Joe Danger
You may be visiting this blog today for my impressions of StarCraft II, but I don't plan on putting a review up for a little while yet. Rushing a review on a game that's been in the offing for more than a decade isn't a wise idea.
In the meantime, I offer my take on a couple of pleasant downloadable racers, one exclusive to PlayStation3, the other available only on Xbox 360.
The first is Joe Danger. I missed out on this cartoonish bike racer when it released about a month ago on the PlayStation Network, but I was immediately enchanted when I finally gave it a go late last week.
It's basically a modern day Excitebike with a perspective and some fun tricks vaguely reminiscent of last year's excellent Trials HD.
Players control a bike as it motors along on a track with three lanes. One button's for gas, one's for brakes, and the control stick is used for steering while in the air or performing tricks. You can also hit the square button to duck or jump. It's elementary stuff; very accessible to all ages and skills.
But while the barrier to entry is low, the difficulty ramps up nicely. You'll encounter loads of obstacles in most races, including ramps, speed bumps, loops, and springs. Depending on your goals, these elements must be navigated with speed, with an aim to perform simple tricks (flips and wheelies, mostly), or with the purpose of collecting stars, coins, and letters that are sometimes in spots that can be tricky to reach.
Unfortunately, events are scattered in a confusing arrangement of modes. It took a while at the start for me to figure out what I needed to do next to progress.
Luckily, Joe Danger's events are designed to be raced and raced again. There are various paths through each one, and sometimes its fun to just forget about the timer and explore the track to see what you can find or figure out how to put together a great lap (so to speak-like Excitebike, all of the courses are dead straight).
The game's icing is an easy-to-use track creator that lets players create massive jumps and wild gauntlets in minutes. Just select from a menu of elements, position them with the thumbstick, and save. It's a great homage to Excitebike's classic track editor, which was one of the earliest examples of average users creating their own game content.
If you have any fond memories of Nintendo's quarter-century-old racer-and haven't been enthusiastic about the liberties taken with its infrequent 3D spinoffs (think: Excitebike64, Excite Truck, and Excitebots)- Joe Danger ought to prove both familiar and fun.
Another retro racer is paid homage in Vector Unit's Hydro Thunder Hurricane, the second release in Microsoft's Summer of Arcade series of downloadable games. The original Hydro Thunder was a popular arcade boat racer from the late 1990s. I played the Nintendo64 version and remember being less than enthusiastic about its lacklustre graphics and finicky controls. However, I warmed to this sequel much more quickly.
It's essentially a fantasy racing game in which players maneuver extremely quick speedboats through over-the-top environments filled with ramps, huge waterfalls, exploding barrels, and even sea monsters.
Venues include such imaginative settings as a frigid northern course watched over by a Norse god and a jungle track inhabited by a huge crocodile. Four single-player modes exist for solo players while between one and four players per Xbox can head online in quick one-off races against fields consisting of up to 16 racers.
Dealing with massive waves created by environmental hazards can be thrilling, and earning points through each of the four modes (and plenty more online) to unlock all of the courses, boats, and competitions makes for a good carrot-on-a-stick.
And while it's easy to jump in and win your first few races, things become a little more complex as you go along. Players will need to learn when to use "boost" to shave a few metres off corners and how to deal with dynamic environmental obstacles, such as a giant water snake that appears in one track. They'll also need to do a little exploring to find the best shortcuts and locate triggers that, say, create ramps or turn on wave generators.
And then there are the secret collectible logos hidden around each track, which can be devilishly difficult to locate and grab while racing-a suitable challenge for hardcore players.
It's nothing new, but it's well executed, enjoyable, and, at $15, a pretty good value.
Joe Danger
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PSN)
Developer: Hello Games
Publisher: Hello Games
Rating: Everyone
Score: 7.5/10
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Platform: Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Developer: Vector Unit
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Rating: E
Score: 7/10
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