Review: Joe Danger 2: The Movie

With their dazzling performances, famous Hollywood stuntmen have captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of moviegoers and television connoisseurs, adults and children alike. Now thanks to Hello Games one of my favourite stuntmen graces Xbox Live once again, that’s right, it’s Joe Danger and this time he is at the movies.

If you played the original Joe Danger title you will be instantly familiar with the controls and even if you haven’t it won’t be long before you get the hang of things. The right trigger accelerates, X will make you jump when tapped or double tapped and crouch when held down, while A gives you a boost that can be built up by performing tricks and combos whilst filming your scene. There are plenty of chances to perform outrageous flips and massive wheelies as there are ramps all over the place.

There is something for everyone in each of the levels, those who just want to race through in the quickest time possible can but there is a mixture of objectives to encourage you to go back and replay a level. They range from collecting stars or bananas, to stopping rocket launches or stopping evil robots from escaping. A ‘Pro Medal’ is awarded should you complete each level’s objectives in a single playthrough, when there are more than two objectives things can get pretty difficult, but the reward of new playable characters should be enough to keep people trying. As you complete scenes more unlock and the further you get into the game the harder things get, don’t be fooled by the games cartoony style we’re talking Trials difficult here. Checkpoints start to become rare and in some cases there are none, you may want to have a spare controller nearby.

Of course no game is complete without being able to see you friend’s scores and thanks to the leaderboards you can. There is also a clever stat at the end of each scene telling you how many people you were faster than, yet another reason to go back and try to improve your last run. New to Joe Danger 2 is ghosts of your friends while taking a scene on, it’s a great way to make things competitive as you are trying to complete a scene.

The great thing about Joe Danger 2 is that you are not confined to driving his trusty bike, this time you’ll be in Minecarts, on jet skis or even quad bikes. My favourite was the Jetpack as it was the most removed from the all the other vehicles available. Most Joe Danger levels will keep pushing you forward but the levels with the jetpacks will see you going in all directions, almost giving the game a platformer like appeal. All of the vehicles bring their own challenges, you may master one vehicle’s controls but you’ll need to readjust the way you drive the others. On top of that all the news scenes you get to drive in all look great and certainly makes the player feel like there is more to the game.

When you have had enough of the campaign you must check out the Deleted scenes, these extra levels are much more difficult and require a fair bit of skill to complete, but you will feel pretty good about yourself if you manage to complete them. Joe Danger is the perfect game for creating your own levels and a level editor, or Movie Maker as it’s called in Joe Danger has been included. There is a set of tutorials for you to go through but the system is very intuitive. You can build up your tracks however you want, test them and when you are ready, upload them.

If you are not into creating levels then why not sample other users content? Hello Games have made it very simple to find the best levels by breaking them down into categories, developer picks, top downloads, friends’ levels, latest levels, and hot levels. As more people play the game you are bound to see some fantastic levels being created. There is a local multiplayer for you to play with up to four friends, it’s nothing to shout home about and there are only 5 levels to play.

I’m always a sucker for game that give you avatar awards and Joe Danger doesn’t disappoint, there are a couple of t-shirts and a Joe Danger stuntman suit for you to unlock, you’ll probably have them by the fourth movie if you make an effort. The game also takes advantage of the full 400 gamerpoints with 30 achievements for you to get, my favourite being “Most Determined – Complete a level after crashing 50 times!” The others are a good mix of completing scenes and collecting item rewards.

I hadn’t played Joe Danger since it was first released on that other console; I loved it then and enjoyed it even more this time around, the movie premise gives Mr. Danger himself a great excuse to leave his trusty bike and take on some new vehicles and environments. There is plenty of scope for DLC in the future through new costumes, vehicles and movie scenes and I’ll welcome any with open arms. The game looks great, it has some brilliant music and despite the frustrations on some of the levels this game is well worth throwing yourself into.

Review: Joe Danger 2: The Movie Results