Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Reviews

Joe Danger Infinity review

By
Joe Danger Infinity screenshot 2
Joe Danger Infinity
Score Details
“Hello Games build on the great ideas from 2013’s Joe Danger Touch in the iOS-only follow-up, Joe Danger Infinity.”
Pros
  • Colorful, well-designed levels
  • Plenty of hooks to keep you playing
Cons
  • In-app purchase pop-ups appear frequently, with no prices advertised
  • Very busy levels lead to frequent restarts

Hello Games took a break from mopping up the recent floodwaters that coursed through its Guildford, UK office for long enough to release Joe Danger Infinity on iOS. The new game builds on the great foundation established in 2013’s Joe Danger Touch. It’s a level-based affair, but the overall design is clearly inspired by mobile entertainment’s ever-popular “endless runner” genre. Joe’s motorbike follows a set left-to-right path at a constant speed while you swipe and tap to keep his journey safe and uninterrupted by obstacles.

As with other games of this sort, the simple range of interactions becomes a complex juggling act once the training wheels come off.

Related

As with other games of this sort, the simple range of interactions becomes a complex juggling act once the training wheels come off. Joe Danger Infinity’s early levels amount to an extended tutorial, with each new level demonstrating a new feature, ability, or obstacle. Tedium is avoided thanks to the bite-sized level length; you’re never committed for more than a few minutes.

Success in Joe Danger Infinity hinges heavily on watching and listening for audiovisual cues. The booming voice of the announcer chimes in to let you know when you need to jump, duck, spin, smash an obstacle, or any number of other maneuvers. Meanwhile, visual highlights appear around special tap-to-collect objects, like letters spelling out the word DANGER or gumball machine tokens that get you bonus coins and unlockable characters.

The endless runner-like play meshes well with Infinity’s short, scripted levels. Early tutorial levels are a breeze, but the later sections require a mix of sharp reflexes and learning-via-repetition. If you’re a fan of the old-school grind in NES games like Mega Man, take note. This is your kind of game, minus the blocky pixels. There’s a gentle learning curve, but perfection requires memorization and pitch-perfect timing.

Unfortunately, it’s not long before in-app purchases rear up to annoy you. Their mere presence isn’t a problem, but the fact that you’ve got to wade through a “HEY PLAYER DO YOU WANT TO BUY THIS STUFF???” pop-up every time you replay a level certainly is. There’s also no transparency in the game alerting you to how much these boosts cost (they’re $0.99 apiece). Tap to buy one and you’re simply presented with the App Store password prompt asking you to approve the purchase.

Those that fear anything that could potentially be labeled as “cute” might be turned off, but really, WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU? There’s nothing offensive about Joe Danger Infinity’s bright environments. They’re sometimes a little too busy, causing you to miss obstacles or pick-ups, but that’s also part of the old school charm. It’s best to just dip into your childhood toy time nostalgia and embrace the plastic fantastic-ness of it all.

This game was reviewed on a 2013 iPad Mini using a copy of the game that was purchased by the author.

Highs

  • Colorful, well-designed levels
  • Plenty of hooks to keep you playing

Lows

  • In-app purchase pop-ups appear frequently, with no prices advertised
  • Very busy levels lead to frequent restarts

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Adam Rosenberg
Adam Rosenberg
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit’s studio has made an AR Hot Wheels game
Key art highlighting the mixed reality nature of Hot Wheels: Rift Rally.

Velan Studios, the developers behind Knockout City and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, has announced Hot Wheels: Rift Rally, a mixed-reality racing game that uses actual RC Hot Wheels cars and will launch on March 14. 
It very much looks like a spiritual successor to Home Circuit, but uses the popular toy car brand instead of Mario Kart characters and items. However, it's not on Nintendo Switch; Rift Rally will only be available for iOS, PlayStation 4, and PS5. Rift Rally comes with a Chameleon RC car that can transform into over 140 different Hot Wheels vehicles in-game, as well as four Rift Gates that players can use to set up the boundaries of a racetrack.

