Back in the distant past (way back - like when “rock and roll” was just rock and fast food was dinner you couldn’t catch), lived two cave dudes named Joe and Mac. Whether it was dinosaur demolition or pterodactyl hang-glidin’, life for the boys was pretty cool. Cool, that is, until a bogus bunch of neanderthal nerds crashed their village and scared off all the cave-babes. Now the cave-babes are out there - SOMEWHERE, lost and reeeeally lonely… so what are you waitin’ for? It’s up to Joe and Mac to get ‘em back. * Fight flying pterodactyls in one or two-player simultaneous play. * 12 cliff-hangin’ levels with more than 6 bonus levels to find… * Amazing arcade graphics will keep you clubbin’ to find your babes… * Joe & Mac’s pre-hysterical escapades will keep you comin’ back for more!
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uno de los juegos que mas me gustaba jugar con mi hermano
Racist
Data East, back when they were still around, weren’t really that noteworthy or as big when compared to the other big boys at the time. They did make a few products that people would remember fondly, and would get plenty of follow-ups, such as with Burgertime and Windjammers, but in comparison to other companies like Capcom and Konami, they really weren’t anything all too special or memorable. That being said, there are still some good titles to be found in their library, and I have been meaning to get around to checking some of them out for a while now (he says, knowing fully well he’s not gonna do that for a good couple of months, possibly even longer). Out of all of their franchises though, the one that I am most familiar with, even if it may not be the most creative or appealing of them, would be with… Caveman Ninja. Ok, not gonna lie, that is a fucking terrible name, but it did get renamed to Joe & Mac when it got put onto the SNES, so I am calling it that from now on.
I first discovered Joe & Mac a long time ago via the Jontron video about it, and in the good ol’ Mega fashion, I then didn’t get around to playing it until only about three years ago. So, after finally checking it out, was it worth “waiting” that long to play it. I mean… kinda? Sure, it really isn’t anything all that noteworthy, as when you take a look at it, you pretty much know exactly what you are gonna get from it, but for what it is worth, it is still a pretty good game, and a good start to the Joe & Mac series.
The story takes inspiration from Avengers by having multiple girls that needs to be saved (so proud of the “progressive” nature of these stories), the graphics are pretty good, with all the characters and enemies not only looking good, but also having fun and detailed animations to give the game personalities, the music is pretty good, and it vibes with the prehistoric theme smoothly, the control is good, of course, but I won’t lie, moving around and jumping does feel sort of awkward, given how you do the different jumps, and the gameplay is your standard arcade platforming affair, but that doesn’t make it bad in the slightest.
The game is your average 2D platformer, where you move through various prehistoric levels, defeating all sorts of cavemen, dinosaurs, and what have you, getting various foods and weapons along the way to give you an advantage against the challenges, and fighting various bosses as well. Alongside all of that, there are also plenty of different routes that you can take while going through the levels, with paths you can only experience if you go one way over the other, and there are three endings that you can get depending on these pathways (specifically the ones at the end of the game), so it does allow for a good amount of replay value for those that want to get the most out of the game.
So yeah, it has a good amount going for it, but as you have probably thought at this point, there isn’t really anything too standout from other titles of the time in terms of content. With that in mind, is there anything to like and admire about Joe & Mac compared to others? Well, yeah, I would definitely say so. Not only is the gameplay itself fun, and experimenting with the weapons is satisfying, especially with charged shots, but like I mentioned earlier, this game has a lot of personality. Not only are the enemies and bosses full of life and variety, despite them all being creatures we have seen before, but Joe & Mac themselves are extremely expressive, having plenty of different animations for getting hurt, attacking, moving, and grabbing items, even with the health bar icon in the top left of the screen. Sure, it isn’t much, but considering how not too many other games at the time had varying expressions for their characters, this was admirable to see, and they still hold up very well.
