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Joe Danger 2 rides onto PSN October 9, extra 'Gaiden' content detailed
Joe Danger 2: The Movie flies onto North America's PSN on October 9, Hello Games confirmed to us. It's priced at $14.99, while Europe gets the puzzle-racer on October 10 for £9.99. Hello Games also filled us in on the PS3 version's '10 hours of extra content' as revealed last month, and it's something the British studio is calling 'Joe Danger Gaiden'."It's actually a throwback to when we made the original Joe Danger," Hello Games founder Sean Murray said, "As our guys sat in a room playing our own game, we fell into that classic trap of playing our own game too much. Our first prototype was this very tight, very challenging game that took about 10 hours to complete. No tutorials, no hand-holding, just fun arcade gameplay."The PS3 version of Joe Danger 2 features this ditched prototype, but revitalized into 25 tough new levels integrating the sequel's Pro medals and extra challenges. The extra content also sees the return of Team Nasty, this time letting you play as the stuntman's bitter rivals. Sadly, it doesn't feature the return of The Nasty Boys, the ill-mannered 90s WWF tag team who liked to shove opponents into their armpits.Oh, you're still here? Well, maybe you should check out our review of Joe Danger 2 on XBLA.
Joe Danger 2 jet-setting to PSN with 10 hours of extra content
Joe Danger 2: The Movie is riding back to PlayStation Network, with Hello Games hopeful of a release within a couple of weeks. Despite the short turnaround from the Xbox Live Arcade version, which landed earlier this month, Hello Games tells us the PSN version has "10 hours of extra content."Hello Games says it's also working on tweaking the vehicles for the PS3 version, after some reviewers said they preferred the simplicity of the bike. While our review deemed Joe Danger 2 a four-star smash, the range of vehicles wasn't something that impressed. So it should be interesting to see just how Hello Games changes things up.%Gallery-166600%
Joe Danger 2 - The Movie review: High-ish voltage
Like a lot of film sequels, Joe Danger 2 sounds good on paper, in a bigger-better-more-explosions kind of way. Promoted from stuntman to star, Danger's garage and scenery are now fuller and more diverse. One minute he's skiing away from an avalanche, the next he's jetpacking through a jungle and breaking dinosaur eggs. With an action-packed variety of backdrops and vehicles, the 2D puzzle-racer never looks the same from one level to the next. This is a quality not to be sniffed at; many games would do well to break out of their beloved grey corridors and empty brown plains.Nonetheless, like a lot of film sequels, Joe Danger 2 proves that it's hard to expand on a winning formula without breaking it. Thankfully, rather than break the formula, the game simply garbs itself in a pretty new veil. The sceneries and vehicles are bright and beautiful diversions, when in fact the game plays much the same as before. What tempers this is that what came before is still a bit special. As are many sequels, Joe Danger 2 is a strong pretender to its predecessor, but no more than that.%Gallery-162157%
Joe Danger 2: The Movie premieres on XBLM September 14
Joe Danger 2: The Movie is coming to an Xbox Live Marketplace near you on September 14. Hello Games confirmed the date to us today, along with the Admit One fare of 1200 MSP. The sequel to the 2010 side-scrolling racer sees our helmeted hero ride mine carts, police bikes, skis, and even a unicycle in his quest for daredevil glory. When we saw The Movie at this year's Gamescom, Hello Games founder Sean Murray told us the game had a more structured, Nintendo-like feel than its predecessor. Well, The Movie is only showing on Xbox at the moment, where this week you can find the first game on sale.
