Hurricane Jet-Vac Review with Jet Stream

Hurricane Jet-Vac Review with Jet Stream Hurricane Jet-Vac is a new SuperCharged version of Jet-Vac for Skylanders SuperChargers. It seems hard to believe, but he has had a different version of his character in each game since he debuted in Skylanders Giants. He even has another legendary version of his character this year. He is the only Skylander to have a second legendary version. Despite his longevity as a Skylander’s character, his supercharged version will mark the first time that his move set has changed. He still uses a powerful vacuum jet-pack to help him fly since he gave his wings away to help a mother and her children escape when he was young. However, this version of his character no longer has a set of flying attacks. He does however, retain his iconic vacuum suction attack but now it’s supported by a range of new attacks.

This year Hurricane Jet-Vac goes back to a single vacuum gun. This one is a little smaller and leaner than in years past. This won’t make him weaker though, as this gun will now shoot fan blades which are far more powerful than the blasts of air he used to fire. Besides the change in the gun, he still looks like Jet-Vac. His figure’s pose makes it look like he’s running and gunning, emphasizing the action a bit more this year. His claws are exposed on both his feet and his free hand which makes him look a little more dangerous. This along with his beak and feathered collar make it pretty obvious that he is a bird. His legendary character has the same pose, but replaces the blue, white and yellow colors for the dark blue and gold colors of the legendary characters. I find Jet-Vac’s normal colors a little on the boring side, so he is one character that I like the legendary coloring on.

Hurricane Jet-Vac still uses a vacuum gun as his main weapon. His Jet Turbine Vacuum attack sucks enemies in, which is the same as his old Suction Gun attack, but this year it has different upgrades. His main attack however, is called Shooting The Breeze. This attack will shoot a fan blade that can bounce off objects and enemies. His third attack, after purchasing an upgrade, is called Somer-Assault and is a variation of the popular dash attack that many Skylanders have. By pressingHurricane Jet-Vac Review with Jet Stream Attack 3 Jet-Vac will dash towards an enemy and kick them if they are close enough. Unlike other dash attacks, he will not continue through his target but instead will stop in front of it, ready for some melee action. This is a bit of a problem however, as he has no other melee attack. You could repeat the Somer-Assault, but Jet-Vac doesn’t have that much health or armor and will be susceptible to getting hit. The Hurricane Hurrah upgrade will allow you to hold the Attack 1 button to charge up a hurricane which will spin and damage any enemies in it’s path. While this is an OK attack, we found that it doesn’t last long and it also doesn’t track the enemy which means they will only be caught in it for a short time. There are also two basic upgrades that do not add a new attack. The Better Blade Bounces upgrade will allow the blades shot by the Shooting The Breeze attack to bounce off more enemies and objects. Finally the Make Them Sore upgrade gives the Somer-Assault attack more damage.

Choosing a specialized upgrade path means choosing to upgrade either the Blade-Vac Path or the Hurricane Hawk Path. The Blade-Vac Path upgrades mostly the hurricane attacks, while the Hurricane Hawk Path upgrades the Somer-Assault attack. The names don’t really represent their paths very well. The first upgrade in the Blade-Vac Path is called Category Pain. With this upgrade, you can shoot fan blades into the hurricane created by the Hurricane Hurrah attack. Up to three blades will swirl around in the hurricane causing damage each time they hit an enemy. The Hurricano upgrade adds an explosion to the hurricane once it dissipates. Finally the Splitting Air upgrade allows you to once again shoot fan blades out of the gun even if you are holding an enemy that you’ve sucked in. In the Hurricane Hawk Path, the Turbulent Turbine upgrade will add some damage to anyone standing behind you when you jump forward with the Somer-Assault attack. Unfortunately it’s not a large area, so you probably won’t notice the damage from this attack very often. The Talon Take Off upgrade will knock enemies back further who are hit by the Somer-Assault. They will also take more damage. Finally the Double Flip upgrade allows you to press the Attack 3 button twice in a row which will give the Somer-Assault a boost to travel further. Press the button again to attack the enemy twice in a row. Unfortunately, we found that none of the upgrade paths really added anything useful to Jet-Vac’s attacks. In the end, we found ourselves using only the Shooting The Breeze basic attack to shoot fan blades that do a ton of damage and bounce off everything in site. It can be quite chaotic and fun. Not even the Soul Gem ability called Having a Blast! could change our preference. The Having a Blast! upgrade will allow you to shoot the enemies that you have sucked in with your gun and have them bounce back and forth off other enemies. We hardly use this ability since we never bother with taking the time to try and suck in one of the enemies with the gun. In the end, all of Jet-Vac’s attacks and upgrades seem mostly useless, we just end up blasting everyone with fan blades, and that is quite effective.

Hurricane Jet-Vac’s signature vehicle is the Jet Stream. It’s an Air elemental Sky vehicle. It matches Jet-Vac very well in both color and form. The attacks of the Jet Stream also mirror the attacks of Jet-Vac. The main attack of the vehicle is called the Avian Razors and it will shoot Avian Razors, much like Hurricane Jet-Vac shoots spinning fan blades. Once upgraded these razors do a lot of damage. A lot more than I was expecting for such a quick and small looking projectile. If you like the larger projectiles though, then you may want to use the Vacuum Bomb attack. This will create a tornado between two of the spinning Avian Razors. It will slowly make it’s way across the sky damaging anything in it’s path. You can even increase the damage by shooting the tornado with more of your razors, much like Jet-Vac can shoot fan blades in to his hurricane attack (after an upgrade). The Vacuum Bomb does less damage than one of the Avian Razors but it doesn’t end just because it hits an enemy. It keeps going and keeps damaging whatever is in it’s path. That makes it a pretty powerful attack against larger or slower enemy vehicles. In races, Jet Stream also does very well. It’s fast, light and has good handling. It might not be quite as fast as the Sky Slicer, but it’s very comparable and both will take you to victory with ease. Overall, the Jet Stream is surprisingly good and can easily be recommended for a Sky vehicle.

Hurricane Jet-Vac is probably the best version of Jet-Vac to date, but he must rely heavily on his one good attack. Shooting fan blades and watching them bounce off of all enemies and damaging everything in sight is really the only attack we ever use. It’s a fun attack, but it leaves his character feeling rather shallow. You can explore his other attacks, but you probably won’t find to many of them worth doing very often. In the end, you’ll just rely on the fan blades because you can. The Jet Stream though is the complete package. Fast and powerful, the Jet Stream is ready for any situation. It can quickly take down single targets, or blast holes through groups of them. It’s fast enough to win races too. You can’t go wrong with Jet Stream no matter who is flying it. You can probably get by without having Hurricane Jet-Vac, but you will want either the Jet Stream or the Sky Slicer for a Sky vehicle. You won’t be disappointed with the Jet Stream.

SkylanderNutts gives Hurricane Jet-Vac…7.0 out of 10
SkylanderNutts gives The Jet Stream… 8.5 out of 10