Joe Danger - Review

HelloGames are a happy bunch. A collective of veterans from studios such as Criterion and Kuju, they obviously love what they do and one look at Joe Danger will tell you that the team had a lot of fun producing their first game.

Though it’s a PS3 exclusive (for now at least), it fits perfectly into the Sony gaming ethos of “Play, Create, Share” along with titles like LittleBigPlanet and the more recent ModNation Racers. More on that later in the review.

Before the game even hit the PSN store, it was compared to just about every other Motorbike stunt game that has ever winked into existence. Joe Danger’s influences are wide ranging, from Nintendo’s superb Excitebike through to RedLynx’s Trials HD and even creaky old 8 bit classics like Kickstart. You’ll find plenty of common elements between these games but Joe Danger is fresh and unique enough to stand on its own two feet.

As the titular aging stunt rider, you jump into Joe Danger’s tight jumpsuit and helmet to revive your career after a near fatal accident. Vowing to become the world’s number one bike stunt guy once again, you embark on a final comeback tour to show the young upstarts how stunt riding should be done.

From the moment you fire up the game to the moment you get to grips with the satisfyingly intuitive controls, Joe Danger feels extremely well polished and beautifully put together.

Beginning with single player “career” mode you start with a few simple levels that swiftly introduce the mechanics of the gameplay. Using the left and right analogue triggers on the PS3 pad, you can control your bike’s braking and acceleration. Oddly your bike seems to be just as happy going backwards as well as forwards but you’ll see why later on.

Stunts, flips and signature flashy moves are performed by timely manipulation of the left analogue stick in conjunction with the L1 and R1 buttons. You can also use the face buttons on the Sixaxis to perform bunny hops, duck under objects or fire off your boost if you’ve performed enough tricks to fill your boost bar. Boost can be vitally important for time-based levels, or moments where you need an extra kick in the tail to achieve big air.

Each level contains a number of objectives and completing these will help you collect gold stars, the game’s cash system. Gold stars can be spent on level unlocks, so skilled bikers will undoubtedly enjoy polishing off multiple challenges in one run. It’s excellent to see that you can restart a level at any time if you manage to mess up a particular objective.

Stunt combos and tricks enhance your score and fill your boost bar quicker, and you can get the usual satisfaction of bragging rights amongst your PSN friends list if you notch up a particularly high score. The global score tables are already filled with unbelievably high scores so there’s plenty of challenge in trying to better them.

At times, the game feels more like a collectable platform game than a stunt racer, but a gradual and progressive difficulty curve combined with the extra challenge elements in each level mixes up Joe Danger’s content enough to keep you coming back for one more go. It’s nice and cheap too. Just under a tenner for this much gaming seems like an absolute bargain.

Multiplayer modes are equally satisfying, with a range of split screen and online gameplay options. Playing for scores, or just first past the post, Joe Danger feels nicely sociable and is exactly the sort of game where you could drag a few friends round for a spot of competitive play.

Last but by no means least, there’s Joe Danger’s level construction mode. With the same promise that everything in the game was built using the editor, HelloGames have provided gamers with a superb level creator that allows you to concoct your own crazy stunt-based stuff. The editor is intuitive and satisfyingly fully featured. Once you’ve come up with something cool, you can then share it online with your friends and compete in races on your own home-grown tracks. Though I’ve only dipped a toe in the water with this stuff, I can see there’s a lot of potential for extending the game’s lifespan way beyond the completion of the single player career.

All in all, it’s perhaps indicative of the games industry as a whole that a small team can lovingly craft something as polished and fun to play as Joe Danger, whereas huge teams suffer from infighting and pressured publisher demands while trying to churn out yet another annual update of a popular gaming series. Hopefully HelloGames will win a brace of indie gaming awards, and perhaps expand their team enough to ensure that whatever comes next will be as fun and essential as Joe Danger is. Simply put, this is one of the best PSN releases of the year and a game that should put a big old smile back on your face.

Our rating

9/10