, and the weight shifting and counter-steering feel nicely controlled. While the steering lock isn’t overly generous (you’ll want to try Urban Car Drift Game for that), there’s enough angle for tidy transitions and controlled wall runs.

The vast open areas make it great for newcomers looking to learn the basics, while experienced players can chase fast combos on the tight, unforgiving city streets. You’ll also have the chance to practice on different surfaces, from predictable tarmac to the shipping-yard’s slippery grass and the snow park’s huge icy areas.

When it comes to stunting, you can adjust the car in mid-air to bag extra points, where you’re rewarded for pulling off flips and barrel rolls.

The damage you’ll soon encounter from the massive crushers will leave your panels crumpled (or punched through with massive holes), but it’s visual only, so you don’t need to worry about your car becoming undrivable.

If you’d rather try a similar sandbox-style game with detachable body parts, more realistic (car-destroying) damage, and other players to smash into, Online Car Destruction Simulator 3D takes the carnage much further.

Graphics

The environments and cars look impressively polished for a free browser game, especially given the size of each map. There’s plenty of smoke, and you’ll see sparks fly when you nail the (DIY) clipping points.

Be sure to play around with the camera modes, too. There’s a typical follow cam, cockpit view, and two cinematic angles. Inside the cabin, each car has its own unique interior and working gauges, but it’s worth noting that it hides some of the external HUD information (like the nitro meter).

If the visuals and car control leave you fancying a more dedicated drifting game, look no further than Drift Hunters Max. Our most popular drifting game trades the crushers here for a challenging simcade-style driving experience (think CarX or Forza Horizon rather than Assetto Corsa), extensive tuning, a Drift Attack mode (with clipping points, scoring, and online leaderboards), alongside an open-world traffic mode.

Controls

PC/laptop/Chromebook

• W/Up arrow – Accelerate
• S/Down arrow – Brake/reverse
• A/Left arrow – Steer left
• D/Right arrow – Steer right
• Space – Handbrake
• Shift – Use nitro
• Z – Shift up gear
• X – Shift down gear
• C – Change camera
• M – Use rear-view mirror
• R – Reset car position
• F – Repair car
• U – Toggle KMH/MPH
• I – Start/stop engine
• P – Toggle fullscreen

Mobile (iOS/Android)

Stunt Rider works great on portable devices with on-screen touch controls. Our mobile games section also features many more phone-and-tablet-friendly options when you’ve worked your way through the garage.

How to Play Stunt Rider

Initial Setup

You begin with a ridiculously generous 100,000 credits in the bank, and a free Mazda MX-5 Miata. Since even the most expensive car costs only 33,000 credits, this certainly isn’t a game where you need to grind for a month before handing over the good stuff.

Buy your dream car in the Cars menu (and make sure you actually ‘select’ it), then visit Parts, Tuning, and Paint before choosing your stunt arena on the (slightly misleading) “Race” menu.

Getting Started

There are no real objectives beyond having fun and pushing your cars to (and beyond) their limits.

Drifts and combos pay credits, as do jumps and rolls, with rewards going straight into your balance. You’ll soon earn enough just having fun to unlock the entire garage and upgrade them to their full potential.

Nitro (Shift key) lasts way longer than most games, then refills insanely quickly, so don’t be afraid to use it, but keep an eye on your usage on the blue bar in the bottom left to save it from cutting off mid-drift.

Automatic transmission (selected by default in the main menu) shifts gear for you, but you can override it with the Z and X keys. Alternatively, you can choose manual if you want full control.

When your car starts looking a little too mangled, press F for a free instant repair. Pressing R only resets its position, which is useful when you’re stuck, but won’t remove the battle scars (or holes!).

Game Modes

The free-roam stunt sandbox is the only game mode, but you get to choose from four varied environments. It’s perfect for having fun or for pressure-free drift practice, but you’ll have to invent your own fun and challenges (I highly recommend drifting through the city or parking lot).

If you’ve enjoyed this game, but wish you could play with your friends, we’ve got good news. FreezeNova offers alternatives with similar vibes, along with online multiplayer lobbies. Drift King offers a similar car roster to what you get here, spread across six maps. Drift Hunters Pro is the better pick for JDM car fans, with plenty of Japanese machinery on offer, a slightly different track list, and plenty of door-on-door tandems! The only downside is there’s not much in the way of stunts in either game.

