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Joe & Mac: An 8-Bit Version of Who Cares
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One Game Feature by Daniel Dujnic, 11/13/07
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I didn't even realize there was an NES version of this game. I am much more familiar with the SNES version of Joe & Mac, and I'm glad. This is terrible.
Joe & Mac was a 2-player simultaneous platformer arcade game that made the leap to home consoles at a strange transitory time (1991), the era between 8-bit and 16-bit.
They made a valiant effort in their 8-bit cramming, but this is a 16 bit game. They worked in the cartoony caveman feel, the varied weapons, and the hi-jump (which completely supercedes the normal jump - nice game design, there). But they boned it on the enemies - hoards of one-dimensional sprites spat out of a stone-age photocopier and tossed at you mindlessly. The bosses were another series of mistakes, unless you're nostalgic for crushing slowdown, chunk-blowing NES flicker, and unavoidable hits.
Joe and Mac was no kind of classic, but the arcade version looked damn cool at the time. At home, it demanded far more than the poor NES could possibly deliver. No doubt the square peg forced itself upon the round hole in a last attempt to cash in on the transitioning install-base. But perhaps with a little more work... perhaps a good 8-bit Joe & Mac exists in someone's head. It could have been done, if only they'd tailored the design to fit the tottering console.
But then we remember: Joe and Mac was no kind of classic, so who cares?
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'An 8-Bit Version of Who Cares'
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#&rendershop#
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