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Review - Joe Danger: Special Edition
10:46, 14th Dec 2011
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If a quick glimpse at any screenshots or videos of Joe Danger make you think of Trials HD, we wouldn't hold it against you. After all, it didn't matter previously that both games seemed to be cut from a similar mould - one was on the 360, the other was on the PlayStation 3 and ne'er the twain shall meet. Except now, they do. With Hello Games realising that the only way to get the money (followed by the women and then the power, obviously) is to publish your games on multiple formats, Joe Danger has landed on Xbox Live Arcade and now races head-to-head for the finish against RedLynx's two-wheeled creation.
But here's the thing: Joe Danger's actually the better game.
That might come down to Joe Danger's antics feeling like an interactive Hanna-Barbera cartoon, with all the bright colours and larger-than-life characters you'd expect from something that doesn't take itself too seriously. Joe himself clings onto his bike for dear life as the turbo boost kicks in, slams into obstacles with a satisfying 'Thud!' and thrashes in (cardboard) shark-infested waters before clambering out of the tank and landing awkwardly, all with the same signature 'I'm okay!' thumbs up you'd expect from a slightly bumbling stuntman. It's all beautifully realised and just feels fun even before you sprint away from your first starting line.
It might also be that rather than being an obvious cookie-cutter take on the 'race-jump-balance-crash' formula, Joe Danger does more. It's part Tony Hawk (the good games, obviously) as you carefully try to string together chains of tricks and combos, boosting and wheeling as you go to link it all together. It's part Tetris as you move shaped parts around certain levels, trying to create a coherent path that'll allow you to get all the trinkets in one run. And it's part Rick Dangerous as you attempt a course for the first time, mess up spectacularly on one of the many obstacles in your way, restart and cleverly remember to duck/dodge/jump past where you died last time… and then get blatted a little further on by something else because you were too busy being smug about how good you were to avoid that last obstacle.
As frustrating as that might sound though, Joe Danger rarely gets aggravating: if you die, it's entirely your fault. That's mainly because the game's physics are slightly more forgiving (compared to Trials HD's pixel-perfect and often annoying 'will you/won't you' requirements for success), the controls are far easier to use thanks to Joe's ability to move forwards or backwards with the Accelerator and Brake both on the ground AND in the air, balancing wheelies is as easy as holding the left stick perfectly still and making progress is often as easy as crossing the finish line. True, using the shoulder buttons to perform tricks means the most efficient way to hold the pad is some kind of weird claw-like grip (right forefinger on RT, right middle finger on the accelerator trigger), but that's really the only flaw in an otherwise intuitive and accessible control scheme.
Of course, we're not saying Joe Danger's easy because it's not. Getting a few stars may be simple, but as you progress and the targets rack up (get all stars, 100 per cent combo the level, get all stars AND 100 per cent combo the level AT THE SAME TIME), things can get quite tough. And yes, even skilled minds like ours sometimes get muddled when trying to hit the gas, do a flip, combine it with a trick, slam on the turbo and then land in a wheelie ready for the next obstacle, but we're talking about advanced techniques here needed to get every star in the game. Again, it's up to you about making that leap in skill, at which point The Lab proves incredibly useful…
Ah, The Lab. Added for this Special Edition of Joe Danger, these levels not only let you learn new skills that can help with the main game (and then challenge you by offering an ever-growing trial stage that tests all your previously learnt skills at once), but also shows the thinking behind Joe Danger came about in the first place, since Hello Games used The Lab originally to test levels before adding them to the main career mode. The Sandbox mode, where you can build your own stages and then share them with other people, also helps extend the life of the game almost infinitely and we get the impression that the 'build and share' community will leap on Joe Danger's create-a-stage tools like ravenous dogs.
In trying to think of things we'd change or complain about with Joe Danger though, we've come across a simple truth: we can't actually think of much. Indeed, Hello Games seems to have captured everything we love about videogames in a single package – it's challenging instead of pandering to the mass market, attractive without resorting to photo-realism and, most importantly, incredibly fun rather than being all poe-faced and serious. And all that for just 1,200 Microsoft Points? Considering some of the other XBLA titles asking the same amount for a good deal less, there's really no excuse not to download this immediately. Well, unless you're allergic to fun, that is.
