Joe Danger rides again in the Special Edition for Xbox 360. Help Joe shake off the holiday turkey and get back in riding shape.

Joe Danger: Special Edition is a motorbike sidescrolling platformer, similar to Excitebike or Trials HD. You control a formerly injured daredevil attempting a comeback. You'll bike through dozens of tracks, fend off rival bikers, and complete objectives to unlock more levels. The controls are fairly simple, but like all good arcade games there are plenty of tricks and maneuvers to master to increase your score. While most levels are easier to complete than Trials HD, some of the optional scoring objectives are very difficult tests of biking skill. Those seeking a high score will find plenty of reasons to replay each level while improving their skills and learning new tricks.

To keep things fresh, levels are filled with all manner of springs, levers, gates, loops, jumps, and traps. The official levels are well designed and take advantage of just about any stunt or trick you can possibly pull off. New to Special Edition is "The Lab", featuring several very tricky and dangerous tracks. However, upon starting the game, the player is more or less left to their own devices, and only a few of the games objects are fully explained. Some parts of the game are only learned by experimenting or trial and error. It would have been better to have a clearly defined series of tutorial levels to help new players out. Another niggling issue is that replay saving, which was patched into the PSN version, isn't present in Special Edition.

Multiplayer is a bit disappointing as all you get is local split screen. The local split screen isn't even that good, suffering from framerate drops and the usual issues with the split-screen format limiting the player's view. It might be worth a few tries, but I doubt it will provide any lasting entertainment. You can more or less consider Joe Danger to be a single player only game.

Graphics are colorful and well animated, and the engine is a solid 60 fps most of the time. The camera keeps up with the action pretty well, even when creating custom maps that stretch the physics far beyond where the official maps tread. Music is catchy but there aren't a lot of tracks so after a few hours they might start to wear thin.

Joe Danger is a classic platforming experience with great controls, many hours of replayable content, and a solid level editor. Joe Danger: Special Edition is a must buy for classic and arcade gaming fans.

Great controls that are easy to pick up, hard to master Plenty of content and achievements Level editor Solid scoring system and leaderboards Could have used a more solid tutorial Local multiplayer only No replay saving. Quote: " Joe Danger: Special Edition is a must buy for classic and arcade gaming fans." Reviewed by Matthew Emirzian | 01.04.12

Similar Games: Grip Shift (7.0) | Joe Danger PSN (8.6) | Trials Evolution (9.0)