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Publisher: Hello Games
Release Date: June 8, 2010
System: PlayStation 3
ESRB Rating: E
In a nutshell: Excitebike + Tony Hawk's Pro Skater = AWESOME!
0:00 I really liked the old-school feel of the five minute demo I played at PAX East. But what really pushed me to download this one was the passion displayed by developer Sean Murray at last week's Develop conference.
0:01 Nice cheery guitar, bass and maraca music over the preview screen as the square-jawed protagonist stands at the foot of a ramp, smiling. I'm grinning like a fool already.
0:02 A cassette tape appears in the corner of the black screen during the loading. Is this a reerence to those old tape-loading systems or something? That's before my time, sadly.
0:03 "J-j-j-j-j-j-joe DANGER!" says an over-caffeinated anouncer "Folks, let me tell you about Joe Danger," says a grizzled sounding man. "He was the world's most determined stuntman. That was a long time ago, back then he was a household name ... But it all went wrong. They said he'd never walk again, but he showed 'em. Now he wants to make his comeback. Maybe YOU can help." This quick story is accompanied by old newspapers and billboards showing Joe with a '70s mustache. Cute and, more importantly, QUICK!
0:05 The menu is a sort of trailer park. I zoom in on "Stunt Weekly" and choose "Joe Danger Returns," my only option. My mission is to "Collect all the Ministars?" Um.. "all the Mobsters?" This text is nearly unreadable on my 20" standard def TV.
0:06 I pretend I don't already know the controls and get by the first level by simply accelerating straight through, backing up only when I miss some stars. I'm surprised to see some of my PSN friends have higher scores. That's a new one... usually my few PSN friends haven't played the same games I have.
0:08 In level 2 I learn how to duck by holding the square button, then do a little hop when I release it. Reminds me of the Tony Hawk games. Everything goes smoothly except when I fail to duck a hammer-holding totem. "KABLAMMO!" says the game. I thought he was in the background!
0:10 I love the level of mid-air control I have after bouncing off these extremely springy springboards. It makes it feel like a platform game more than a racing game. I get a third star for landing on all the targets. That gets me to 1% complete.
0:11 I have to spend a hard-earned gold star to get in to the next event. NO! MY PRECIOUS!
0:14 Learning how to do tricks might be the worst things that's ever happened to me. I end up holding the shoulder buttons too long pretty consistently, forcing me to restart half a dozen times. Even after I do figure out the timing, I discover that combining a wheelie with a speed boost is a good way to land on your head. I had a 37x combo multiplier going, too. Sigh.
0:15 Thank god for checkpoints, or I'd probably still be trying to finish this level. My 3.4 million points sounds high, but it's still way below my friends' best. Let's see if I can do better...
0:17 Well that was easy. Once I restart the level, I maintain my combo throughout my first attempt, ending up with a whopping 39 million points. My closest friend has 12 million. EAT IT, FRIENDS! Despite this, I'm still in 3,500th or so worldwide. Maybe I need better friends...
0:18 On to the Comeback Tour and the Mostly Dangerous event. "Wherever there's danger he'll be there!" says the game. Lots of goals this time around... let's see if I can get them all on one try.
0:19 So I landed on all the targets and found the hidden star (it wasn't very well hidden) AND got all the mini-stars rather easily. Plus I got the top score for the level among my friends. I didn't beat the proscribed time limit, though. One more try..
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0:22 It takes me a few tries to beat the time limit while also hitting all the required targets. This is mainly because I keep getting too fancy with the tricks in an attempt to refill my boost meter and landing painfully on my head. Turns out I didn't need to try so hard... I manage to beat the time limit without boosting for the entire second half of the race. I'm sure it'll get harder... it must.
0:27 Just crashed across the finish line on the "Warthog" event. I love how the game chants "Dangeeeeeeer!" whenever you collect one of the floating letters that spell out, um, "Danger." I'm a bit confused by the physics, though. I've had some clean landings that look like they should have been crashes and vice versa. Maybe I just have to get used to it.
0:29 It only takes me one more try to get the required 100% combo on the Warthog event. Not that it was simple... I had to watch my wheelie balance a few times, especially when hopping over some of those annoying speed bumps. I'm not even close to beating Matt Mathews' score... let's fix that.
0:30 I combo through again, throwing in some more mid-air tricks this time. My score of 4,026,600 is JUST behind his score of 4,106,275. GRRR! One more try...
0:31 I ended up doing a quintuple flip at one point on my next run, but my score actually ended up LOWER because my average trick wasn't as good, I guess. Hmmm.
0:33 Everything goes right on my fourth run and I get a score of over 8 million. Using the boost in mid-air to get more height seems to be the key. Hopping off the speed bumps for extra trick opportunities didn't hurt either. There's a lot of unexpected depth to this trick system.
0:35 This coin dash level is mainly a tutorial on how to switch lanes at pre-determined points in the level. It would have been nice if you could switch lanes any time, but perhaps a bit confusing and unqieldy.
0:39 The "race" level adds a few computer-controlled bikers alongside me, but doesn't seem all that different overall. Even crashing once isn't enough to stop me from easily taking first. NEXT!
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0:41 I just flew headlong into a wall, then watched as my carcass and bike bounced on a springboard endlessly. It's almost hypnotic.
0:42 Well, that level had seven different goals, and I managed to complete exactly none of them on this first time through. I guess I'll have to focus on one at a time and see what I can come up with.
0:45 The last three minutes were spent carefully backtracking to collect the first four floating DANGER letters. Then I miss the E and R with too-low jumps and realize I can't actually back up to get them. Oh well, at least I figured out how to combine a springboard and my hop to get up to a secret star.
0:49 Apparently I could backtrack to get the "R" that I missed. Good thing, too, as I need to jump quite a few times before I get the dash and jump timing synchronized just right. It's not exactly an elegant success, but hey, whatever works.
0:50 Compared to getting DANGER, getting all the mini-stars is pretty easy... I just have to switch lanes appropriately to find them. NEXT.
0:52 I take a detour near the end of the level and collect a series of coins with less than a second to spare. The springboards that sent me bouncing around in this section remind me of the Casino zones in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
0:54 My first try for a pure speed run is less than a second too slow. And that's taking the extremely slow path with all the unnecessary ramps and suspension bridges.
0:56 I crash about twenty feet from the finish line on my next attempt, but it's OK because my corpse flies across the finish line two seconds under the time limit. Apparently I maintained my combo the entire time as well, though all I was really trying to do was get more speed-granting boost. So much for the risk/reward system -- if you're as good as me, it's all reward. BOOYAH!
1:04 It took me 17 attempts (the game counted) to land on all seven targets accurately in the next level. I like how the mid-air stars guide you to your target in a nice arc -- very old school. I don't like how I have to remember to wheelie to replenish my boost meter constantly, but I'm sure it will become second-nature eventually.
Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.
Why? It's fun, relatively deep, AND I have some friends to compete with for high scores. BRING IT!
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