Watch your step, for you’ve just entered the Graveyard. Inside, we’ll be digging up games that have long been without a pulse. You’ll see both good and bad souls unearthed every month as we search through the more… forgotten…parts of history.
The rise of Trials on consoles with Trials HD led to a ton of games trying to copy that formula, but few games tried to use that as a framework and do something different. Joe Danger stood out not only due to its usage of an ex-daredevil trying for a comeback, but also having a bright visual style and one that has held up remarkably well over time at that. While Trials and its ilk aimed more for perfect precision with physics at the forefront, Joe Danger aims to be more of a platformer with precision thrown into the mix.
Like any game in this sub-genre, it's an A to B affair, but no series offers up as much variety as Joe Danger does. The debut entry was a strong start offering up a game that was a perfect gateway entry in the genre since it's largely a fast-paced platformer with stunt driving mixed in. Joe can duck, jump, use air to accelerate backwards in mid-air and do a wide variety of tricks to boost overall score totals. Score attack isn't something you have to do, but it is a lot of fun to master a stage and then aim for a bigger score the next time.
Replaying stages in games like this can feel like a chore in some titles. Latter-day Trials games had a lot of variety, but also a frustrating stage design at times that made replaying things like racing and shooting levels cumbersome. Joe Danger sticks to what it does well and doesn't get bogged down in trying to do everything within a single game. Stunts, scoring, tricks and platforming are all it aims to do and it does everything well. Stages are compact and only take a couple of minutes to beat, but mastering them offers a different thrill.
Mastering the core mechanics is challenging and requires precise controller movements, but is rewarding and easy to do thanks to the tools the game gives you. Joe Danger has an extensive tutorial lab area to use to your benefit. It will teach you the ropes in real-time or you can just hop into the career mode if you want. Thanks to on-screen prompts being featured in both modes, you can easily just go into the career mode -- but I would recommend trying out the tutorial lab anyway. Its setting is unlike anything else in the game and it's got a lot more going on in the background than the core game's stages do.
Beating a stage is a thrill, but doing so while collecting the DANGER letters enables unlockable gear while topping the speed charts allows you to see how much better you're getting in real-time. Stages are a mix of both time trial-esque stages without enemies or full-on races alongside trick challenges. Some stages challenge you to be doing something somewhat flashy the whole race -- including something like popping a wheelie. The wheelie allows you to earn more boost and boosting allows you to have faster speeds, with more risk involved in the race itself.
Like Trials or Excitebike many years before, you don't want to put yourself in a position to get stuck on a vertical surface after a big jump. This will slow you down a lot and in a race, can result in needing to replay it. Being able to do things like jump over a fleet of buses in a single bound, or do so while executing mid-air tricks, is incredible and the easy-to-use trick system and forgiving timing makes taking risks more fun and less punishing than in games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and its ilk. This makes Joe Danger an easy game to recommend for anyone who has been turned off or too intimidated by those games.
It controls like a dream across the board and still looks sharp to this day. While other games may have higher resolution counts, Joe Danger's art style being more goofy and cartoony helps it age nicely. The robust animation for Joe when he's on the bike allows each of his movements on it to look natural - so nothing looks odd to the eye when he's going through a loop or jumping. All of the animation is smooth and the many environments have a lot of neat background details in them. There are pyro displays and obstacles like pools with animals to jump over. It's so cool to fall short and see Joe flail around in the pool and then try to climb out only to crotch himself and hobble. There's a lot of care put into the music between the notes here.
That holds true for the sound design as well, which meshes silly with serious well. For the most part, the soundtrack is light-hearted, but race events ramp the intensity up with a faster tempo. Crashes are visceral as well while still keeping the tone light and it's very much like a playable cartoon when it comes to crash effects.
Joe Danger is one of the best stunt racing experiences on the market over a decade after its initial release. While some mainline Trials games have gotten too cute for their own good with gimmicks, both Joe Danger games kept things simpler and more fun over time as a result. It's still readily available on Xbox platforms and on PC via Steam and plays wonderfully on an Xbox One or Series device or on the go with the Steam Deck.