Joe & Mac

Two cavemen, clubs in hand and hordes of dinosaurs all around — Joe & Mac is a prehistoric platformer that breathes primeval bizarreness and humor. Beneath the colorful skin hides a brisk action game where you chew your way through levels full of predatory lizards to rescue kidnapped cave girls. It is an undemanding but incredibly addictive affair.

The game was created by the studio Data East and was originally an arcade machine from 1991 that subsequently made its way to a number of consoles including the Super Nintendo. The subtitle Caveman Ninja gives away the tone of the whole thing: prehistory treated with great exaggeration, where the cave heroes throw stone axes, bones and wheels like real warriors.

Mechanically Joe & Mac combines platforming action with throwing weapons in several directions. You collect various types of ranged strikes, face enormous bosses in the shape of dinosaurs, and in co-op you can play it in two players. The pace is fast, the controls simple, and the whole thing is laced with charming comic-book humor that sets the game apart from the more serious titles of its time.

Culturally, Joe & Mac benefited from the popularity of arcade machines at the start of the nineties and became successful enough to kick off a small series with several sequels and spin-offs. Its prehistoric theme and cartoonish approach made it an easily recognizable brand that found fans across platforms.

The conversions differed slightly depending on the hardware, but the SNES version was among the more colorful. To this day Joe & Mac is a pleasant choice for short, undemanding sessions, when you just want to cheerfully clobber dinosaurs and not think about anything more complicated.

Why play: A brisk prehistoric platformer with humor and co-op for two, ideal for undemanding retro fun.