Of course, it isn’t perfect. Like I said, for the most part, the gameplay is your standard 2D platforming affair, so if you are looking for something different from your old-school platformer, you aren’t going to get that here. Not to mention, the levels themselves are pretty damn short, which I wouldn’t necessarily complain about for a game released in this year, but then you notice that they placed checkpoints in these levels for when you die, when they REALLY didn’t need to be there at all. Although, with that being said, it kinda makes sense for later down the line, because OH SHIT, who is that behind the curtain? Why, it’s our good old friend, arcade syndrome! God, I really didn’t miss you. Yeah, you get it at this point, lots of enemies thrown at you at once, not too much breathing room, but thankfully this time around, it isn’t as bad or overwhelming as something like Wonder Boy in Monster Land, so that is better, at least.
Overall, while it isn’t anything too special, it is still a pretty decent platformer from Data East, and a pretty solid start to what would be a short lived series for the company. If you ever needed to kill 30 minutes, and you have a friend along for the ride, there would certainly be plenty of worse options to waste your time with. Let’s just hope that, for the next game, it doesn’t change itself too drastically from this original title, while still being very similar, making everything way too confusing. That would just be absurd.
Game #246
I first discovered Joe & Mac a long time ago via the Jontron video about it, and in the good ol’ Mega fashion, I then didn’t get around to playing it until only about three years ago. So, after finally checking it out, was it worth “waiting” that long to play it. I mean… kinda? Sure, it really isn’t anything all that noteworthy, as when you take a look at it, you pretty much know exactly what you are gonna get from it, but for what it is worth, it is still a pretty good game, and a good start to the Joe & Mac series.
The story takes inspiration from Avengers by having multiple girls that needs to be saved (so proud of the “progressive” nature of these stories), the graphics are pretty good, with all the characters and enemies not only looking good, but also having fun and detailed animations to give the game personalities, the music is pretty good, and it vibes with the prehistoric theme smoothly, the control is good, of course, but I won’t lie, moving around and jumping does feel sort of awkward, given how you do the different jumps, and the gameplay is your standard arcade platforming affair, but that doesn’t make it bad in the slightest.
The game is your average 2D platformer, where you move through various prehistoric levels, defeating all sorts of cavemen, dinosaurs, and what have you, getting various foods and weapons along the way to give you an advantage against the challenges, and fighting various bosses as well. Alongside all of that, there are also plenty of different routes that you can take while going through the levels, with paths you can only experience if you go one way over the other, and there are three endings that you can get depending on these pathways (specifically the ones at the end of the game), so it does allow for a good amount of replay value for those that want to get the most out of the game.
So yeah, it has a good amount going for it, but as you have probably thought at this point, there isn’t really anything too standout from other titles of the time in terms of content. With that in mind, is there anything to like and admire about Joe & Mac compared to others? Well, yeah, I would definitely say so. Not only is the gameplay itself fun, and experimenting with the weapons is satisfying, especially with charged shots, but like I mentioned earlier, this game has a lot of personality. Not only are the enemies and bosses full of life and variety, despite them all being creatures we have seen before, but Joe & Mac themselves are extremely expressive, having plenty of different animations for getting hurt, attacking, moving, and grabbing items, even with the health bar icon in the top left of the screen. Sure, it isn’t much, but considering how not too many other games at the time had varying expressions for their characters, this was admirable to see, and they still hold up very well.
Of course, it isn’t perfect. Like I said, for the most part, the gameplay is your standard 2D platforming affair, so if you are looking for something different from your old-school platformer, you aren’t going to get that here. Not to mention, the levels themselves are pretty damn short, which I wouldn’t necessarily complain about for a game released in this year, but then you notice that they placed checkpoints in these levels for when you die, when they REALLY didn’t need to be there at all. Although, with that being said, it kinda makes sense for later down the line, because OH SHIT, who is that behind the curtain? Why, it’s our good old friend, arcade syndrome! God, I really didn’t miss you. Yeah, you get it at this point, lots of enemies thrown at you at once, not too much breathing room, but thankfully this time around, it isn’t as bad or overwhelming as something like Wonder Boy in Monster Land, so that is better, at least.
