Previews

Hands-on with Joe Danger Touch for iOS

Danger is his middle name

Hands-on with Joe Danger Touch for iOS
|
iOS
| Joe Danger

We're always wary when a studio says that it's porting a much-loved console game over to mobile.

More often than not, you get touch controls that have been half-heartedly tacked on, and you find that numerous features have been ripped out in the process.

But when Hello Games said that the iOS version of arcade bike racer Joe Danger would be built specifically with touch controls in mind, we allowed ourselves to be just that little bit excited.

Let it be known, then, that Joe Danger Touch is meeting our expectations. It's just as fantastic on mobile as it is on console.

Dangerous

This is a brand new Joe Danger game, with completely new levels that have been built to complement the new touch controls.

Basically, Joe Danger Touch is to the original Joe Danger what Rayman Jungle Run is to Rayman Origins.

In each level, the gutsy daredevil automatically rides towards obstacles, death-defying jumps, and shark-infested pools. You're left to tap, double-tap, and flick to make Joe duck, hop, flip, and wheelie.

Missions range from collecting all the coins in a level to finding secret items, and you'll unlock more levels by fulfilling these requirements.

If you manage to beat all the missions in a level in one go, you'll earn Pro status, which in turn lets you send a challenge to a friend via Game Center.

Joe Danger Touch is very close to the original, but very different from it at the same time.

For one thing, you're constantly moving forward, endless-runner style. But despite the dramatic change, the controls still feel extremely reliable.

There's also a big focus on poking things in the background by tapping on the touchscreen.

There's also a combo system. This is where the iOS version is hugely similar to its console buddy - the focus on high scores.

Racking up points by performing flips, wheelies, and endos is fantastic fun, and we found ourselves playing single levels over and over again simply to get the highest score possible.

Wheelie good time

You'll soon realise, however, that if you stick around on a single level for too long then you're never going to see the end of the game.

That's because there's a serious amount of content packed into Joe Danger Touch, with dozens of levels to play through and tons of secrets and discoveries to find in each.

On top of this, the coin system also allows you to purchase new characters who each have different stats and bonuses. Playing around with each character is great fun, and sometimes levels will require you switch to a specific character to progress.

Our only real major bugbear is the inclusion of a character called "Golden Joe", who costs 150,000 coins and gives some seriously silly stat boosts.

See, you're able to buy coins for real money, and it's notable that only people who play for a serious amount of time - or spend cash - will get Golden Joe.

In other words, you can essentially pay money to immediately unlock a character that will quite easily send you shooting up the online scoreboards.

In-app purchase gripes aside, we're still looking forward to the final release of Joe Danger Touch. Just as Rayman Jungle Run showed what happens when a console developer puts real thought into a mobile port, Joe Danger Touch is the perfect mobile extension of this fan-favourite series.

Joe Danger Rides onto iPhone and iPad sometime this month. We'll let you know when it's live on the App Store.
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.