This game was originally created way back in 2002. the developer decided to add episodes to the game as updates and the game was basically never completed. When you first boot up the game it says this is a demo, but in actual fact it is the complete version as far as the developer completed it. The developers site is still up, but access to the download from the developers site has been closed with a message saying
“Website currently down. I'll put it back up when I have something new to show.”
I wasn’t able to capture any decent images either. When played in full screen the game looks very pixillated and blocky, but is playable. It looks much better in windowed mode, but the window is quite small, hence the small images that I’ve posted. A couple are ones I took, the rest are from the developers site. Despite these shortcoming, I though the game was worth posting in the free games project. :)
Urban Joe (19.9Mb)
When an alien race invades Earth (as most alien races have in games over the last few decades), it's not enough for a simple soldier or other human to stop them. Things have changed, and it is time for the next generation of soldier to go forth and stop this threat. A new warrior called Urban Joe, with his crafted gun on his left arm, is ready to go forth and stop the evil gurglian threat from taking over Earth in Urban Joe, an interesting side-scrolling action title with an interesting (though clichéd) story and lots of action. Some interesting moves and the ability to drive vehicles and use a large selection of weapons make this a very interesting title.
In the year 2152, an alien race called the Gurglians invaded Earth; they were destructive and wanted to cause misery and pain to the inhabitants of Earth. They were defeated, but unfortunately thanks to a cloning machine they had (no alien invasion force would be complete without one of those), they were able to clone more soldiers to invade once again. In response, a Special Forces unit was constructed to stop the Gurglians and destroy their cloning machines to prevent them from cloning any more of themselves to be used in the invasion attempt.
Urban Joe's story, while something of a cliché, is still pretty interesting. Especially when it comes down to the different missions you will undertake - they can get quite engrossing. Each mission begins with a briefing from your boss (and sometimes additional characters) about your objective and the obstacles you will be facing. Before each mission you will be able to purchase different items and weapons with coins you collect during play. Once you enter the mission, most of the time you will simply have to follow the objectives given to you, though you will receive occasional transmissions from home base alerting you to any changes. There are many different weapons and items you will make use of in your journeys. From explosives to shields, and even mines, there is quite a lot to see. Something of a rarity in side-scrolling games, Urban Joe also allows you to drive vehicles to use against your enemies. Finally, by collecting trophies you can unlock some bonus levels to play in, adding some replay value to the game. Check out the tutorial before you jump in, as you will learn how to control Joe and carry out his various moves just as diving, somersaulting, running and more, all of which will help in your missions.
One annoyance with the game was the lack of variety in the sprites used for the enemies; you may get tired of seeing the same ones used repeatedly. However, they are interesting to see for the first time. I also noticed on certain levels that there was some slowdown, why this is I don't know, but it seemed to happen randomly and sometimes got annoying. In the end, though, Urban Joe was an enjoyable title and I had lots of fun trying it out, so give Joe a try if you're interested in action games.
Reference accessed HERE July 2011
Controls:
Aim Up/Climb Up - Up Arrow Key
Walk Left - Left Arrow Key
Walk Right - Right Arrow Key
Crouch/Climb Down - Down Arrow Key
Jump - Shift
Fire - Control
Interact/Use Vehicle - Space
Detonate Pipe-bomb - D
Place Explosive - S
Use Utility - A
Next Weapon - F
Equipment Selection - Keys 1 to 0
N.B.
the ability to look up and down when Joe is in an open area. To do this, hold the interact key as well as either the Aim Up or Crouch key, depending on if you want to look up or down.
Useful keys
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F2 - Full game restart
F6 - Restart Unicycle Challenge Level
Alt + F4 - Quit game
Download:
You can download Urban Joe HERE . Several of the downloads I found were ultimately linked to the developers site which is down for the foreseeable future. Thankfully Softpedia had a copy, but I don’t know whether it’s the latest iteration of the game.