Overall, while it isn’t anything too special, it is still a pretty decent platformer from Data East, and a pretty solid start to what would be a short lived series for the company. If you ever needed to kill 30 minutes, and you have a friend along for the ride, there would certainly be plenty of worse options to waste your time with. Let’s just hope that, for the next game, it doesn’t change itself too drastically from this original title, while still being very similar, making everything way too confusing. That would just be absurd.
Game #246
(This is the 51st game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
Caveman Ninja, Joe & Mac, Caveman Ninja: Joe & Mac, whatever you want to call it, is a platformer that released some time in 1991 for the SNES, MS-DOS, and, in 1994, for the Sega Genesis. Developed and published by Data East (known for Windjammers), this platformer is the worst 'well-known' SNES game I've played to date, not only because it is a rather boring platformer, but because the Arcade version is just so much better for some reason. The Arcade version had better framerate, better sound, better graphical presentation, more diverse and interesting levels, more dynamic boss fights and just in general looks way more fun. As I don't review Arcade games for this challenge though, I was left with the uninspired and truly lazy SNES release that Data East dropped onto the gaming market.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 2/10
You play Joe, a caveman who has to fight Neanderthal 'nerds' who kidnapped the cavewomen. The prehistoric setting is described as 'days when "rock and roll" was just rock and "fast food" was dinner you couldn't catch.', which I thought was asuming. The main goal here is to go through each level, defeat the boss and rescue a cavewoman, who then run on-screen and give Joe a kiss on the cheek. Joe drops a peace sign and runs off to the next level. It's truly an unga-bunga game in all facets. At the end of the game, the credits roll as Joe & Mac just stand there motionless, smiling. I can only imagine Joe asking Mac where the hell he was while Joe himself was fighting for his life. In truth, this can be played with a buddy, who would control Mac.
GAMEPLAY | 7/20
This is an uninspired as platformers from the early 90s get without being a disaster on a technical level as well. You have access to five weapons, from throwing bones to boomerangs to fire to a stone wheel. They vary in speed that you can throw them and the power behind them. Most of the time, the weaker weapons are useless however. When you hit an enemy enough, they scream in pain and then become invincible for a few seconds and usually hit you with some sort of, let's call it 'super attack'. You wait, hit them again once they can be hit again and repeat this until the health bar depletes. Thing is, for some of the later bosses, if I throw the bones at them, the "screaming" animation plays but the boss doesn't actually lose one health point because the weapon is too weak. Alas, I still have to deal with the invincibility for a few seconds and defend their 'super attack'. But if I were to just use the stone wheel or fire, the bosses always lose one health point when they are hit. So there is no point in using the weaker weapons.
Before you meet the bosses, you do some platforming as you try to avoid those Neanderthal 'nerds', dinosaurs and rocks. It rarely takes you longer than a couple minutes to reach the boss area because all levels here are incredibly short. You could just run through levels without attacking a single enemy and overall they appear mostly pointless.
You have one ability in this game and that is to point upwards while jumping, which allows you to jump further.
In general, there appears to be a shocking lack of f*cks given for the SNES port. Apart from what I just mentioned, the devs just start re-using bosses in the second half of the game (they don't really become more difficult either). Apart from that one ability, if you can call that an ability, you can only run forward and throw your weapons. That's pretty boring. A level or two in and you've already seen it all.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 6/10
No voice acting. The OST is focused on two themes. Stone age and positive vibes. Most of the tracks will sound similar to many other games that try to go for the positive vibes theme, which isn't a bad thing but means the soundtrack for this game is pretty average with its use of the xylophone, flute and bongos that you'll instantly be familiar with. Out of all, I'd say the 'Stone Age Skirmish' boss music is the one that will sound most recognizable should I listen to the OST again in the future.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 5/10
It's not that good looking compared to the other SNES games that were available at this time. There is a nice variety of colors here and there, the general design of the levels are somewhat varied, but where this game again fails is in attention to detail. The sprite work is meh, the design of the water for example is just a jagged lines and blue color and no animation to it and speaking of animations, I've seen plenty of NES games with much, much better animation quality and depth than in this game.
