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Meet Joe Danger. As a motorbike stunt rider he was on the brink of becoming a legend when it all went horribly wrong. After a big stunt went pear shaped the doctors told him he would never walk again but Joe was having none of it and set out to prove them wrong. And prove them wrong he did. Not only can he walk but he is back on his bike and ready to attempt to become a legend again. Actually, I’ve not seen him walk but he can certainly ride a bike.
Joe Danger is a Playstation Network game which puts you in control of Mr Danger on his comeback trail. What we have here is a motorbike stunt game full of happy vibes from the main character, the bright colours throughout, the level design and backgrounds. This is something that could have come from Sega or Nintendo’s 16-bit era, Mario jumping about in the background or Sonic whizzing past would not be out of place. Joe Danger has been developed by Hello Games which seemingly consists of just 4 developers and with such a small team, the TLC they have put into this game is very evident.
Gameplay wise it the PS3’s answer to Trials HD but without the frustration element. It is less realistic but every bit as addictive as Trials HD. You are in control of our modern day Evel Knievel as he sets out to show the world he is far from finished. The early levels act as a nice tutorial based introduction to the game and allow Joe to warm up before the events start to become more challenging. Don’t be fooled by the early levels, this game will make you work hard soon enough. Not as hard as Trials HD works you but it does up the ante.
As with Trials HD, the aim of the game is to get from the start line to the finish line. In your way are a variety of obstacles. Unlike Trials HD, this game doesn’t take itself too seriously and what you have are well designed, light-hearted stages which see you jumping over obstacles such as cars, school buses and shark pools, bouncing over totem poles and spikes, avoiding mud patches and doing Sonic style loops. It mixes realism with fantasy and throws in some humour, which you will certainly see when you land in the shark pool.
This is a game that oozes fun and fun of a silly kind at times. It’s setting out to gradually test you more and more but it wants you to enjoy yourself along the way and doesn’t want to frustrate you too much. Joe Danger takes a different approach to the stunt riding genre to what Trials HD did and whilst it is a very different experience, it is every bit as addictive.
The controls are simple but in the early stages you can be all fingers and thumbs trying to remember what to do and when and do it before you hit the ground. It doesn’t take long before it all settles down though. Naturally you have accelerate and brake to control the speed. You have a boost bar which offers a temporary boost of speed which comes in handy for the longer jumps. The boost bar can be refilled by doing wheelies which are performed by pulling back on the controller. As I’ve said before, this is a game about fun so the wheelies are easy to pull off and you don’t have to worry too much about Joe’s position and trying to maintain the balance. Joe can also bunny hop and crouch which allows extra height off the ramps as well as jumping over and ducking under some smaller obstacles. Joe spends a fair bit of time in the air and you have control over his trajectory, holding down brake will move him backwards, holding down accelerate will move him forwards. Realistic no but essential for some of the obstacles you will face when you are being sprung into the air or want to land on a specific area. Naturally, air time is a perfect time to show off. Joe can flip forward and backward on his bike and perform a couple of tricks. Tricks are kept to a minimum so you won’t be burdened with learning various different button presses. It’s all very straight forward to control and play which helps maintain the fun factor.
In Trials HD the time to get to the finish line was what you were aiming to beat. In Joe Danger scores are the priority. Each action (jump, trick etc) you perform comes with a score, the bigger the action the bigger the score. Link these actions together, such as 2 jumps in a row and you will find your multiplier increasing. The multiplier is the key to high scores and as you will see from the global leaderboard, there are some very high scores out there which certainly takes the shine off your highest score. Wheelies play an important role in your multiplier, they are the key to linking the gaps between scoring opportunities. It’s not all ramp after ramp, there are gaps where your multiplier will get reset back to 1 and these are the gaps you want to fill with a wheelie. If Joe crashes at any point, which is very easy when you try to squeeze in one last flip, you lose your multiplier. I mentioned earlier that the games doesn’t have the frustration levels of Trials HD but that’s not to say it is free of frustration. I lost a 66 times multiplier from a bad landing and one was not amused but I only had myself to blame, I was getting greedy.
