Joe & Mac (Super Nintendo) Series Review

The settings are extremely colorful, from the mountains in the background to navigating through the volcano or the ice stage

The levels are very short and the core gameplay is centered around the boss fights. I had a good laugh at some of the cool animations the bosses make when they get hit. You get to fight boss after boss after boss!

Although why does the elephant boss lose it’s tusks and trunk when you’re about to finish it?

When you die, you float around as an angel allowing you to pick a safe spot in order to spawn.

Overall I would recommend playing the original Joe and Mac today! It’s very simple to pick up and play and is rather short overall. You can finish it in less than an hour.

Joe and Mac 2, Lost in The Tropics

Joe and Mac 2, Lost in The Tropics was actually the third release in the series but I’ll get into that a little later.

This brought a bit more of an adventure game element to the series by allowing you to pick a stage to complete within the overworld.

As you navigate through each of the levels, after each boss you’ll receive a stone. Collect all seven and you’ll be able to enter the final area of the game by heading over the rainbow.

The game ends in a boss rush prior to the final boss as a lot of games in this era displayed a similar structure.

I prefer Joe and Mac 2 over the original Joe and Mac since the additions don’t take away from it’s core gameplay. It’s an extremely fun to collect the wheels from each stage, spend them at the town and choose which level you want to play next.

Congo’s Caper

As a bonus, there’s actually Congo’s Caper which is actually the real Joe and Mac 2 in Japan. The North American Joe and Mac 2 is actually the third release in the sequence in Japan. Confused Yet? Yeah I thought so too.

One more huge blow to Congo’s Caper is there’s no two player mode that made Joe and Mac extremely fun to playthrough in the first place.

So yeah, Congo’s Caper is just not a fun game at all. It’s definitely nice to know that there is another game in the Joe and Mac universe on the Super Nintendo, but this one I would steer away from. Stick to the first two Joe and Mac games for a great platformer experience on the Super Nintendo.

If you like Joe and Mac, check out Johnny Turbo’s Arcade Joe and Mac Caveman Ninja on the Nintendo Switch!