ATMOSPHERE | 6/10
This is a stone age themed video game alright.
CONTENT | 4/10
Apart from the very short levels and the lack of variety in most aspects of this game, there are a few secret levels you can unlock by figuring out a way to collect equally secret keys that unlock these secret levels. You catch my drift? So say, in the first level for example, where you need to crack open an egg which releases a flying dinosaur that flies around for a bit, and if you stand still, picks you up and flies you off to one of these secret levels. Those are nice, but not that easy to find and apart from them, there isn't anything else to get you hooked.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 3/10
I mentioned that levels were short. But only until you play the game will you notice how short some levels are. There is one level in particular where you simply need to jump up a few times. In 10-15 seconds, you already reach the boss. What? There are some that also take a minute or less, and none take longer than 3-5 minutes, which would be an average level length for other platformers. It doesn't help that bosses are re-used in the second half, and multiple times as well.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 1/10
Literally nothing about this game is innovative in the slightest. This goes double for the SNES version. I'd even say it is worthy of a -1, because it sell the capabilities of the SNES well short. But in its form, all it does is use a bunch of elements from other platformers in a worse way and add its stone age theme to it.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
Hard to say that this game is worth the initial full playthrough. But if you do enjoy it, your main motivation to play again will be to figure out how to unlock those secret levels and to beat your high score.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
The game worked well at all times.
OVERALL | 41/100
A very skippable game. It doesn't take advantage of the SNES at all from a graphical and technical standpoint, it's a much worse version than the one for the Arcades, it's in general a rather basic platformer, very repetitive and lacks features. Not the worst game of the year, but a Top 5 contender.
Caveman Ninja, Joe & Mac, Caveman Ninja: Joe & Mac, whatever you want to call it, is a platformer that released some time in 1991 for the SNES, MS-DOS, and, in 1994, for the Sega Genesis. Developed and published by Data East (known for Windjammers), this platformer is the worst 'well-known' SNES game I've played to date, not only because it is a rather boring platformer, but because the Arcade version is just so much better for some reason. The Arcade version had better framerate, better sound, better graphical presentation, more diverse and interesting levels, more dynamic boss fights and just in general looks way more fun. As I don't review Arcade games for this challenge though, I was left with the uninspired and truly lazy SNES release that Data East dropped onto the gaming market.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 2/10
You play Joe, a caveman who has to fight Neanderthal 'nerds' who kidnapped the cavewomen. The prehistoric setting is described as 'days when "rock and roll" was just rock and "fast food" was dinner you couldn't catch.', which I thought was asuming. The main goal here is to go through each level, defeat the boss and rescue a cavewoman, who then run on-screen and give Joe a kiss on the cheek. Joe drops a peace sign and runs off to the next level. It's truly an unga-bunga game in all facets. At the end of the game, the credits roll as Joe & Mac just stand there motionless, smiling. I can only imagine Joe asking Mac where the hell he was while Joe himself was fighting for his life. In truth, this can be played with a buddy, who would control Mac.
GAMEPLAY | 7/20
This is an uninspired as platformers from the early 90s get without being a disaster on a technical level as well. You have access to five weapons, from throwing bones to boomerangs to fire to a stone wheel. They vary in speed that you can throw them and the power behind them. Most of the time, the weaker weapons are useless however. When you hit an enemy enough, they scream in pain and then become invincible for a few seconds and usually hit you with some sort of, let's call it 'super attack'. You wait, hit them again once they can be hit again and repeat this until the health bar depletes. Thing is, for some of the later bosses, if I throw the bones at them, the "screaming" animation plays but the boss doesn't actually lose one health point because the weapon is too weak. Alas, I still have to deal with the invincibility for a few seconds and defend their 'super attack'. But if I were to just use the stone wheel or fire, the bosses always lose one health point when they are hit. So there is no point in using the weaker weapons.
Before you meet the bosses, you do some platforming as you try to avoid those Neanderthal 'nerds', dinosaurs and rocks. It rarely takes you longer than a couple minutes to reach the boss area because all levels here are incredibly short. You could just run through levels without attacking a single enemy and overall they appear mostly pointless.