The tracks you compete on vary in length, some you can whizz through in half a minute and others will take a couple of minutes to finish. Lanes are marked on the track, a little like a running track and on some tracks it is essential to switch lanes to avoid obstacles or simply to choose a different route. You can’t change lane whenever you want, this is restricted to clearly marked sections. This lane switching adds a little bit of depth to the tracks. On some other tracks you will be joined by rival races and standard race rules apply here, get to the finish line first. A little touch of Raod Rash comes into play, if you are on the same lane as a rival racer then you can knock him off his bike.
Getting to the finish line isn’t going to cause you much trouble and there are checkpoints throughout, a quick press of the Select button sends you right back to the last checkpoint. What does add some challenge and replay value to the tracks is the extra challenges over and above nailing a high score. Each stage presents you with a number of challenges to complete. The bare minimum you will have is to collect all the stars in the level. Other challenges include landing on every target, beating a certain time, landing on each target and beating the time, finding hidden stars, 100% combo, collecting all the coins or a combination. Things start off nice and easy and you will have no problem nailing all the challenges but as things progress so does the difficulty, particularly towards the time based challenges. Being 6 seconds over the target time in a track that took you 39 seconds to complete requires some serious fine tuning. You will need to beat these challenges in order to open some levels. Each challenge awards you with a star and this is your currency for opening some other specific stages.
In addition to the lengthy single player campaign there is a multiplayer mode. Unfortunately this is not an online mode and for 2 players on the same PS3 which, without a 2nd control pad, is something I’ve not been able to try out.
The game also comes with a level editor which is simple to use, simple to create a level and with a good bit of imagination you can come up with something impressive. You can share levels between people on your friends list but without being able to upload and download levels to and from a community section like Little Big Planet seems like a missed opportunity but perhaps I want too much from a £9.99 game.
Overall this is an excellent addition to the PSN and well worth the asking price. It is simple to play, good fun and very addictive. The lack of a community to download levels is disappointing and it also doesn’t quite have the sense of relief and pride that completing a tough level on Trials HD gives but this is a quality game that I highly recommend.
8.5/10
Joe Danger is a Playstation Network game which puts you in control of Mr Danger on his comeback trail. What we have here is a motorbike stunt game full of happy vibes from the main character, the bright colours throughout, the level design and backgrounds. This is something that could have come from Sega or Nintendo’s 16-bit era, Mario jumping about in the background or Sonic whizzing past would not be out of place. Joe Danger has been developed by Hello Games which seemingly consists of just 4 developers and with such a small team, the TLC they have put into this game is very evident.
Gameplay wise it the PS3’s answer to Trials HD but without the frustration element. It is less realistic but every bit as addictive as Trials HD. You are in control of our modern day Evel Knievel as he sets out to show the world he is far from finished. The early levels act as a nice tutorial based introduction to the game and allow Joe to warm up before the events start to become more challenging. Don’t be fooled by the early levels, this game will make you work hard soon enough. Not as hard as Trials HD works you but it does up the ante.
As with Trials HD, the aim of the game is to get from the start line to the finish line. In your way are a variety of obstacles. Unlike Trials HD, this game doesn’t take itself too seriously and what you have are well designed, light-hearted stages which see you jumping over obstacles such as cars, school buses and shark pools, bouncing over totem poles and spikes, avoiding mud patches and doing Sonic style loops. It mixes realism with fantasy and throws in some humour, which you will certainly see when you land in the shark pool.
This is a game that oozes fun and fun of a silly kind at times. It’s setting out to gradually test you more and more but it wants you to enjoy yourself along the way and doesn’t want to frustrate you too much. Joe Danger takes a different approach to the stunt riding genre to what Trials HD did and whilst it is a very different experience, it is every bit as addictive.
