POSTED 15/12/11


JOE DANGER: SPECIAL EDITION

Hello Games
Xbox 360/XBLA (also on PS3/PSN)

Announcer: Hey, Joe Danger, you just jumped 16 blazing school buses. What are you going to do now?
Joe Danger: Stuff Duff Gardens, I’m gonna do more crazy stuntastic shit!

Less generically titled than Trials HD, less excitingly titled than Excitebike, but with guaranteed 100% more Joe Danger Danger danger (for ‘Danger’ is, indeed, his middle name), it’s the ‘Special Edition’ of a fave of many PSN peeps who’ll now likely sulk, as Joe isn’t just theirs to play with anymore.

Why mention Trials HD and Nintendo classic Excitebike? Well, this here Joe thing kind of intermingles the dastardly, skilled puzzle-solving motorsickle control of the former (sans the Da Vinci Code schtick) with the hooray-for-colours cartooniness and pure arcadey playabilityness of the latter.

It does it better than a Dyson blender, if Dyson actually made blenders... and if they did we’re guessing they’d somehow do it without actual mixy implement thingies. But we’re off track – something Joe can’t do. Instead, he ploughs forwards – or backwards - looping loop-the-loops, jumping jump-the-jumps, avoiding hazard-the-hazards and collecting various loot-the-loots.

It’s no fuel-fuelled picnic. Sometimes you’ll hoon along all carefree-like, other times you’ll be contemplating the best place to purchase a new X-controller from after hurling the one you’ve been grasping through the nearest window.

As well as a generously lengthy story mode, you can faff about building your own shareable tracks, get lab practice in and play against others in split-screen. Plus, get in superspeedyquicknow and you’ll score free Father Christmas-themed DLC. More than just naff dress-ups, it gives funky alterna-vehicular bonusishness that’s quadbike shaped.

A joyous gaming yaygasm that harks back to classic console gaming whilst dangling its toes in a shark-infested tank of newerness, Joe Danger SE is crazy-ace.

Now, in case we don't survive, let us just say seat belts save lives – so buckle up!

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