In the game, the player controls the eponymous daredevil and navigates courses within a set amount of time, aiming to complete enough objectives to continue to further rounds.

Some suggested the game would have benefited from more options, such as sharing and rating user-generated content, and criticised the lack of an online multiplayer mode.

The player controls the titular motorbike stuntman Joe Danger and guides him through ten trials to defeat his nemeses, the members of Team Nasty.

[8] The game uses elements of both racing and side-scrolling platform genres[6] in which the protagonist can move to the right and, by reversing, to the left as well as hopping over and ducking under various obstacles.

Other level-specific objectives include collecting a series of coins, hidden stars or letters spelling "Danger",[10][12] while in others the player is required to land on every target, or to complete a course in one continuous sequence of tricks.

[6] Joe Danger contains a sandbox mode, which allows the player to drag and drop objects onto the course to customise levels.

"[20] Joe Danger arose from the team's wish to make "something that puts a smile on people's faces" similar to games such as Mario Kart and Micro Machines.

[21] An Evel Knievel toy was a main source of inspiration for the "Joe" character; the team had fun "firing that stunt cycle out of windows and down halls".

[23] The game was announced on the developers' website on 23 September 2009 and given its first public showcase in November 2009 at the Eurogamer Expo in Earls Court.

[24] The team used this event as an opportunity for extensive playtesting, receiving feedback from those playing the game and creating new software builds for each day of the expo.

Some of the reasons include worries about the lack of potential for porting it to other platforms, and comments such as "collecting giant coins feels unrealistic to me", and "we want games that are less about fun right now".

[29][30] He explained to Jessica Conditt of Engadget that he considered the house "like a blood diamond", since it was paid for with money earned at his job with Electronic Arts.

[33] This decision enabled Hello to make use of Sony's "Publishing Fund", a scheme which offered advantageous financial terms in exchange for exclusivity.

[33][34] Murray said that the PlayStation Network was the ideal place to release the game because it was the only way they could publish by themselves[35] and branded the Xbox Live Arcade platform a "slaughterhouse for small developers" due to poor sales figures for independent works.

[1][2] In October 2011, Eurogamer picked up on an Xbox Live Arcade listing for a Joe Danger: Special Edition on the Korea Media Rating Board.

The game's accessibility was a source of praise; according to Eric Neigher of 1UP.com, it allows for "five-minute sprints" of gameplay, although more in-depth options take up more time.

[13][17] Another influences noted with favour by critics was the combo system, which some compared with the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding games.

[10] The Daily Telegraph's Martin Gaston said "it would also have been nice to see the game give dedicated players the opportunity to study from the world's finest by implementing online replays", an option not originally included;[14] the decision not to allow sharing custom courses with users outside the player's friend's list was labelled "questionable"[12] and "obtuse".

[6][17] Two months after the initial release, Hello Games' first patch for Joe Danger contained features to cover most critics' concerns.

[67] Murray said that as Joe Danger does not allow scores of zero to make the leaderboards, the true quantity sold was likely to be substantially higher than indicated.

[65] In December 2011, PlayStation Network's senior director Susan Panico named Joe Danger the year's third best-selling game to be supported by Sony's Publishing Fund behind Hoard and Tales from Space: About a Blob.

[68] Sales for the Xbox Live Arcade version were less impressive; Langley's statistics indicate that 8,300 units sold in the first week, and by December's end that figure rested at around 16,800.

[70][71] After Joe Danger's release, Hello Games advertised job positions on their website, indicating that work was proceeding on a new project.