The controls are simple but in the early stages you can be all fingers and thumbs trying to remember what to do and when and do it before you hit the ground. It doesn’t take long before it all settles down though. Naturally you have accelerate and brake to control the speed. You have a boost bar which offers a temporary boost of speed which comes in handy for the longer jumps. The boost bar can be refilled by doing wheelies which are performed by pulling back on the controller. As I’ve said before, this is a game about fun so the wheelies are easy to pull off and you don’t have to worry too much about Joe’s position and trying to maintain the balance. Joe can also bunny hop and crouch which allows extra height off the ramps as well as jumping over and ducking under some smaller obstacles. Joe spends a fair bit of time in the air and you have control over his trajectory, holding down brake will move him backwards, holding down accelerate will move him forwards. Realistic no but essential for some of the obstacles you will face when you are being sprung into the air or want to land on a specific area. Naturally, air time is a perfect time to show off. Joe can flip forward and backward on his bike and perform a couple of tricks. Tricks are kept to a minimum so you won’t be burdened with learning various different button presses. It’s all very straight forward to control and play which helps maintain the fun factor.
In Trials HD the time to get to the finish line was what you were aiming to beat. In Joe Danger scores are the priority. Each action (jump, trick etc) you perform comes with a score, the bigger the action the bigger the score. Link these actions together, such as 2 jumps in a row and you will find your multiplier increasing. The multiplier is the key to high scores and as you will see from the global leaderboard, there are some very high scores out there which certainly takes the shine off your highest score. Wheelies play an important role in your multiplier, they are the key to linking the gaps between scoring opportunities. It’s not all ramp after ramp, there are gaps where your multiplier will get reset back to 1 and these are the gaps you want to fill with a wheelie. If Joe crashes at any point, which is very easy when you try to squeeze in one last flip, you lose your multiplier. I mentioned earlier that the games doesn’t have the frustration levels of Trials HD but that’s not to say it is free of frustration. I lost a 66 times multiplier from a bad landing and one was not amused but I only had myself to blame, I was getting greedy.
The tracks you compete on vary in length, some you can whizz through in half a minute and others will take a couple of minutes to finish. Lanes are marked on the track, a little like a running track and on some tracks it is essential to switch lanes to avoid obstacles or simply to choose a different route. You can’t change lane whenever you want, this is restricted to clearly marked sections. This lane switching adds a little bit of depth to the tracks. On some other tracks you will be joined by rival races and standard race rules apply here, get to the finish line first. A little touch of Raod Rash comes into play, if you are on the same lane as a rival racer then you can knock him off his bike.
Getting to the finish line isn’t going to cause you much trouble and there are checkpoints throughout, a quick press of the Select button sends you right back to the last checkpoint. What does add some challenge and replay value to the tracks is the extra challenges over and above nailing a high score. Each stage presents you with a number of challenges to complete. The bare minimum you will have is to collect all the stars in the level. Other challenges include landing on every target, beating a certain time, landing on each target and beating the time, finding hidden stars, 100% combo, collecting all the coins or a combination. Things start off nice and easy and you will have no problem nailing all the challenges but as things progress so does the difficulty, particularly towards the time based challenges. Being 6 seconds over the target time in a track that took you 39 seconds to complete requires some serious fine tuning. You will need to beat these challenges in order to open some levels. Each challenge awards you with a star and this is your currency for opening some other specific stages.
In addition to the lengthy single player campaign there is a multiplayer mode. Unfortunately this is not an online mode and for 2 players on the same PS3 which, without a 2nd control pad, is something I’ve not been able to try out.
The game also comes with a level editor which is simple to use, simple to create a level and with a good bit of imagination you can come up with something impressive. You can share levels between people on your friends list but without being able to upload and download levels to and from a community section like Little Big Planet seems like a missed opportunity but perhaps I want too much from a £9.99 game.
Overall this is an excellent addition to the PSN and well worth the asking price. It is simple to play, good fun and very addictive. The lack of a community to download levels is disappointing and it also doesn’t quite have the sense of relief and pride that completing a tough level on Trials HD gives but this is a quality game that I highly recommend.
8.5/10
pb wrote:
> Great review. Seems like my sort of game too. Will have to get
> some of those PSN vouchers again then!
I don't want you getting this and removing me from the top spot in my Friends Leaderboard list... the list of 1.
