I would never go to the fridge specifically to check if we still had ketchup. Ketchup is just one of those things that’s there: you buy it, and, inexplicably, it persists. You probably bought more at some point, but why would that be a monumental occasion? You might not even realize you’re putting it on something: it’s almost like it’s a given with certain meals, like hot dog fried rice or Golden Crisp. Ketchup is just there. So when you go to grab the ketchup and it’s not present, your brain has a glitch. Is this my beautiful house? Is this my beautiful life? How did I get here? So I’m glad that Nintendo has addressed the missing ketchup on the eShop. And by ketchup, I mean the caveman duo Joe & Mac, who have returned with Joe & Mac Retro Collection.

Now playable in Japanese, which means next to nothing for an SNES era platformer.

Before people get completely bent by my bizarre metaphor, let me clarify a few points. One, I played the ever living crap out of Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja on my SNES to the point where it’s a staple of my go-to game references, like Uniracers and Snoopy’s Silly Sports. Two, I’ve played dozens of ported classics on the Switch thanks to the Arcade Archives collections, so I assumed Joe & Mac were in there at some point. Three, two of the three games in this collection are on the Nintendo Classics service, so I assumed the original game was as well. And four, it was just a year ago that New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja came out, warts and all, so I figured that was in direct contrast to existing ports. Wait, that was reviewed almost four years ago? How dare you.

Moving right along from crushing existential revelations, Joe & Mac Retro Collection is a bonafide bundle of the three games that make up the Joe and Mac universe. It’s really interesting that the second game, Congo’s Caper, is considered the second installment by the Japanese developers, but the West deliberately splintered it into a separate game during marketing moments and only now rejoins it with its predecessor and successor. I don’t agree with all the choices that Data East made, especially the decision to go bankrupt, but this one sort of makes sense to me, as we’ll find out. They also made the decision to remove the opening movie for the first game where Joe and Mac club women and drag them away to be their girlfriends, so maybe they were onto something.

As each of the games are presented in their original format, this trio has their own peaks and valleys to highlight the series as it grew, and it also helps to underline maybe why it didn’t take off the way that it could have. The original Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja, is a very straightforward action platformer that experiments with scrolling screens both vertically and horizontally. As a co-op approach, players can get rather far together in a quest to save their girlfriends (the non clubbed kind) from dinosaurs and rival cavemen. The story is paper thin, but this was also a game released in 1991, and it was only a few months prior that Garfield convinced America not to do crack, so maybe we can relent criticizing the scripting. It’s a fun bit of adventure that does incorporate caveman stereotypes, like fire being good and loin cloths being fashionable.

Murdering indigenous species gets you all the babes!

Moreover, it’s still a game that’s got a lot of spunk and heart to it. As an arcade port, Joe & Mac does a lot right in how it portrays itself onto the home console. The movement is rather robust with a lot of exploration going for it while still being linear. There’s enough real estate that autoscrolling levels (like climbing the impossibly big tree house) feels like an exciting expedition. A lot of companies would take years before they hammered out a title for this new generation of gaming that didn’t feel like it was just a bigger version of what we saw on the NES and Master System. One of the reasons this does ring in such a positive way with platforming and nostalgia enthusiasts is that it aged incredibly well, and feels like it could be a retro title released today.

But it’s also a game that was ported to the SNES within the first year of the console’s North American life cycle, so there’s plenty of hiccups in the controls and performance. The duo jump in a very awkward, floaty way. All weapons have bizarre hitboxes to consider what is and isn’t successful, particularly the main clubs themselves. There’s a degree of unfairness that comes from a title originally trying to steal quarters and then being trimmed to fit on a cartridge: the way that enemies can strike you and run away, even from the very beginning, makes survival a tad difficult. As cool and fun as the characters are, age shows me there’s a distinct degree of challenge that has nothing to do with my age, but with the game itself.

Seriously, I love these overly expressive faces of anger and pain.

With that being said, having the first Joe & Mac back as a playable option is a blessing. The new remaster from a little while back adds too much to it. The additional elements, cartoonish graphics and overly doctored soundtrack distract from the overall gameplay methodology, which is co-op that contains friendly fire. You need to be able to communicate and time things out with the second player, and you absolutely want to have two cavemen to tackle bosses and even regular mobs from the beginning to end. Additionally, the “Stone Age but with a cool vibe” is still a vastly untapped market, one that the 90s seemed intent on plumbing (see also Cro), and it works phenomenally with the pixel graphics of the 16-bit palette.

The second title in the series should have completely destroyed the franchise because it’s abjectly terrible. Congo’s Caper, a spiritual successor, features a younger protagonist named, bingo, Congo, who sets out to rescue his…girlfriend. Wow, was ancient man just all about not physically being able to stay together in relationships? Anyways, Congo goes out to save her, and he immediately adds so many variables and oddities that you might be confused by the game itself. Congo jumps higher and runs faster, and also turns into a monkey when he’s hit by anything. This doesn’t feel very Dragonball adjacent and more a weird nod to evolution, but with no understanding of what evolution is. Congo can get some weapons from different drops, but he can also collect red jewels to eventually become super sparkly Congo. Because that’s what happens to cavemen.

Sorry, allosaurus, but blinking monkey boy and demon child are here to stay!