Joe Danger 2: The Movie - the Nintendo-flavored XBLA game with jetpacks
The only place Joe Danger hasn't ended up is on a Nintendo console. Which made Hello Games founder Sean Murray's statement on the game's inspirations distinctly confusing when he told me this last week during Gamescom: "What we always talk about is a kind of 'Nintendo-y' feel. The Nintendo thing for me is they make it look effortless – they just throw in things. If you're playing Mario Galaxy, you're like, 'That one five minutes, most people would make that an entire game.' That's what I really want so badly for people to play unicycle – or any of those ... we've got skis and it's only like two levels – you want someone to play that and think, 'This could've been a whole game and I would've played it. You know what I mean? But I've just had this one little nugget, and it's left me wanting more. And they move on to the next thing, and the next thing, and they feel like – when they unlock a level – 'I wonder what this one's gonna be.' So we've really stuck to that."Like Mario Galaxy, Joe Danger 2: The Movie is pocked by one-off (or perhaps "one or two-off") gameplay vignettes. "The unicycle has that unique lean thing to stay upright, and it's a really fun vehicle. But we just use it once, don't put it anywhere else, and it's a really cool thing when you find that," Murray said. Of course, if you're just way into the unicycle, you can always create levels just for it in the game's revamped, online sharing-enabled level editor.%Gallery-162157%
Joe Danger 2: The Movie flipping to XBLA 'probably in the next month or so'
Joe Danger 2: The Movie from UK dev Hello Games is leaping to your Xbox 360 in the not-too-distant future. "We're pretty much complete," Hello Games head Sean Murray told us at Gamescom during a demo of the upcoming 2D Xbox Live Arcade racer. "We're showing the full game here, and hopefully people like it. Hopefully that means we're nearly finished," he said with a smile.Thankfully for fans excited for the new game, reception at Gamescom was very positive. "It's been good, so the game is actually probably gonna come out in the next month or so. Something like that," Murray said. There's only one thing standing between Joe Danger 2: The Movie and launch – certification. "That's where we're heading into now. We're doing the final, 'We shouldn't be changing anything, but we are.' Don't tell our QA!" And what about PlayStation 3 or PC versions? "At the moment, we're just showing and talking about 360. We kind of haven't made any other announcements or anything like that," Murray said. But? "But obviously the original came out on PS3 and 360, so ...," he trailed off. Take that as you will!You'll also be glad to hear that the game is a load of fun – expect a full writeup from Gamescom 2012 later today.
Joe Danger Touch! popping wheelies on iOS
Hello Games is preparing to bring its big-movie stuntman, Joe, to the small screen. Joe Danger Touch! is an entirely new game built specifically for iPhone and iPad. It doesn't use a virtual joystick. Instead, you swipe to make Joe pop a wheelie, flick to knock obstacles out of his way, tap to jump, and hold to crouch.Joe Danger Touch will feature original levels and mechanics – nothing from the console games will be reused for the iOS entry, according to Hello Games. We don't know when it'll be out, but we've got some of the first screens in the gallery below.%Gallery-159325%
Joe Danger: Special Edition Avatar Awards revealed via amazing video
The fact that Joe Danger: Special Edition includes a full Joe Danger outfit as Avatar Awards is entirely secondary to this post. What is primary is that you watch the amazing video Hello Games put together to promote it.
Joe Danger won't survive The Movie
Anyone will tell you that being a stuntman makes for a dangerous career. Most stuntmen, however, make it through more than three projects. With Joe Danger: Special Edition only days away, Hello Games has revealed that next year's Joe Danger: The Movie will be the last Joe Danger title."We're only doing The Movie because we had a good idea for it," Hello's Sean Murray recently told the IGN UK Podcast. He noted that the company wanted to "explore" Joe Danger "in every possible way," but after The Movie, Hello is "done with that idea."Said idea certainly seems big. Earlier this year, Murray stated that the game is "huge" and that "the entire gameplay experience of Joe Danger on PSN would be just one short scene" in the upcoming sequel. Joe Danger: The Movie is slated to be released next year on "consoles everywhere," likely through PSN and XBLA.
