Fifteen years after Barry Steakfries first strapped a machine-gun jetpack to his back and started running through a laboratory, Halfbrick has finally given him a steering wheel. Jetpack Joyride Racing officially launched on iOS and Android on April 10, 2026, after a delayed and at-times-uncertain development cycle, bringing the franchise into the kart racing genre with up to six-player real-time multiplayer and — notably — no advertisements.
The Pitch
Jetpack Joyride Racing is a free-to-play multiplayer kart racer built around the same cast of misfits and the same gleefully chaotic tone that turned the original Jetpack Joyride into one of the defining mobile games of the 2010s. Barry returns, of course, and is joined by Dan, Josie, Professor Brains, Robo Barry, and a roster of unlockable characters that draws from across Halfbrick's broader catalogue.
The headline feature is real-time six-player racing across four launch circuits, each built around the kind of madcap visual identity the series is known for. The tracks aren't simple loops — they're packed with hazards, shortcuts, and the franchise's signature gadgets repurposed as racing mechanics. Vehicles include karts that lean into the studio's cartoon-physics sensibility, with handling that prioritizes drift-and-boost momentum over realism.
The Zone System
The most interesting design choice in Jetpack Joyride Racing is the dynamic zone system that overlays the tracks. As you race, sections of the course shift between three coloured zones that change how your kart behaves on the fly:
Purple zones slow your kart down, forcing you to find a way around them or absorb the loss in time. Red zones cut your engine entirely — you'll coast on whatever momentum you had going into them, which makes drift management before entering them critical. Green zones speed you up, and chaining green zones together is one of the main ways skilled players pull ahead of the pack.
The zones aren't fixed. They shift positions between laps and even mid-race, meaning a route that worked on lap one might be a disaster on lap three. It's a clean way to keep races feeling unpredictable without falling into the more frustrating rubber-banding patterns that some kart racers lean on.
Party Mode and Voice Chat
Beyond the competitive racing mode, Halfbrick has built a Party Mode designed for friends playing together. Party Mode trades the cutthroat competition for cooperative scenarios — team-based objectives, traversal challenges, and the kind of chaotic group play that the original Jetpack Joyride never really attempted because it was a single-player game by design.
Discord voice chat is integrated directly into the racing mode, which is unusual for a free-to-play mobile title. Halfbrick has framed this as a deliberate bet on the social side of the experience — the studio clearly thinks the game's longevity depends on people playing it with friends rather than grinding it out solo.
Free, With No Ads
The most notable thing about Jetpack Joyride Racing's business model is what it doesn't have: ads. The original Jetpack Joyride was monetized aggressively through interstitial ads and in-app purchases, which was standard practice for the era. Racing takes a different approach. The base game is free with no ads, and monetization is handled entirely through Halfbrick+, the studio's $2.99-per-month subscription service.
Halfbrick+ is not required to play. The studio has been clear that everything in the game is accessible without a subscription, though subscribers get cosmetic perks, faster progression, and access to exclusive characters and karts. It's a refreshingly clean structure compared to the typical mobile racer, and it puts the burden on the game itself to be good enough that people want to keep playing.
How It Plays
Early impressions from launch week have been broadly positive. The handling has the slight floatiness common to mobile kart racers, but it's tuned tightly enough that the drift-boost system feels rewarding rather than random. The zone mechanic genuinely changes lap-to-lap strategy, and six-player races have enough chaos in them to keep matches feeling fresh.
The character roster is deeper than it looks on first glance. Each racer has subtle stat differences and a small handful of unique cosmetic flourishes, but the meaningful differentiation comes from kart and gadget loadouts, which are unlocked through standard play.
Performance on modern phones has been solid. Older devices may chug a bit during the most chaotic six-player moments, but the game scales its visual effects gracefully and there have been no reports of significant crashes or matchmaking failures since launch.
Why This Matters
Jetpack Joyride Racing is a meaningful release for Halfbrick, which has spent the past few years trying to evolve beyond the long shadow of its 2011 hit. The studio has tried several follow-ups over the years with mixed results, and its move toward a subscription service rather than ad-driven monetization is a bet that the mobile market has finally matured enough to support that model in the casual racing space.
It's also a meaningful release for mobile racing more broadly. The genre has been dominated for years by Mario Kart Tour, Asphalt, and various Real Racing iterations, with not much in the way of new contenders. A free, ad-free, six-player kart racer with a recognizable IP and a working voice chat integration is a real entry into that conversation.
Available Now
Jetpack Joyride Racing is available now on the App Store and Google Play. It is free to download and play, and Halfbrick+ subscriptions are optional. The game requires an internet connection for multiplayer, but offline single-player practice modes are available for tuning your handling before jumping into ranked matches.