Everything about Congo’s Caper feels like it’s trying too hard into appealing to a certain demographic. While Joe & Mac was a bit cool and kooky, Congo is skateboarding into class with sunglasses and a backwards baseball cap, but the door is closed, he can’t use a board, it’s Sunday, and he’s 37 years old. While hitboxes are a tad better, there’s this degree of overwhelming that’s always present. Congo constantly collects a massive number of gems to get extra lives. There’s a slot machine mechanic that maybe gives you extra lives or something, but I never hit it once, in spite of it spinning at least five times per stage. Bosses are also zippier and faster than Joe & Mac, but Congo doesn’t have the reach or reflexes to deal with them. It’s like you upgraded from a tricycle to a unicycle, and the CPU went straight to dirtbike.

Still, the aspects that do work in Congo’s Caper are essential to the groundwork that will lead to the third entry (and best) of the trilogy. Congo is able to backtrack and explore in a more natural fashion. While Joe & Mac sometimes went counter clockwise, you were still on rails: Congo has more perceived freedom, which works well with faster traversal speeds. Also, his powerups and upgrades are relatively cool, and give you those moments of power fantasy that we all strive for in certain gaming environments. While the bosses are more difficult, it lends itself more towards skill development than CPU imbalance. Congo will hit you about the head initially, but you’ll figure out how to dodge with time. It’s the Dark Souls of cavemen games, even if it’s poorly executed. I can respect the game overall, even appreciate it, but I don’t like it and despise Congo himself.

Thankfully, the departed devs at Data East didn’t give up, and we eventually got Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics, a true blue sequel that delivers everything you could want and more. Joe & Mac return, with the graphics, controls and functions improved and tighter. There’s a better weight to the cavemen, letting them move with extreme agility and grace, but without that untethered feeling that comes from platformers at the time. There’s still a lot of consequence to making a misstep, and one could argue that it’s more punishing than most games at the time, but it’s a return to form with some important changes that make it an arguably better game.

ALRIGHT NOW, JOE. WHAT’S COOLER THAN BEING COOL?

Besides the aforementioned simple improvements, the game also removes limited lives and continues, which just makes sense. Now you’ve got a better exploration element that we aped (ha) from Congo’s Caper, and some silly RPG elements that makes the game more enjoyable. Passwords to resume different areas. The ability to buy health and various powerups between the stages. And trying to woo cave women with various gifts, because, spoiler, kidnapped girlfriends aren’t the crux of the story! Instead we have evil cavemen who stole a jeweled crown, and the importance of getting it back by collecting some super shiny stones, including one that an old dude just HAS and he’ll give to you if you remember to talk with him. Seriously, if you take a moment and talk to the elder in one of the earliest villages, you collect a necessary artifact to beat the game. It’s honestly that simple.

Lost in the Tropics has a degree of humor to it that is an elevation of what we saw in the previous titles. Sure, they were funny because it was a silly thing, but they weren’t purposely trying to make dry jokes. Lost in the Tropics almost feels like a parody of itself, but in a very sincere and positive way. There’s a bunch of hokey, throwaway lines that feel just comical enough to be deliberate. It’s still got over-expressive caveman sprites and silly little animations, but also letting the player know that the developers are very, very aware of the absurd nature. The atmosphere, combined with the stronger gameplay and better mechanics, make this the clear champion of the set. It’s just such a shame that it was the end of the road for the duo, though, thankfully, this collection properly preserves them.

I choose to believe, somewhere, someone has these soundtracks on actual vinyl.

As a preservationist anthology, Joe & Mac Retro Collection is very minimalist on bells and whistles while still being quite thorough. You can do the great things that these emulation collections allow, such as toggling CRT filters, try different aspect ratios, and use a variety of original frames to help center the image and be as close to the original as possible. The games are available in all three originally published languages, along with several UI languages for global fans to easily navigate. There’s save states and an always available rewind button, which is imperative for these oldschool, challenging platformers. There’s a series of sketches depicting early concept art for the game, which has some historical value. For those willing to inflict harm on themselves, there’s the boss rush mode for each of the titles. Finally, there’s a modestly attractive interface for listening to the soundtrack for each of the games.

However, there is one additional thing that I love in the collection: the unboxing available for each of the games’ versions. Featuring JP, NA and EU, players can simulate opening each of the games, examining the virtual cartridge from all angles, and flipping through the manuals from the different regions. This is something both deeply nostalgic and somewhat heartbreaking, as it’s a fantastic element that’s been lost in the sands of time. Nowadays, even if you got the Retro Collection as a physical release, you’d get the plastic case, the game card inside, and that’s usually it. There’s less magic to the revelation and anticipation, less gravity and weight to what’s been purchased and lower anticipation on the trip home. This recreation of the action, while not perfect, is quite loving and deeply appreciated. I looked at each game, from each release, at every possible vantage.

I spent more time looking at virtual boxes than actually playing Congo’s Caper.

Joe & Mac Retro Collection is a tidy, spirited gathering of some solid 16 bit titles. While two of the three have been available on the Nintendo Online service, it’s really great to have permanent installations, plus the belated return of the original game. This was a trilogy that burned warm and strong in my memory, and, at last, it can continue to glow on modern consoles with the full support and coordination of a team of dedicated developers and programmers. It’s worth your time and effort to grab these games and see just what the ooga boogaing is all about.

Joe & Mac Retro Collection is available now on PC, Xbox Series One and X|S, PlayStation 4/5, and Nintendo Switch/2.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.

A copy of Joe & Mac Retro Collection was provided by the publisher.