Urban Joe

Reviewed by: DeathDude

Positive Points: Interesting story
Lots of action/moves
Able to drive vehicles

Negative Points: Similar enemies
Some odd slowdowns

Genre: Action

Size: 20, 360 KB

Requirements: Windows

Questionable Content: 15+ Blood, violence, and language

Editor rating: 4.6

Homepage: www.gaspop.com/

Download location: www.gaspop.com/download.htm

When an alien race invades earth like most alien races do in games now a days, its not enough for just a soldier or other human to stop them. No things have changed and it is time for the next generation of soldier to go forth and stop this threat. That is right, with a new warrior called Urban Joe, with his crafted gun on his left arm, he's ready to go forth and stop the evil gurglian threat from invading earth and taking over.  An interesting unique sort of side scrolling action title, where an interesting although cliché story, but it includes lots of action. Some interesting moves and you can even drive vehicles and use a bunch of weapons, make this a very interesting title.

In the year 2152, an alien race called the gurglians invaded earth; they were destructive and wanting to cause misery and pain to the inhabitants of Earth. They were defeated though, but unfortunately thanks to a cloning machine they had, they were able to clone more soldiers to invade once again. A cloning machine though of course, no alien race should be complete without one of those. So a Special Forces unit was constructed to stop the gurglians and their cloning machines and prevent them from cloning any more of themselves to be used for an invasion force. 

The story although somewhat cliché is still pretty interesting. Especially when it comes down to the different missions you will be doing, they can get engrossing. Each mission begins with a briefing from your boss and sometimes-additional characters about your mission and other obstacles you will be facing. As well, you will be able to purchase different items or weapons before every mission with coins you collect in the different missions. Once you enter the mission, most of the times you will just have to follow the objectives given to you and sometimes you will receive transmissions from home base alerting you to any changes. There are many different weapons and different items you will see in your journeys. From explosives, to shields, to even mines, there is quite a bit you will see.  As well, somewhat of a rarity in side scrolling games, you can drive vehicles to use against your enemies. Finally, by collecting trophies you can unlock some bonus levels to play in, creating some replay value in that area. Check out the tutorial before you jump in as you learn how to control your character and yes learn different moves just as diving, somersaulting, running and more they will all help in your missions.

There are many similar enemy sprites that are used in game and you may get tired of seeing the same ones repeatedly and over. However, they are interesting to see them for the first time after that, well you will see for yourself. As well on certain levels noticed that there is the odd slowdown, why this is no clue, but it happens randomly and sometimes can be annoying. 

In the end though, this was an enjoyable title and had lots of fun trying it out, so give it a try if you're interested in this sort of game. It is called Urban Joe, check it out.