released its Frontiers update last September, the first game that the fledgling studio developed was Joe Danger, a side-scroller that combined both racing and platform game elements and was initially released on the PlayStation 3.
After working on Joe Danger as well as its sequels and spinoffs, Hello Games focused wholly on No Man’s Sky, the game the studio is most known for. While the launch of the ambitious game in 2016 was marred with issues and criticisms, mainly stemming from the game’s lackluster gameplay that failed to live up to the promises and expectations it set before its release, Hello Games has since worked to fix and improve the game to a point where it has arguably redeemed itself. No Man’s Sky’s comeback is comparable to FFXIV and its own redemption story.
Hello Games founder Sean Murray announced the iOS relaunch of Joe Danger on Twitter. However, instead of just rereleasing Joe Danger and its follow-up Joe Danger Infinity on the Apple App Store, Hello Games has also remastered both titles with improved visuals, better framerate performance and multitouch , localisation updates, as well as for ProMotion displays and Gamepads. According to Murray, the studio opted to remaster both titles because of mail they received from a fan that “broke our hearts.”
In the letter, a parent writing on behalf of their 8-year-old son Jack, who was diagnosed with autism, asks Hello Games if it would be possible to bring the game back on iOS since it and many other older games were removed after an update, similar to how Apple removed 39,000 games from China’s App Store. The parent explains that “Jack LOVES Joe. He loves everything about him. He has a collection of toy motorcycles that are his ‘Joe Dangers’; every motorcycle we see on the street is ‘Joe Danger’.” They go on to recount how Joe Danger has helped them and Jack bond as well as enabled the latter to interact with friends and family, among many other benefits.
In an era when video game remasters and remakes are being churned out continuously, some of them done without much care, seeing one that was initiated and worked on purely as a way to bring joy to a fan is both heartwarming and a refreshing change. Properly remastering an eight year old game is certainly not an easy task, especially for a studio that’s still regularly releadates for its current primary title.
Regardless, it’s nice to see Hello Games returning to its roots with a hobby project that wasn’t primarily done for profits, as both remasters have been released as free updates. Joe Danger not only played a massive part in the story of Hello Games but also currently plays a big part in the life of Jack and his family, so it’s great to see the game back on the App Store better than ever.
Joe Danger and Joe Danger Infinity are currently available on iOS.
Source: Sean Murray/Twitter