Joe Danger: Special Edition triple flips to XBLA on December 14
The beefed up, sanded down version of Joe Danger coming to Xbox Live Arcade (the "Special Edition") will apparently arrive on December 14 for 1200 MS Points ($15). Developer Hello Games revealed the date via Microsoft Studio's own "playXBLA" blog, where the dev team further cemented what has been added (and subtracted) to the upcoming re-release. Beyond the launch date announcement, Hello Games also gave out a brand new launch trailer and a whole variety of new screens. For those of you who have yet to check out Joe Danger, you're in for a real treat. For the rest of us, well, hey, more Joe Danger! Alright!%Gallery-141291%
Korea classifies Joe Danger for Xbox 360
Joe Danger, the exciting bike game from Hello Games, just might be flipping its way to Xbox 360. The Korean Game Rating Board has classified the stunt-driven racer for the Xbox, with Microsoft Korea listed as publisher. Pre-zoom-ably, the game will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade, perhaps ahead of the launch of the sequel, Joe Danger: The Movie. We've contacted Hello Games for comment.
Joe Danger: The Movie is Hello Games' next stunt
Joe Danger developer Hello Games has been teasing the announcement of a new project all week, torturing fans with day-long tea breaks and context-free cupcakes. Today, Hello revealed the title of the next game to Destructoid, and then posted it on its own blog: "Joe Danger: The Movie."Despite featuring the name and likeness of the protagonist of last year's motorcycle stunt game, this isn't a direct sequel. In fact, it's something much bigger, according to managing director Sean Murray. "Really, it's something entirely new," Murray told Destructoid. "We're super early in development, but it's pretty huge already. Like, I think the entire gameplay experience of Joe Danger on PSN would be just one short scene in this movie."It's still about making stunts, but this time it's about trying to perfect various exciting filmed stunts, including -- if the poster is any indication -- skiing, diving, jetpack ... ing, riding mine carts and even driving tanks. "It's probably the most ridiculous action movie ever made, but you're creating it scene by scene," Murray said. "If you nail every stunt, then the film will be perfect, and if you're terrible, then it'll be silly hilarious."Hello Games has yet to specify a date or platform for The Movie. The credits at the bottom of the poster say "What platform? Not sure." We'll see more at GamesCom and PAX.
Sony to invest $20 million into PlayStation Network and Pub Fund over the next three years
Sony believes in its Pub Fund initiative and the PlayStation Network, and is putting up the cash to prove it. Over the course of the next three years, Sony will commit $20 million in seeking out independent developers to create games like Papo & Yo, Okabu and PixelJunk Sidescroller. Brandon Stander, director of marketing for PlayStation Network, describes it as a commitment of faith in the Pub Fund and a goal to bring "innovative, different, unique gameplay" to PSN.
Joe Danger devs working on new game, hiring
Live in the UK and looking to work somewhere with an adorable logo? Nope, we're not talking about Cadbury -- Joe Danger dev house Hello Games is looking for a new tester, and this new tester will spend all of his or her time making sure the studio's next, unannounced title is up to snuff. The Hello Games blog asks that said tester "loves gaming, is hard working, ambitious and enjoys learning," though it doesn't necessarily require all applicants to be super experienced. "You'll be testing our latest games day-to-day, but you'll also be exposed to things that will astound you ... think of it as a gateway drug for the games industry," it reads. We have to imagine, if Hello Games is the "gateway drug," presumably AAA, 3D, and motion titles are soon to follow -- a dark path indeed!
