New Joe & Mac - Caveman Ninja (2022)
Right off the bat I want to confirm I have no prior experience with the franchise. I was previously aware of the original arcade game that had a few ports. This is the newer version of that game with some notable changes. To be honest, I'm somewhat mixed after looking into the old version. It is best to get this during sales.
Simply not worth the price tag it's given by any means. You get two versions of the game to play. Arcade Mode that has notably shorter stages. Even including you do get a choose which levels to play a few times. I personally recommend Extended Mode more. You get a better length with some alright changes.
The biggest change I notice between the two modes is a stage you ride an actual boss dinosaur for majority of it. Originally there wasn't hazards in your path above the ground. But in Extended Mode, you gotta constantly move up and down to avoid taking damage. To my surprise a few bosses were notably changed.
The final boss replaced altogether. I kinda prefer the original final boss more. You would face this demon that flies around. He's replaced by a lizard man caveman king. Whose heart somehow separated from his body, it's not explained at all. Speaking of not explained, you get three endings up to choose. I didn't realize the paths are randomized.
Sadly it kinda doesn't matter which ending they're virtually the same. Joe & Mac saves cave women including well a drag queen cave person. They both freak out running away from them not great endings. Difficulty is notably unbalanced I had to play on easier difficulties. The default difficulty is Medium it's kinda unfair at times.
You would think this could've been Hard but no it's not. Usually Medium is suppose to be a little harder than Easy. We are talking little to no invincibility times when you take damage. Some stages throws so much at you. You got a lot of enemies with hazards almost no real room of error at all. Some of the bosses are notably cheap as well.
There's parts of the art work I like. It's kinda mixed because despite one particular screen. The two playable cavemen look as well as play incredibly similar. Which originally wasn't the case at all. Everyone familiar with the franchise knows Mac has a notably different hair style from Joe. It's almost like the developers decided to simply recolored Joe then called em Mac.
Just in case you didn't realize by now this is an obvious cash grab. I do still have some interest into the franchise. I do like stuff similar to this most notably The Flintstones. To say I'm disappointed a rather big understatement. It's more directly all of this for thirty bucks a hard pass!!! I played games with way more content for less that held up a lot better.
There's no excuse for any of this. I'm somewhat happy I can play this with an controller. Achievements wise, GOG version only has em for Arcade Mode. Which is kinda weird considering other versions of the same game also has em for Extended Mode. This also was an early December game. They simply rushed out a new version to simply cash in on the franchise is kinda sad.
Let's look at Killing Time: Resurrected. By default it's five dollars cheaper than this around $24.99. Yet the developers notably made changes that improved the game. Not to mention, a lot of nice behind the scenes stuff as well. In it's defense it's price is justified. Honestly, I can't really recommend a not great version of a classic cavemen game.
You may be better off with one of my childhood games on Sega Genesis. Chuck Rock, the first one I didn't own the sequel. From what I remembered a much better caveman game than this. You likely better off watching Dinosaurs show. You can currently do so through Disney+. Which I partly remembered growing up as well.
To clarify I know Dinosaurs is more about humanoid dinosaurs in an unique style sitcom show. Considering cave people and dinosaurs were from the same era. I don't see any problem comparing the two. Obviously there's better stuff on the theme you could be enjoying instead. Now let that sink in for a moment.
The fact I could keep saying stuff is notably better just not a great sign. New Joe & Mac isn't quite new itself. Even an 3D remake of Golden Axe I played most of it was notably better than this too. Thankfully it doesn't have terrible glitches. What it does offer is simply not living up to that legacy. GOG has plenty of better, enhanced versions among classic games than this.
I may as well keep adding to the fire lol. Even what I seen of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties the newer version was way better than this too. We're talking about a mostly picture slide show style game with little to no FMV sections. A game that's barely playable at all already out doing this. I can say I did respect some stages had a little variety still not enough to win anyone over.
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