From there, players can participate in various races and challenges, with the RC car moving around in the real world as flashier-looking gameplay takes place on the player's screen. Rift Rally looks like it improves upon the formula Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit established, though. There is more challenge variation -- we saw gameplay footage of one challenge where players had to clear as many flower petals from a track as possible, and Stunt Mode allows players to just drive and perform tricks around their home without the need for the Rift Gates. 
Hot Wheels isn't a stranger to the video game industry. There have been lots of licensed Hot Wheels games over the years, with the recent Hot Wheels Unleashed and themed expansion for Forza Horizon 5 being particular standouts. But no Hot Wheels game before now has looked and functioned quite like Rift Rally.
Hot Wheels: Rift Rally will launch for iOS, PS4, and PS5 on March 14. The game will cost $130, although a Collector's Edition that comes with a black and gold Chameleon RC car and a regular McLaren Senna Hot Wheels car will also be available for $150. 

Read more
Tomb Raider returns as a mobile roguelike via Netflix
tomb raider reloaded release date

Tomb Raider Reloaded, a roguelike mobile game based on Crystal Dynamics' long-running series, has been unveiled ahead of its release on iOS, Android, and Netflix on February 14.
Tomb Raider Reloaded is Coming Soon - Register Now!
Tomb Raider Reloaded is a top-down action game where players control Lara Croft. She'll go from room to room, defeating enemies and solving puzzles in each one. In typical roguelike fashion, Croft will get more powerful over time as players level up, obtain XP modifiers, find stat-boosting Runes and Perks, and craft weapons and outfits. Lara will be voiced by Keeley Hawes, who portrayed her in games like Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, rather than Camilla Luddington, who played Lara Croft in Crystal Dynamics' rebooted trilogy.
This announcement comes on the heels of Amazon making a large investment in the Tomb Raider franchise. Amazon Game Studios will publish the Unreal Engine 5-powered Tomb Raider game in development at Crystal Dynamics and is developing TV shows and movies connected to the game. Amazon is not involved with the release of this mobile game, though, as developer Emerald City Games and Embracer Group-owned publisher CDE Entertainment are handling it. Regardless, 2023 has been the busiest year for Lara Croft in a while. 
The game will be available normally on iOS and Android, but Netflix subscribers can also download a version of the game that doesn't have any in-game ads or microtransactions. The release of Tomb Raider Reloaded will come right on the heels of the launch of Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, another Netflix mobile game based on a notable console game. 

Read more
Legends of Runeterra 2023 road map outlined by Riot Games
Jinx fires her special weapon in Legends of Runeterra key art.

Riot Games has laid out its plans to revitalize its collectible League of Legends card game, Legends of Runeterra, in 2023. The backbone of the road map is a recurring three-month release cycle that rotates through the releases of Expansions, Live Balance Patches, and Variety Sets.
Each quarter of the 2023 road map will feature an Expansion, which Riot Games says will primarily focus on new champions and game mechanics. As such, these will be the biggest updates of the year, with Riot Games teasing that brand-new and returning champions are coming alongside a reworking of PvP. The month after an Expansion drops, players can expect a big Live Balance Patch, which Riot Games describes as "dedicated spaces where we’ll be focused on addressing anything that may have room for improvement."

After releasing an Expansion and making any needed adjustments with the big Live Balance Path, Riot Games will conclude the cycle with the release of a Variety Set, which is the developers say are akin to a "quarterly booster pack or a mini-expansion" that contains new non-Champion cards, as well as even more balance updates. After that, the cycle will start anew, ensuring that Legends of Runeterra will get a notable update every month for the rest of 2023.
On top of that cycle, Riot Games also shared a higher-level road map outlining what players can expect in 2023. The developers are promising that new Legends of Runeterra champions and items, relic balance updates, a competitive PvP revamp, and new play formats are coming very soon. After that, new achievements, ways to get legacy content, and monthly Path of Champions adventures will be part of future updates. Riot Games is also working to add ways to play with international players and support player-hosted tournaments, although those updates are further out.
Regardless, it looks like 2023 is going to be a busy year for Legends of Runeterra, and Riot Games is being pretty clear about how it's rolling everything out. Legends of Runeterra is available for PC, iOS, and Android; Xbox Game Pass subscribers can get some special bonuses by syncing their accounts, too. 

Read more