The original Joe & Mac, while not necessarily the most creative or entertaining of arcade 2D platformers, was certainly still a good, charming platformer from Data East, and it did have some elements going for it that not too many other games at the time had to offer. So, now that we had one successful title on our hands, Data East decided that they needed to turn Joe & Mac into a franchise, but the next title in the series would be… confusing to say the least. Most people would probably assume that the game known as Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics would be the official sequel to the original game, but before that, there was another title that was NOT called Joe & Mac 2, but it would still be the direct sequel to Joe & Mac, and it would be presented as a completely separate game known as Congo’s Caper. To make things even more confusing, in Japan, the game was titled Fighting Caveman 2: Rookie’s Adventure, which makes sense over there, considering Joe & Mac was also called Fighting Caveman, so why… I don’t know, video game titles make absolutely zero sense.

So, despite not featuring Joe & Mac whatsoever, and not even mentioning them by name at all, this is the follow-up to that game, as it plays almost identically, except with a new art style, characters, and what have you. But don’t worry, because in case you did play the game not knowing it was a follow-up, you probably would’ve figured it out immediately, because it plays pretty much EXACTLY like the original game, with not too many noticeable differences in the gameplay, settings, or even the plot. With all that being said though, I would consider this game to be SLIGHTLY better then the original Joe & Mac, making the gameplay feel more fluid and controllable, while still retaining the charm of the original… somewhat. Yes, it is still very basic, but it was still fun enough to play through, and it thankfully doesn’t have that many problems that would drive people away.

The story is, once again, “guy saves girl”, except now it is just one girl instead of multiple, so I guess that somehow makes the plot different, the graphics are incredibly generic for SNES standards, but they are bright and colorful enough to where I didn’t hate looking at it, the music is very cheerful, bouncy, and fun to listen to, so it does its job well, even if the tracks themselves aren’t all that memorable either, the control is a little better than the original game, with it being generally the same, with the same awkward higher jump function, but HEY… there’s a run button now, so it is automatically better, and the gameplay is basically just if you took the original Joe & Mac, made it better… and that’s about it.

The game is your average 2D platformer, where you take control of Congo, go through plenty of different prehistoric levels through plenty of prehistoric environments, take out many different baddies that you will run into on your journey, gather plenty of gems and powerups along the way, while sometimes activating a slot machine to give you bonuses (I dunno), and take on familiar, yet new and formidable boss battles. What we have here is basically just more Joe & Mac, but with some of it removed, while other elements are added. For example, those multiple weapons that you could get and try out in the original game? Yeah, they are gone, but here, you can gather these pink orbs that, when you collect enough, gives you more speed and allows you to hit faster, while also making you glow, which is… fine, I guess. It’s not necessarily a preferable change, and it lacks variety, but I still found myself having enough fun with it.

If it wasn’t already connected with Joe & Mac, you could easily see this game as your typical shovelware SNES platformer. It really doesn’t do anything to make itself stand out from other titles on the system, and I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that it was one of those shovelware SNES platformers, because it REALLY feels like it. It is still fun, and I had a good enough time with it, but that is just because I am a big fan of old-school platformers in general. Not to mention, if you were afraid that this change of characters would result in the feel of Joe & Mac being stripped away too, well fear not, because aside from a few differences, it pretty much plays exactly like Joe & Mac, but in this case, I would say it is better then the original, despite not being as charming.

If I were to give some complaints about the game, it would be that it is pretty damn easy. Yes, the levels themselves can be pretty tricky, and there are certainly plenty of instances where you can die, but this game gives you gems and lives like they are fucking candy, to the point where you can easily max out your life count by the end of the game. That’s saying a lot, considering your life cap is at 99. Also, this may have just been a problem for me, but I did encounter a game-breaking glitch that made me restart the entire game. In one of the haunted levels of the game, whenever I would touch one of those lightbulb things, the game would just automatically reset itself, and no matter how much I reloaded that save state, it ALWAYS did this. This may not sound like that much of a big deal, but considering you HAVE to pass by one of these bulbs in order to beat the level they are in, I was pretty much caught in a dead game. Thankfully, when I got back to that level after replaying through the entire game, it didn’t do this anymore, so it may have just been a one-time thing, but the fact that a bug like that exists is still pretty bad, and is worth mentioning.

Overall, despite the gameplay not being changed around that much, the life whoring, and the game-breaking bug, Congo’s Caper was still a pretty enjoyable time, and I would definitely consider it an improvement over the original Joe & Mac, despite not seeming like there is much more to it that would be worth playing. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original game, as well as fans of the series in general, but for everyone else, there are definitely better platformers out there. But hey, at least now that we got through this game, the confusion with the titles will probably stop now, right? Oh, who am i kidding, it’ll never stop.

Game #320

Pros: Caveman games during the 16-bit era were strangely a genre, they were prevalent, I can't really explain why this was the case, but yeah... Caveman... games... Anyway, of all the caveman games on SNES that I played, I came away enjoying this little simple one called Congo's Caper the most. Made by the same team that made the Caveman Ninja/Joe & Mac series of games, this one is single player only, features a character that turns into a monkey when hit, and uses a basic club for an attack. It's a cute game, simple platformer where you collect gems, find little bonus rooms, get to the end of the stage and fight a boss. And it's also filled with cute dinosaurs and adorable little chibi graphics. I really, for some reason, gravitated towards this game. There's something to the gameplay mechanics too, like, if you hold the down button on a ramp, you'll start spinning around in a ball, Sonic style, and you'll start moving, spinning faster and faster, darting across the stage and even up walls, it's bizarre but also very fun! Yeah, weird cute little Caveman game that oddly appeals to me.

Cons: It's maybe a bit cumbersome? Is that the right word to use? Cumbersome? Maybe. You got a little club that you can whack bad guys with, and you have to stand pretty close to them to get the collision right. Level design is also kinda muddled, nothing offensive, but this isn't a triple-A SNES top of the line experience either. I think I'm being pretty generous to this one, most people would probably pass it right by, but I dunno, I like it.

What it means to me: I'm kind of into the whole caveman genre, personally. Joe & Mac was one of the first SNES games I ever played after all, but this one plays the best, or at least has the most interesting mechanics that kept me glued to the experience up to the end. I bought this game used at a resale shop in the early 00s, not expecting much, but hey, it won me over.

Cool little side scroller title from Data East, it fits into the Joe and Mac series of games. I thought it was pretty good!

There’s an introduction level, followed by a level select option just like Mega Man with cute themes like Ninjas and a Haunted Mansion.

For a quick and easy time waster on the Nintendo Switch Online platform it’s a fun little diversion. I’ll have to give Joe & Mac 2 a go now just to say I’ve beaten the three… maybe they’ll eventually get to Chelnov on the Mega Drive service…