But here's the thing: Joe Danger's actually the better game.
That might come down to Joe Danger's antics feeling like an interactive Hanna-Barbera cartoon, with all the bright colours and larger-than-life characters you'd expect from something that doesn't take itself too seriously. Joe himself clings onto his bike for dear life as the turbo boost kicks in, slams into obstacles with a satisfying 'Thud!' and thrashes in (cardboard) shark-infested waters before clambering out of the tank and landing awkwardly, all with the same signature 'I'm okay!' thumbs up you'd expect from a slightly bumbling stuntman. It's all beautifully realised and just feels fun even before you sprint away from your first starting line.
It might also be that rather than being an obvious cookie-cutter take on the 'race-jump-balance-crash' formula, Joe Danger does more. It's part Tony Hawk (the good games, obviously) as you carefully try to string together chains of tricks and combos, boosting and wheeling as you go to link it all together. It's part Tetris as you move shaped parts around certain levels, trying to create a coherent path that'll allow you to get all the trinkets in one run. And it's part Rick Dangerous as you attempt a course for the first time, mess up spectacularly on one of the many obstacles in your way, restart and cleverly remember to duck/dodge/jump past where you died last time… and then get blatted a little further on by something else because you were too busy being smug about how good you were to avoid that last obstacle.
As frustrating as that might sound though, Joe Danger rarely gets aggravating: if you die, it's entirely your fault. That's mainly because the game's physics are slightly more forgiving (compared to Trials HD's pixel-perfect and often annoying 'will you/won't you' requirements for success), the controls are far easier to use thanks to Joe's ability to move forwards or backwards with the Accelerator and Brake both on the ground AND in the air, balancing wheelies is as easy as holding the left stick perfectly still and making progress is often as easy as crossing the finish line. True, using the shoulder buttons to perform tricks means the most efficient way to hold the pad is some kind of weird claw-like grip (right forefinger on RT, right middle finger on the accelerator trigger), but that's really the only flaw in an otherwise intuitive and accessible control scheme.
Of course, we're not saying Joe Danger's easy because it's not. Getting a few stars may be simple, but as you progress and the targets rack up (get all stars, 100 per cent combo the level, get all stars AND 100 per cent combo the level AT THE SAME TIME), things can get quite tough. And yes, even skilled minds like ours sometimes get muddled when trying to hit the gas, do a flip, combine it with a trick, slam on the turbo and then land in a wheelie ready for the next obstacle, but we're talking about advanced techniques here needed to get every star in the game. Again, it's up to you about making that leap in skill, at which point The Lab proves incredibly useful…
Ah, The Lab. Added for this Special Edition of Joe Danger, these levels not only let you learn new skills that can help with the main game (and then challenge you by offering an ever-growing trial stage that tests all your previously learnt skills at once), but also shows the thinking behind Joe Danger came about in the first place, since Hello Games used The Lab originally to test levels before adding them to the main career mode. The Sandbox mode, where you can build your own stages and then share them with other people, also helps extend the life of the game almost infinitely and we get the impression that the 'build and share' community will leap on Joe Danger's create-a-stage tools like ravenous dogs.
In trying to think of things we'd change or complain about with Joe Danger though, we've come across a simple truth: we can't actually think of much. Indeed, Hello Games seems to have captured everything we love about videogames in a single package – it's challenging instead of pandering to the mass market, attractive without resorting to photo-realism and, most importantly, incredibly fun rather than being all poe-faced and serious. And all that for just 1,200 Microsoft Points? Considering some of the other XBLA titles asking the same amount for a good deal less, there's really no excuse not to download this immediately. Well, unless you're allergic to fun, that is.
VERDICT
Goodness knows how they've done it considering the high level of challenge and, potentially, frustration hidden inside its gameplay, but Hello Games has managed to tar everything in Joe Danger with the fun brush and it shows. Almost everything here will make you both smile and grit your teeth as you miss another time limit/flip trick/star by the tiniest of margins, but the fairly swift climb in difficulty won't stop you come back for more. A roaring success in every sense.
9/10