> Great review. Seems like my sort of game too. Will have to get
> some of those PSN vouchers again then!
I don't want you getting this and removing me from the top spot in my Friends Leaderboard list... the list of 1.
Great review. Seems like my sort of game too. Will have to get some of those PSN vouchers again then!
Meet Joe Danger. As a motorbike stunt rider he was on the brink of becoming a legend when it all went horribly wrong. After a big stunt went pear shaped the doctors told him he would never walk again but Joe was having none of it and set out to prove them wrong. And prove them wrong he did. Not only can he walk but he is back on his bike and ready to attempt to become a legend again. Actually, I’ve not seen him walk but he can certainly ride a bike.
Joe Danger is a Playstation Network game which puts you in control of Mr Danger on his comeback trail. What we have here is a motorbike stunt game full of happy vibes from the main character, the bright colours throughout, the level design and backgrounds. This is something that could have come from Sega or Nintendo’s 16-bit era, Mario jumping about in the background or Sonic whizzing past would not be out of place. Joe Danger has been developed by Hello Games which seemingly consists of just 4 developers and with such a small team, the TLC they have put into this game is very evident.
Gameplay wise it the PS3’s answer to Trials HD but without the frustration element. It is less realistic but every bit as addictive as Trials HD. You are in control of our modern day Evel Knievel as he sets out to show the world he is far from finished. The early levels act as a nice tutorial based introduction to the game and allow Joe to warm up before the events start to become more challenging. Don’t be fooled by the early levels, this game will make you work hard soon enough. Not as hard as Trials HD works you but it does up the ante.
As with Trials HD, the aim of the game is to get from the start line to the finish line. In your way are a variety of obstacles. Unlike Trials HD, this game doesn’t take itself too seriously and what you have are well designed, light-hearted stages which see you jumping over obstacles such as cars, school buses and shark pools, bouncing over totem poles and spikes, avoiding mud patches and doing Sonic style loops. It mixes realism with fantasy and throws in some humour, which you will certainly see when you land in the shark pool.
This is a game that oozes fun and fun of a silly kind at times. It’s setting out to gradually test you more and more but it wants you to enjoy yourself along the way and doesn’t want to frustrate you too much. Joe Danger takes a different approach to the stunt riding genre to what Trials HD did and whilst it is a very different experience, it is every bit as addictive.
The controls are simple but in the early stages you can be all fingers and thumbs trying to remember what to do and when and do it before you hit the ground. It doesn’t take long before it all settles down though. Naturally you have accelerate and brake to control the speed. You have a boost bar which offers a temporary boost of speed which comes in handy for the longer jumps. The boost bar can be refilled by doing wheelies which are performed by pulling back on the controller. As I’ve said before, this is a game about fun so the wheelies are easy to pull off and you don’t have to worry too much about Joe’s position and trying to maintain the balance. Joe can also bunny hop and crouch which allows extra height off the ramps as well as jumping over and ducking under some smaller obstacles. Joe spends a fair bit of time in the air and you have control over his trajectory, holding down brake will move him backwards, holding down accelerate will move him forwards. Realistic no but essential for some of the obstacles you will face when you are being sprung into the air or want to land on a specific area. Naturally, air time is a perfect time to show off. Joe can flip forward and backward on his bike and perform a couple of tricks. Tricks are kept to a minimum so you won’t be burdened with learning various different button presses. It’s all very straight forward to control and play which helps maintain the fun factor.
In Trials HD the time to get to the finish line was what you were aiming to beat. In Joe Danger scores are the priority. Each action (jump, trick etc) you perform comes with a score, the bigger the action the bigger the score. Link these actions together, such as 2 jumps in a row and you will find your multiplier increasing. The multiplier is the key to high scores and as you will see from the global leaderboard, there are some very high scores out there which certainly takes the shine off your highest score. Wheelies play an important role in your multiplier, they are the key to linking the gaps between scoring opportunities. It’s not all ramp after ramp, there are gaps where your multiplier will get reset back to 1 and these are the gaps you want to fill with a wheelie. If Joe crashes at any point, which is very easy when you try to squeeze in one last flip, you lose your multiplier. I mentioned earlier that the games doesn’t have the frustration levels of Trials HD but that’s not to say it is free of frustration. I lost a 66 times multiplier from a bad landing and one was not amused but I only had myself to blame, I was getting greedy.
