Review: ‘Joe Danger’ brings the pain

Here’s a rare, unsolicited peek into the seedy world of local newspaper video game coverage — I don’t get much free stuff, and there’s zero institutional support financially, so every game you see discussed here is something I purchased out-of-pocket.

I’m more than happy to do that, of course, but I won’t intentionally purchase something I suspect to be bad.
So when I enthuse wildly about games week in and week out, as I’m about to do with British developer Hello Games’ first title, know that it comes from a sincere place.

“Joe Danger,” released last week exclusively on the PlayStation Network, is a bright, side-scrolling motorcycle action game that draws heavy inspiration from last year’s “Trials HD.”

Like “Trials,” “Joe” is split into dozens of easily digestible levels that require precise handling, a certain amount of patience and a willingness to hammer the restart button over and over again.

Both games become very challenging very quickly, asking you to rotate your avatar just so in mid-air or to pass under certain obstacles at low speed, lest you bounce about and inadvertently clothesline yourself. But where “Trials” became unmanageably, controller-chuckingly difficult about halfway through, “Joe” never feels as grueling.

Thanks to its cheery attitude and the ways it measures your progress, you’re more likely to smile when you flub a trick, land on a strip of spikes or plunge headlong into one of the game’s many shark tanks. And when you finally do nail a tough track, “Joe” is all the more rewarding for it.

Some of the levels can be cleared in a single run, but most pack so many objectives that you’ll be forced to finish them multiple times. Exploration will net you hidden stars and other trinkets scattered across three very separate lanes, a la “Excitebike.” Because you can change lanes only at prescribed switch points, and because the game frequently forbids you from backtracking, you’ll almost certainly miss a few items on your first go.

Fortunately, the game is built with that in mind. If you’ve found a level’s hidden stars but haven’t managed to sustain a trick combo all the way through, for example, you’ll get partial credit — usually enough to advance.

But if you’re a compulsive collector who doesn’t move on until all of a level’s quests are satisfied, be prepared for the long haul.
This is where I collapsed with “Trials.” Though I had unlocked the bulk of that game, I refused to advance to a given stage until I earned a gold medal in the one before it. That meant mastering an incredibly sensitive (and occasionally quirky) physics system and memorizing every ramp, wooden plank and pile of tires.

“Joe” is much more forgiving in that respect — you don’t have to lean halfway back and turbo-tap the gas to scale a nearly vertical rock face, for example — though it’s no slouch in the dexterity department. Every one of your fingers will be assigned to one or two buttons to manage boosting, ducking, jumping, flipping and tricking, and though that feels daunting at first, it becomes second-nature soon enough.

The busy controls also create some of your most memorable spills. As I write this, I’m still stuck on a stage that needs me to simultaneously boost and jump off a ramp (the square and x buttons), stop my momentum and move backward in mid-air (L2), pull off a backflip (left thumbstick) and grab trick (L1) to restore my boost meter, land on both wheels and turbo under a gate.

I can do it slowly if I set my mind to it, but to clear the level in the prescribed time, I have to do it quickly and flawlessly.

I had messed it up 46 consecutive times before I left for work this morning (like “Trials,” “Joe” helpfully keeps count of your screw-ups), landing on my neck or rocketing into a wall, and it was hilarious every time. That’s the distilled essence of a great action game. Even dying is fun.

I’ve spoken here only about the single-player career mode, but “Joe” also packs a suite of online and local multiplayer options, and its sandbox mode features one of the easiest track creators I’ve ever had the joy of using.

You can exchange user-made tracks over the Internet, though the game sadly lacks a marketplace where you can upload or download standout levels. Unless you have friends playing the game online, you’re out of luck.

That’s a relatively minor gripe, though, and among consoles, it’s something only “LittleBigPlanet” has started to figure out. “Joe Danger” is one of the best games available on Sony’s online service, and it should appeal to gamers and Super Dave Osborne fans everywhere.

This article originally appeared in the York Dispatch.