You have one ability in this game and that is to point upwards while jumping, which allows you to jump further.
In general, there appears to be a shocking lack of f*cks given for the SNES port. Apart from what I just mentioned, the devs just start re-using bosses in the second half of the game (they don't really become more difficult either). Apart from that one ability, if you can call that an ability, you can only run forward and throw your weapons. That's pretty boring. A level or two in and you've already seen it all.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 6/10
No voice acting. The OST is focused on two themes. Stone age and positive vibes. Most of the tracks will sound similar to many other games that try to go for the positive vibes theme, which isn't a bad thing but means the soundtrack for this game is pretty average with its use of the xylophone, flute and bongos that you'll instantly be familiar with. Out of all, I'd say the 'Stone Age Skirmish' boss music is the one that will sound most recognizable should I listen to the OST again in the future.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 5/10
It's not that good looking compared to the other SNES games that were available at this time. There is a nice variety of colors here and there, the general design of the levels are somewhat varied, but where this game again fails is in attention to detail. The sprite work is meh, the design of the water for example is just a jagged lines and blue color and no animation to it and speaking of animations, I've seen plenty of NES games with much, much better animation quality and depth than in this game.
ATMOSPHERE | 6/10
This is a stone age themed video game alright.
CONTENT | 4/10
Apart from the very short levels and the lack of variety in most aspects of this game, there are a few secret levels you can unlock by figuring out a way to collect equally secret keys that unlock these secret levels. You catch my drift? So say, in the first level for example, where you need to crack open an egg which releases a flying dinosaur that flies around for a bit, and if you stand still, picks you up and flies you off to one of these secret levels. Those are nice, but not that easy to find and apart from them, there isn't anything else to get you hooked.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 3/10
I mentioned that levels were short. But only until you play the game will you notice how short some levels are. There is one level in particular where you simply need to jump up a few times. In 10-15 seconds, you already reach the boss. What? There are some that also take a minute or less, and none take longer than 3-5 minutes, which would be an average level length for other platformers. It doesn't help that bosses are re-used in the second half, and multiple times as well.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 1/10
Literally nothing about this game is innovative in the slightest. This goes double for the SNES version. I'd even say it is worthy of a -1, because it sell the capabilities of the SNES well short. But in its form, all it does is use a bunch of elements from other platformers in a worse way and add its stone age theme to it.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
Hard to say that this game is worth the initial full playthrough. But if you do enjoy it, your main motivation to play again will be to figure out how to unlock those secret levels and to beat your high score.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
The game worked well at all times.
OVERALL | 41/100
A very skippable game. It doesn't take advantage of the SNES at all from a graphical and technical standpoint, it's a much worse version than the one for the Arcades, it's in general a rather basic platformer, very repetitive and lacks features. Not the worst game of the year, but a Top 5 contender.
Not very good. Slow, ugly, kind of irritating. Maybe the tiniest bit more partial to the SNES version, but this one's only like 20 minutes long so there's that at least. I like how when you kill the last boss he just slumps over in a single frame, like doesn't even have an animation
Holy crap the Genesis version feels superior to the SNES. Something as minute as good collision detection and sound effect feedback can make a world of a difference to how a game feels.
It still has the problem that the game repeats concepts of bosses to make a repetitive experience on the long run, specially after the fact the levels are shorter and it becomes like Treasure's Alien Soldier as the substance is found in the boss fight marathon, but the ability to choose different paths gives it some variety.
Tedious as it was, the boss fight at the end of the SNES felt more climactic, though.
Lowered the SNES score from 4 to 3.
It still has the problem that the game repeats concepts of bosses to make a repetitive experience on the long run, specially after the fact the levels are shorter and it becomes like Treasure's Alien Soldier as the substance is found in the boss fight marathon, but the ability to choose different paths gives it some variety.
Tedious as it was, the boss fight at the end of the SNES felt more climactic, though.
Lowered the SNES score from 4 to 3.