When Joe Danger arrived in 2010, it was the more playful, more colorful answer to the very brown, very difficult, and very redneck Trials HD. A motorcycle stunt game that played like a Mario platformer, it boasted perfect controls and clever levels that encouraged exploration instead of a straight shot to the finish line. Now Joe returns for the sequel, Joe Danger the Movie, and like any Hollywood follow-up, everything is bigger and louder.
But, as is also too often the case with Hollywood, something has been lost in the attempt to top the first Danger. It still charms us with slick visuals and amusing level design, just not quite as much as the original did.
After successfully making a comeback to the world of death defiance in the first Joe Danger, our hero has now been hired as the stuntman for “the greatest action film ever.” He will travel the world skidding through avalanches on skis, juking helicopter missiles by jetpack, and barreling past buzzsaws in a mine cart. He’s not just a motorcycle-rider any longer.
And that turns out to be a bit of a disappointment. While the new slew of vehicles do add variety -- something more than a few gamers thought the original Joe Danger lacked -- none of them feel as fun to ride as Joe’s trusty motorbike. Each controls a little differently, and they can’t match the expert controls of the original bike. Yes, dodging cannonballs on a jetpack is expectedly entertaining. But the new modes of transport probably should have been punctuation breaking up the gameplay, rather than the focus of it.
Filming Joe’s movie works very much like playing through the first Joe Danger. You careen through a level on various vehicles, and as long as you complete one of several objectives you’ll earn a star and unlock the next area. Those objectives may ask you to collect all the stars in a level, reach the finish line before time runs out, or find all the letters that spell Danger. Every so often you’ll encounter a checkpoint level that requires you spend a certain amount of those stars to unlock it.
Even though this is an action movie, it’s when the game gives you a break that Joe Danger 2 really thrills. It’s refreshing in a vehicle game to be able to stop, pull over, and survey your surroundings. You know there’s a star hidden somewhere, and you can see it’s shadow so it has to be nearby... THAT’S what I love about this game.
It’s refreshing in a vehicle game to be able to stop, pull over, and survey your surroundings
The director of this fine film unfortunately never stops yelling in your ear. During levels he shouts at you to duck under and jump over objects. In between acts he hoots and hollers over a montage of film footage that you can’t skip. Joe should use his star power to fire this guy. The game is cartoon-like to begin with, yes, but this director is unnecessarily childish.
You can wrap the movie in one sitting, meaning you can unlock each act and see the credits roll with a small time investment. Granted, Joe Danger will be less than 50 percent complete at that point and you can return to levels to earn more stars. But after you’ve unlocked each act there isn't much left to spend those stars on. Challenge can be found in Joe Danger 2 by backtracking and exploring bonus levels beyond the credits, but you have to seek it out -- it’s not built into the campaign. Outside of “Movie Mode” there are a bunch of deleted scenes that throw more devilish challenges at Joe. Then there is the local multiplayer mode for up to four riders and the enjoyable Movie Maker where you can create your own levels and share them with other players. There is a lot of content here -- I would just prefer more of it in the campaign.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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