Danger Joe: non dalla copertina

Quasi una missione, quella del neonato team di sviluppo Hello Games. Salvare i videogiocatori moderni che, secondo il comunicato stampa (ironico) della software house, versano in uno stato di depressione (“[Danger Joe] is a burst of sugar-rush fun for today’s jaded gamers”. Però partiamo male, perché con quel nome lì, dove vuoi andare? Danger Joe è roba da Midas e chiunque possa essere messo sullo stesso piano (meglio: sottoscala, antro fetido). Giochi tirati via, codici assemblati per riempire i cestoni dei grandi magazzini.
Dange Joe, tralasciando la “copertina”, ha invece qualche freccia al suo arco, evidente già dalle due immagini pubblicate in questo informatissimo post.

Colori sgargianti, linee morbide, stile sufficientemente convincente: con tutto quel che di brutto succede tra Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network e WiiWare, Danger Joe ha perlomeno una chance di farsi vedere. Le origini di Hello Game oltretutto, sono confortanti: c’è gente di Criterion (Burnout), di Electronic Arts (inserire qui nome di videogioco a caso), Sumo (Digital suppongo), Kuju (poteva andar meglio) e Climax (MotoGp Qualcosa).
In quello che gli stessi ragazzi di Hello Games (qui c’è un diario di sviluppo) definiscono come “la versione moderna di Exctibikes“, si correrà, salterà, romperà il collo e bacerà qualche ragazza dalle proporzioni discutibili. Il tutto in un gioco “planned for release on a download platform in Spring 2010”: quel “a download platform” vorrà mica dire che sarà esclusiva di PlayStation 3 o Xbox 360? Se così fosse, è chiaro: PlayStation 3 (segue comunicato stampa).

HELLO GAMES ANNOUNCES THE WORLD’S FIRST STUNT-EM-UP TITLE, JOE DANGER FOR DOWNLOAD PLATFORMS

Guildford, England – September 30th, 2009 – Hello Games, a new indie games start-up formed by ex-Criterion, Kuju, EA, Sumo and Climax developers, today announced their first title, the utterly unique stunt-em-up Joe Danger, which is planned for release on a download platform in Spring 2010.

“Joe Danger aims to recreate the childish joy of the first time you took a toy motorbike, doused it in lighter fluid, lit it, and launched it at high speed over your carefully constructed ramp out a second story window” said Sean Murray, the team’s lead developer. “You are Joe Danger, the world’s most determined motorbike stuntman. You live to thrill the crowd and break World Records. A call back to retro classics like Excitebike, this 3D side-scrolling stunt-em-up is a burst of sugar-rush fun for today’s jaded gamers.”

Murray continued, “Take on your friends or race against your rivals – the reckless Team Nasty. You’ll laugh in the face of danger, and it’ll laugh back, as you bounce from boulder to boulder, towards a pile of mousetraps.”

It’s a riches to rags and back to riches tale, as old-school American daredevil Joe, publicly humiliated by the reckless Team Nasty at the start of the game, strives to regain his reputation as the Master of Disaster. Stepping into the shoes of the World most determined Stuntman players will have to combo, boost and pull ludicrous tricks across more than 50 events to thrill the crowd and put Joe back on the podium. As Joe, players will have to leap buses, pools full of ravenous sharks and enormous boxing gloves, as they attempt to wheelie their way into the record books. There’s a host of mini-games, including a puzzle mode and a built in level designer that can be accessed at any time, Little Big Planet-style, allowing gamers to torment their friends with their devious creations.

Featuring impressive cartoon-quality graphics, cartoon physics with comic timing, a custom built engine and a brilliant, slapstick sense of humour, Joe Danger gives arcade classics a nitro boost up the exhaust pipe, and puts the Evil in Evel Knievel. Sure, it’s dangerous business being a stuntman, but as world-class daredevil Lance Murdoch once said “Bones heal, chicks dig scars, and the United States has the best doctor to daredevil ratio in the world.”

P.S. E solo dopo aver riletto il comunicato mi accorgo che nel titolo dello stesso c’è una bella “s” in fondo a “platform”. Quindi niente esclusiva.