It's a mediocre execution of a cool idea, but that doesn't stop it from being awesome.
The graphics are fun, colorful, and free of any slowdown, clipping, or frame-rate drops. However, I noticed that the characters and enemies only have a few frames of animation for each action they do, which is weird considering the sprites are so detailed. The backgrounds are all great as well, although they did remind me strongly of Sonic zones. They get the job done well, and the bosses are all huge and awesome. I'm not sure the same can be said of the audio though. Some of the tunes are catchy, but all the sound effects are boring and some of them are annoying.
Extra lives are strategically located at points in the game where you need them most, and you'll always go into a boss packing enough heat to take them down. The level design is also good, as many stages have upper paths and lower paths to follow as you beat up enemies (always a plus for multiplayer). The game also does a great job at appealing to its target audience. Not only will kids be challenged, but they'll be able to beat the game eventually; and there's enough secrets and fun levels to encourage any player to pick up the controller.
However, that being said, there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed. The first big problem is that the controls are clunky and the collision detection is always wonky at inconvenient times. The jumping is imprecise and hard to control, which wouldn't necessarily be that big of an issue in a boss fighting game if there weren't so many thin platforms and spiked walls you had to maneuver through before you get to the boss. It becomes frustrating because you'll sometimes get hit so many times that you'll wonder how you're still alive, only to die instantly by falling into a pit because you missed a simple jump. There's also a problem with the rolling move, as it only seems to work when you don't need it. Whenever you have to actually dodge something quickly, it becomes unresponsive; but if you're just walking around, you can sometimes tap the d-pad accidentally and roll off an edge. In addition to this, the screen doesn't scroll in the direction you're walking unless you spawn at the left side of the screen. If you reset your character at the far right, you'll always have that camera angle and you won't see enemies coming at you.
There's also a lot of questionable design decisions in the game. For example, It seems that the boomerang is the most useful weapon as it has the longest range, but that just makes every other weapon useless. Other than the fireball that's slightly more powerful, none of the other weapons seem to have any special advantages/disadvantages that would warrant managing what item you have selected. Also, some of the bosses are repeats. There's only about 10 levels in the game, and 3 of the bosses are T-Rex's, 2 of them are Pterodactyls, and 1 of them isn't even a dinosaur. That's just downright lazy. Furthermore, every enemy except for the pterodactyls take 3+ hits to kill, but they don't blink like you do when they get hit; meaning if all you have is a club, they're just gonna bounce into you and make you take damage every time you try to attack. Some of them also jump and try to kill you from above, but they don't stall or fly in a different direction in mid-air when you throw something, and since you have to be directly underneath to shoot them, they'll hit you on the way down unless you move out of the way at the speed of sound.
Finally, once you learn how to account for the control flaws and work through the game slowly instead of rushing in Rambo style, it becomes a little too easy. 3/4 of the bosses don't move 360 degrees around the screen, meaning as long as you have a weapon you can just stand to the far side of the room and just keep jumping and shooting to kill them. Also, walking slowly into areas that you suspect are dangerous will always reveal lunging enemies early enough for you to plan your attack. Your health bar is also too forgiving, as Joe and Mac have a huge tolerance for pain, and health packs are everywhere.
However, issues aside, Joe & Mac is still a game that you'll come back to time after time. The levels are all cool, the premise of the game is simple enough to be engaging, the multiplayer is great, and it's one of those games that has that relaxing nostalgic aura that any awesome SNES game has. Although it's a mediocre execution of a great idea, it's just one of those games that you can't pass up. It's fun, it's not expensive, and you get to run through jungles beating up dinosaurs to get poon. That's good enough in my books.
- ac