Car List

The garage jumps from lightweight roadsters and sedans to hypercars, along with a surprise luxury SUV thrown into the mix. You’ll likely recognize most (or all) of them, which are based on these real-world variants:

• Mazda MX-5 Miata ND – Free starter car
• Chevrolet Corvette C3 Convertible – 11,000 credits
• Audi TT Roadster – 12,000 credits
• Nissan IDx NISMO concept – 14,000 credits
• Toyota Avalon – 15,000 credits
• Toyota GR Supra A90 – 17,000 credits
• Chevrolet Camaro – 18,000 credits
• Cadillac CTS-V Sedan – 19,000 credits
• Rolls-Royce Cullinan – 20,000 credits
• Lamborghini Countach – 22,000 credits
• Porsche 911 (964) with an RWB-inspired widebody – 25,000 credits
• Porsche 918 Spyder – 28,000 credits
• Ferrari F12 TRS – 29,000 credits
• Second-generation Ford GT – 30,000 credits
• McLaren 720S – 31,000 credits
• Aston Martin Vulcan – 32,000 credits
• Koenigsegg Regera – 33,000 credits

If you’re more interested in garage variety and online lobbies than car building, Madalin Stunt Cars 3 offers a much larger all-access selection, with over 60 cars on offer from the start. Stunt Rider counters with much better drifting, damage, and tuning and upgrades, all of which are missing from the Madalin series.

Tuning, Upgrades & Customization

Performance upgrades cost 200 to 600 credits per step, and you can choose from Stock, Street, Basic, and Pro tiers:

• Engine – Adds power for faster drifts and bigger stunts
• Turbo – Increases the boost and nitrous for when you need even more speed
• Gearbox – Improves how effectively the car delivers its power and the speed of the gear shifts
• Handling – Makes the car easier to control and slide

Just 2,400 lets you fully upgrade each car to ‘Pro’ spec (a fraction of your initial balance), but remember that more power isn’t automatically better.

Pro handling and gearbox, along with sensible engine and turbo upgrades, make for a great beginner setup, especially on the tight city roads. Maximum power works better on areas like the shipping yard’s huge sweeping track or when you’re committed to launching your car up the biggest ramps you can find.

The (totally free) tuning menu lets you dial in the ideal stance with these options:

• Front and rear ride height
• Front and rear camber
• Brake balance
• Brake pressure

While we normally recommend slamming your car to the ground (we’re huge fans of stanced drift cars), it’ll bottom out on ramps and even smash into curbs in the city (ask me how I know), so raising it slightly trades a few stance points for practicality (yawn!).

As with most browser games, the camber buttons are backwards, so + adds negative camber and vice versa. If you want to know more about dialing in the right setup, our negative camber guide explains everything you need to know.

Visual customization is completely free, too. You’ll choose from every color imaginable for your body and rim colors, along with gloss, matte, metallic, or chrome finishes.

If you fancy a drift-focused spin on this game, Drift Rider swaps the crushers for drift-focused locations. But be warned, that economy is much grindier (you start with zero in the bank), so you’ll need to spend way longer earning your builds.

Track List

The locations don’t have actual names, but they’ll be recognizable from the “Race” screen thumbnails:

City/Factory

This combines drifty (yet technical and challenging) back roads and tall curbs with a huge industrial stunt area full of ramps, loops, crushers, and saws. You might wanna practice elsewhere before testing your proximity driving in the city, unless you’re wanting to test the damage physics (and frustration levels!).

Desert/Parking Lot

Wide sandy spaces, spinning spikes, and a smaller factory parking lot make the Desert a more ideal practice area for getting to grips with the physics. When you’re more confident, you can use the lampposts as clipping points, build consistent circles, then tighten your line before heading into the city. Struggling to get to grips with it? Our how to drift guide will polish your skills in no time!

Grass/Shipping Yard

Containers and cranes surround the game’s fastest track. This is the place for long, sweeping slides, crazy high entry speeds, and utilizing your power upgrades. Don’t worry – running onto the slippery grass won’t end your drift score or combo, so don’t be afraid to push as hard as you please.

Snow/Ice Stunt Park

The lowest-grip environment is also the most bonkers stunt park. It packs in ramps, a near-limitless amount of chaotic machinery, a multi-story parking garage, and long, tight tunnels where you can practice your wall-running talent.

Advanced Tips & Tricks

Decide how much power you need before upgrading

It’s worth keeping power sensible for the Desert lot and City streets, where raw speed will make things more challenging rather than easier (unless that’s the goal!). For most players (beginners especially), consider upgrading the handling and gearbox to max, and engine and turbo to one or two stages above stock. Then, learn to master the manual or semi-auto gearbox before upgrading to Pro.

Where the Pro engine and turbo upgrades come in more useful is in the long shipping-yard sweepers (even for beginners) or when you want to fly up the biggest jumps.

You can also consider having a car for drifting (not necessarily fully upgraded) and a stunt-specific car with raised ride height, and all the performance upgrades maxed out.

Learn to master drifting in the Desert before chasing the city walls

The factory parking area gives you room to understand counter-steering without clipping a curb every few seconds.

Start by circling the lampposts, practice switching direction with figure-eights, and then carry that control onto the narrower City/Factory roads. It’s a much more sensible route, which makes it much more satisfying when you finally nail it.

Raise the ride height before you crash into the ramps

While it looks cool, a super low car will just smash into the bottom of a ramp (rather than driving up it), which might be fun once but soon gets boring.

So, be sensible and account for a little extra clearance for stunt sessions, and keep the slammed look for using the city curbs as improvised wall-run clipping points.

Stunt Rider FAQ