Bridge Constructor Stunts: High Speeds on Solid Supports

Just a tad bit shaky

Bridge Constructor Stunts was developed by Clockstone and published by Headup Games on Steam, Google Play, iOS, Wii U and Xbox One. I played the Xbox One version for this review.

Bridge Constructor Stunts is a very simple game and a fairly complicated game. The premise is simple enough; you control a vehicle like a pickup truck, you drive it from left to right accelerating and braking, attempting to reach the finish line while completing any additional objectives required. However, before doing so, you must build various bridges and platforms that have a realistic grounding in the laws of physics. Trying to land a heavy dump truck? You better not use wooden platforms to soften the blow, because they’ll collapse under the weight. Different vehicles have different weights and top speeds, so you’ll have to build your bridges with that in mind. Is it better to build a lighter, less top-heavy platform, or should you use steel cable for a sturdier build? It quickly becomes engaging,  attempting to design your way through the many challenges.

bridge-constructor1The “stunts” part of the title comes into play with many bonus points, as different levels will greatly reward you for doing tricks, like a risky flip with a dump truck, just as an example. Unfortunately, there aren’t many different vehicles available, as the entire first third of the game you are stuck with the pickup before the dump truck is introduced sporadically.

Construction itself is also handled nicely, as you build platforms or roads with A on the controller, undo any action you take with X, swap material types easily on the D-pad and simulate the effects of weight and stress on anything you build by pressing Y. No matter what type of scenario I was faced with, it never felt too frustrating to scrap a doomed bridge and start over. Which is definitely a good thing, as some of these puzzles definitely require you to do a proper analysis of the level and test various ideas before you are able to come up with a solution.

The visuals are decent enough, obviously originally designed around a mobile device screen before being ported to the Xbox but the image is clean enough and I never had any framerate issues or crashes. The soundtrack however, is fairly lacking as it has a very small music sampling that repeats continuously when you are controlling the vehicles, fading out bridge-constructor2whenever you go to construction mode. It isn’t a bad quality by any means but the lack of variation means the repetition can quickly become an annoyance.

Ultimately, I enjoyed my experience with Bridge Constructor Stunts. While an obvious port, it was ported very well and handles nicely on a controller. There are a wide variety of challenges and environments available, as well as a fairly easy to obtain 1000 Gamerscore if you happen to be an achievement hunter. However it would have definitely been nice to have a variation in the soundtrack or some more vehicles to play around with.