Neon power is all that you need to protect yourself. Student project Audio Joe is a third person wave-by-wave tale of vengeance putting players in the role of Joe Roadie, an ex-radio DJ bent on getting revenge against spiritkind. You might be thinking to yourself, “I used to bump Joe’s station on my way to work every day, he seemed pretty chill, why would he want to go on a ghost hunting vendetta?”. Well let’s just say a possessed tape made its way into Joe’s morning lineup, and it caused such an embarrassing scene on the radio and ruined his career. The records of this broadcast are not public knowledge, but if you bug the authorities on the matter, you might get a public address on what really happened. Now the story really begins with Joe in a mansion with an audio weapon that sucks the sound waves from objects and transforms them into a ghost-wrecking weapon of eternal doom.
Audio Joe feels a little bit like if Luigi’s Mansion had a Gears of War style Horde Mode, and is a heart-pumping challenge from wave to wave. Joe’s weird audio gun holds three reservoirs of audio ammo. Start out by sucking up the sound out of the renewable sound resources such as telephones, clocks, phonographs etc and store them in one of the three slots. Each device you absorb sound from causes a different type of ammo to be fired out of the audio gun, from chain lightning to energy balls and even stun waves. Paying attention to what device gives which type of ammo is something you’ll want to keep an eye out for as you’re running and gunning and trying to not get slashed to death by the little ghosts that spawn around you. Health pickups are available, but for a price. That’s right, extinguish those spirits for a cash reward, save up those dead presidents and either unlock doors to new areas, open up a health kit on the wall, or interact with other objects in the level. There’s a good handful of things to check out in Audio Joe, but you might need to play a few rounds before you’re completely acquainted with everything in-game. Only then will you become a sound-sucking, ghost-killing master.
Download the student game here
Played it? We’d love to know what you thought about it.
This article is written by @thenegaverse
