{"id":22992,"date":"2023-01-06T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T00:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=22992"},"modified":"2022-12-14T13:39:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T13:39:35","slug":"new-joe-mac-caveman-ninja-ps4-ps5-switch-xbox-one-x-s-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/06\/new-joe-mac-caveman-ninja-ps4-ps5-switch-xbox-one-x-s-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X\/S, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Data East is no longer around, but back in the day, they were a pretty major player in the arcade and game console scene.\u00a0 Some of their games include Burgertime, Karnov, Bad Dudes, and many more.\u00a0 Another one of their more popular titles was Joe and Mac: Caveman Ninja.\u00a0 It was a pretty standard 2-D platformer, but the bright colors, huge dino bosses, and cartoony animated sprites really stood out at the time.\u00a0 The arcade game got ported to many of the 8- and 16-bit consoles at the time, each one a different take on the series.\u00a0 Later they would make a spinoff on the SNES called Congo\u2019s Caper, and then a true sequel with Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics, which had more adventure elements.\u00a0 After that there was another arcade game called Joe & Mac Returns, but I never saw it.\u00a0 It was a single screen action game like Bubble Bobble, and played like Tumble Pop, another Data East game.\u00a0 And now there\u2019s New Joe & Mac: Cavemen Ninja, a remake of the original classic arcade game with hand drawn visuals and other extras.\u00a0 Those nasty Neanderthals have kidnapped all the cavewomen in the village, and it\u2019s up to Joe & Mac to save them!\u00a0 It\u2019s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.<\/p>\n

You can play as Joe (or Mac in two player).\u00a0 First thing to know is that you\u2019ll ALWAYS want to play in two player.\u00a0 When you are alone, if you die you\u2019ll have to start the whole stage over.\u00a0 But with two players, you can start right where you left off as long as the other player is there, so it\u2019s much less frustrating.\u00a0 Joe and Mac can run and jump, and do a higher spin jump if you press up while jumping.\u00a0 Pick up fruit to refill your energy, and nab stone sculptures of weapons to get new throwing tools.\u00a0 You\u2019ll start out with an axe, but can get arrowheads, fire, wheels, and more.\u00a0 You can even hold down the attack button to wind up a throw, and then release a larger, more powerful version of that weapon.\u00a0 You\u2019ll defeat all manner of cavemen, dinosaurs, and large prehistoric bosses in this colorful, cartoony platformer.\u00a0 There are two modes of play.\u00a0 Arcade mode recreates the levels and layout from the arcade version.\u00a0 But the levels in the arcade were super short, so if you want longer levels with a more fulfilling experience, try Extra mode.<\/p>\n

The main problem I had with this one is that the game is WAY too hard.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember if the original arcade version was this hard, but I know the console ones sure weren\u2019t.\u00a0 I rented the first Joe & Mac game back on the SNES and remember beating it, but I can\u2019t even get past the first level in single player in this one.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit better in two player mode, but even then you get limited continues.\u00a0 When you buy a home console game based on an arcade title, they should give you unlimited continues since you bought the whole game anyway and it\u2019s not like you just spent a quarter on it.\u00a0 And while I normally like hand drawn graphics, here they look a bit lifeless and blend too easily into the background visuals so it makes it hard to know when you get hit.\u00a0 I liked the original sprite work better.\u00a0 I think I would\u2019ve rather had a collection of all the old Joe & Mac games instead of this.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, and Mild Suggestive Themes.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t notice any blood, but you can bonk all manner of cartoony cavemen and dinosaurs with silly prehistoric weapons.\u00a0 The Neanderthals drag the cavewomen by their hair, and the cavewomen kiss you when you save them at the end of each level.\u00a0 Is that considered suggestive?\u00a0 Anyway, reading skill is helpful, but not necessary just to play, and younger gamers may get frustrated at the high difficulty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Data East is no longer around, but back in the day, they were a pretty major player in the arcade and game console scene.\u00a0 Some of their games include Burgertime, Karnov, Bad Dudes, and many more.\u00a0 Another one of their more popular titles was Joe and Mac: Caveman Ninja.\u00a0 It was a pretty standard 2-D […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22992"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22994,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22992\/revisions\/22994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}