Joe Danger has already made a name for himself on consoles, with the recent Joe Danger: The Movie ending up as a superb sequel to one of the most addictive and wrist-crippling games ever seen. But now, thanks to a bit of a side-project at Hello Games, Joe’s back on iOS allowing the same addictive gameplay on iPhones, iPads and iPods. But with there being so much to do in previous games, and a huge range of tricks, does it really translate to the mobile platform? Well, yes. Holy hell, yes it does.
A game available for £1.99 and claiming over 20 hours of gameplay sounds like it’ll be either too good to be true, or just a bag of arse. And yet Joe Danger Touch is neither – it’s just one of the best games available on iOS for a bargain price (which buys you the universal app to play on all of your devices). With all of the charm of previous versions, you get a huge number of levels spanning various difficulties and containing a surprising number of what you’ll be used to if you’ve played before. There are tricks while on the ground, jumping spins and flips, lane switching, in fact everything that you’d hope for apart from controlling your speed – something which would’ve been a step too far for a handheld game.
As ever, the key is in the score chasing, helped along by the excellent Gamecenter integration which lets you set a score and send it to one of your friends to beat, even if they haven’t unlocked hat level yet. There’s the obvious score comparison tables too, but it’s the challenges which set this apart from the likes of Jetpack Joyride and other side-on score chasers. And believe me, you’ll be replaying levels time and time again, trying to figure out where those last few coins are hiding, or looking for an opportunity to take your combo multiplier that little bit higher to ace your friends on yet another level. Add to that the roster of 30 characters, all ready to unlock in whichever order you choose by spending the coins you earn in the levels and all offering various rewards for using them in a level, and you’ve also got something to aim for. There is the option of buying more coins from within the app (something possibly helping to keep the price of the game itself down) but seriously, buying your in-game coins is mental and totally defies the point of what the game is all about. It doesn’t take long to build up your coins, so resist being a mug and do the hard work yourself.
Whether you’ll be playing this on your phone, iPod and iPad, you’ll get the same excellent experience and brilliant performance all round. Newer devices have some extra fancy graphics touches, and you’ll get the most out of it with a retina display, and the visuals are absolutely gorgeous, comfortably matching the console versions. Sounds too perfectly match what’s been before, and were you to put both versions side by side you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference, it’s really that good. The only issue you may find is things getting a bit fiddly on the smaller screened devices, but it’s something you get used to and shouldn’t detract from the addictive fun you’re having. Level designs are flawless, and get surprisingly difficult later on when you need to divide your brain up into so many different directions you might decide that breathing will take a back seat while you focus on more important things.
Joe Danger Touch is under £2. You’ll be hard pushed to buy a pint for that, and with so much to do both alone and with your friends, it’s a pint well sacrificed. Utterly, utterly brilliant.
Reviewed on iOS
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