The tracks you compete on vary in length, some you can whizz through in half a minute and others will take a couple of minutes to finish. Lanes are marked on the track, a little like a running track and on some tracks it is essential to switch lanes to avoid obstacles or simply to choose a different route. You can’t change lane whenever you want, this is restricted to clearly marked sections. This lane switching adds a little bit of depth to the tracks. On some other tracks you will be joined by rival races and standard race rules apply here, get to the finish line first. A little touch of Raod Rash comes into play, if you are on the same lane as a rival racer then you can knock him off his bike.
Getting to the finish line isn’t going to cause you much trouble and there are checkpoints throughout, a quick press of the Select button sends you right back to the last checkpoint. What does add some challenge and replay value to the tracks is the extra challenges over and above nailing a high score. Each stage presents you with a number of challenges to complete. The bare minimum you will have is to collect all the stars in the level. Other challenges include landing on every target, beating a certain time, landing on each target and beating the time, finding hidden stars, 100% combo, collecting all the coins or a combination. Things start off nice and easy and you will have no problem nailing all the challenges but as things progress so does the difficulty, particularly towards the time based challenges. Being 6 seconds over the target time in a track that took you 39 seconds to complete requires some serious fine tuning. You will need to beat these challenges in order to open some levels. Each challenge awards you with a star and this is your currency for opening some other specific stages.
In addition to the lengthy single player campaign there is a multiplayer mode. Unfortunately this is not an online mode and for 2 players on the same PS3 which, without a 2nd control pad, is something I’ve not been able to try out.
The game also comes with a level editor which is simple to use, simple to create a level and with a good bit of imagination you can come up with something impressive. You can share levels between people on your friends list but without being able to upload and download levels to and from a community section like Little Big Planet seems like a missed opportunity but perhaps I want too much from a £9.99 game.
Overall this is an excellent addition to the PSN and well worth the asking price. It is simple to play, good fun and very addictive. The lack of a community to download levels is disappointing and it also doesn’t quite have the sense of relief and pride that completing a tough level on Trials HD gives but this is a quality game that I highly recommend.
8.5/10
Joe Danger is a Playstation Network game which puts you in control of Mr Danger on his comeback trail. What we have here is a motorbike stunt game full of happy vibes from the main character, the bright colours throughout, the level design and backgrounds. This is something that could have come from Sega or Nintendo’s 16-bit era, Mario jumping about in the background or Sonic whizzing past would not be out of place. Joe Danger has been developed by Hello Games which seemingly consists of just 4 developers and with such a small team, the TLC they have put into this game is very evident.
Gameplay wise it the PS3’s answer to Trials HD but without the frustration element. It is less realistic but every bit as addictive as Trials HD. You are in control of our modern day Evel Knievel as he sets out to show the world he is far from finished. The early levels act as a nice tutorial based introduction to the game and allow Joe to warm up before the events start to become more challenging. Don’t be fooled by the early levels, this game will make you work hard soon enough. Not as hard as Trials HD works you but it does up the ante.
As with Trials HD, the aim of the game is to get from the start line to the finish line. In your way are a variety of obstacles. Unlike Trials HD, this game doesn’t take itself too seriously and what you have are well designed, light-hearted stages which see you jumping over obstacles such as cars, school buses and shark pools, bouncing over totem poles and spikes, avoiding mud patches and doing Sonic style loops. It mixes realism with fantasy and throws in some humour, which you will certainly see when you land in the shark pool.
This is a game that oozes fun and fun of a silly kind at times. It’s setting out to gradually test you more and more but it wants you to enjoy yourself along the way and doesn’t want to frustrate you too much. Joe Danger takes a different approach to the stunt riding genre to what Trials HD did and whilst it is a very different experience, it is every bit as addictive.