Joe Danger joined by new downloadable characters
With an impeccable, topsy-turvy career of stunt racing behind him, Joe Danger's certainly no chicken -- we've heard that his middle name is "Danger," despite the obvious redundancy. Still, if you insist that Joe "Danger" Danger make a fool out of himself and don a costume of the poultry persuasion, you'll be pleased to learn that Hello Games is introducing "Chicken Joe," along with several new characters, to the PSN's bike bounce-'em-up. You'll be able to download four new characters, who all have access to unique collectables, bikes and stunts, from the PlayStation Store following today's update (and tomorrow's in Europe). "We actually asked the community for suggestions for characters, which has been eye-opening," said Hello Games MD Sean Murray in an announcement. "Apparently monkeys really are as popular as you might think, but zombies are on the wane, which is long overdue ..." Aside from Chicken Joe, the community has conjured up undead knight Sir Bonehead, Geronim-Joe ("We're from the UK," said Hello, "so Indians eating turkey is as far as our understanding of Thanksgiving goes") and, by popular demand, a monkey. If we're not mistaken, the desire to put a monkey on a motorcycle and send it through a cartoonish obstacle course is what prompted Harold Video to invent the Video game in 1987. Joe Danger will be discounted to $7.49 from today's update until next Tuesday's update in the PSN Fall sale. While Hello Games did not confirm whether the new DLC characters will be free, we'll know soon enough. Update: It's $0.99 per costume pack. %Gallery-108126%
Joe Danger gets more levels, YouTube support in free 'People's Patch'
You want more Joe Danger levels, right? Why not get some more multiplayer levels, too? And level editing props? How about support for replays and uploading them to YouTube? You want custom soundtracks? Costumes? Level sharing? Okay, you're getting all of that ... right now. Hello Games has released the "People's Patch" for its PSN game, which adds all of these features and more. Best of all, all you have to do is launch the game to download the patch. However, this is just the beginning of future updates for Joe Danger. Hello Games' Sean Murray teases on the PlayStation.Blog that "we're also working on much larger packs with new props and game modes. So keep an eye out for those."
Hello Games: 10% of Joe Danger players have actually finished it
Usually, when we purchase a game, we intend to experience as much of it as we can. Call us crazy, but isn't that the point? According to a blog entry over on Edge from Hello Games' Sean Murray, his studio's recent PSN release, Joe Danger, only had a 10 percent completion rate. "Only about 10 percent of people who bought Joe Danger have completed it (their average play time is well over 20 hours)," he relayed. "Most journalists didn't get past the halfway mark. Was it a wasted effort to add those last few levels that most people don't see though? Is it valueless?" It's a hot topic in the games community -- how long does a game need to be? How much of a game's value is specifically tied to how long it takes to complete it? Then you add in Trophies and Achievements and you've got a whole new layer complicating the argument. It's a good read, so hit up this link and give Murray's essay a gander.
Joe Danger demo due on PSN tomorrow
If you're the kind of person who loves high-flying, risky stunts, but doesn't like the risk of buying downloadable games without checking them out first, Sony has something just for your oddly contradictory interests. A demo of Hello Games' PSN-exclusive stunt game, Joe Danger, will be available tomorrow on the North American PlayStation store. A demo of this stunt game may not just be for those hesitant to drop e-dollars: perhaps you like motorcycle stunts, but have a heart condition that requires you to experience thrills in tiny, bite-sized portions. Perfect! Hello Games has you covered.
Joe Danger dev explains why publishers don't get downloadable games
Hello Games' Sean Murray learned a lot when looking for a third-party publisher for his company's recent PSN critical and sales success Joe Danger. But the final takeaway from all those lessons seems to boil down to the same thing: most of the big publishers do not know what they're doing in the downloadable games market. Speaking at the Develop Conference in Brighton today, Murray presented much of the personal research and anecdotes that convinced him and the three friends that make up his tiny company to self-publish on PSN rather than attach themselves to an established third-party publisher. Chief among those reasons was the fact that digital downloads from big publishers don't tend to sell very well on the download services. Excepting established franchise re-releases like Galaga and Street Fighter 2, which skew the data, Murray's research found that an overwhelming majority (77 percent) of original IP from third-party publishers sold a paltry 25,000 copies or less on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. These weren't underappreciated critical gems either -- 68 percent of original IP third-party downloadable games earned a 65 percent or lower average on Metacritic, Murray said.
PSN's Joe Danger launching (from a ramp) on June 8
The "late May or early June" release date for Hello Games' PSN stunt game Joe Danger has been clarified -- and not just by the fact that there's no "late May" left. The PlayStation Blog has passed along the thrilling news that Joe Danger will be available on PSN on June 8. What better way to kick off summer than by devising the deadliest trap-filled obstacle courses possible, and then racing against your friends on them in several different game modes? It's probably the most fun you'll have falling off of a motorcycle repeatedly, sometimes into fire or spikes.