The controls are simple but in the early stages you can be all fingers and thumbs trying to remember what to do and when and do it before you hit the ground. It doesn’t take long before it all settles down though. Naturally you have accelerate and brake to control the speed. You have a boost bar which offers a temporary boost of speed which comes in handy for the longer jumps. The boost bar can be refilled by doing wheelies which are performed by pulling back on the controller. As I’ve said before, this is a game about fun so the wheelies are easy to pull off and you don’t have to worry too much about Joe’s position and trying to maintain the balance. Joe can also bunny hop and crouch which allows extra height off the ramps as well as jumping over and ducking under some smaller obstacles. Joe spends a fair bit of time in the air and you have control over his trajectory, holding down brake will move him backwards, holding down accelerate will move him forwards. Realistic no but essential for some of the obstacles you will face when you are being sprung into the air or want to land on a specific area. Naturally, air time is a perfect time to show off. Joe can flip forward and backward on his bike and perform a couple of tricks. Tricks are kept to a minimum so you won’t be burdened with learning various different button presses. It’s all very straight forward to control and play which helps maintain the fun factor.
In Trials HD the time to get to the finish line was what you were aiming to beat. In Joe Danger scores are the priority. Each action (jump, trick etc) you perform comes with a score, the bigger the action the bigger the score. Link these actions together, such as 2 jumps in a row and you will find your multiplier increasing. The multiplier is the key to high scores and as you will see from the global leaderboard, there are some very high scores out there which certainly takes the shine off your highest score. Wheelies play an important role in your multiplier, they are the key to linking the gaps between scoring opportunities. It’s not all ramp after ramp, there are gaps where your multiplier will get reset back to 1 and these are the gaps you want to fill with a wheelie. If Joe crashes at any point, which is very easy when you try to squeeze in one last flip, you lose your multiplier. I mentioned earlier that the games doesn’t have the frustration levels of Trials HD but that’s not to say it is free of frustration. I lost a 66 times multiplier from a bad landing and one was not amused but I only had myself to blame, I was getting greedy.
The tracks you compete on vary in length, some you can whizz through in half a minute and others will take a couple of minutes to finish. Lanes are marked on the track, a little like a running track and on some tracks it is essential to switch lanes to avoid obstacles or simply to choose a different route. You can’t change lane whenever you want, this is restricted to clearly marked sections. This lane switching adds a little bit of depth to the tracks. On some other tracks you will be joined by rival races and standard race rules apply here, get to the finish line first. A little touch of Raod Rash comes into play, if you are on the same lane as a rival racer then you can knock him off his bike.
Getting to the finish line isn’t going to cause you much trouble and there are checkpoints throughout, a quick press of the Select button sends you right back to the last checkpoint. What does add some challenge and replay value to the tracks is the extra challenges over and above nailing a high score. Each stage presents you with a number of challenges to complete. The bare minimum you will have is to collect all the stars in the level. Other challenges include landing on every target, beating a certain time, landing on each target and beating the time, finding hidden stars, 100% combo, collecting all the coins or a combination. Things start off nice and easy and you will have no problem nailing all the challenges but as things progress so does the difficulty, particularly towards the time based challenges. Being 6 seconds over the target time in a track that took you 39 seconds to complete requires some serious fine tuning. You will need to beat these challenges in order to open some levels. Each challenge awards you with a star and this is your currency for opening some other specific stages.
In addition to the lengthy single player campaign there is a multiplayer mode. Unfortunately this is not an online mode and for 2 players on the same PS3 which, without a 2nd control pad, is something I’ve not been able to try out.
The game also comes with a level editor which is simple to use, simple to create a level and with a good bit of imagination you can come up with something impressive. You can share levels between people on your friends list but without being able to upload and download levels to and from a community section like Little Big Planet seems like a missed opportunity but perhaps I want too much from a £9.99 game.
Overall this is an excellent addition to the PSN and well worth the asking price. It is simple to play, good fun and very addictive. The lack of a community to download levels is disappointing and it also doesn’t quite have the sense of relief and pride that completing a tough level on Trials HD gives but this is a quality game that I highly recommend.
8.5/10