If you grew up anywhere near a Super Nintendo or a dimly lit pizza-parlor arcade cabinet in the early ’90s, you probably remember Data East’s cavemen. Big hair, oversized wooden clubs, goofy grins, and enough brightly colored dinosaurs to fill a Saturday morning cartoon block.
Red Art Games just brought that whole prehistoric fever dream to Xbox Series X|S with the Joe & Mac Retro Collection ($19.99 on the Xbox Store), bundling three 16-bit classics—complete with both their Western and Japanese releases—into one tidy package. After spending a few evenings bashing through jungles, volcanoes, and the literal stomach of a dinosaur, it’s clear this isn’t just a bare-bones ROM dump. It’s a genuinely charming, if occasionally rough-around-the-edges, time capsule.
Three Games, Three Very Different Vibes
The biggest surprise here isn’t how well the nostalgia holds up—it’s how distinct the three included titles actually feel from one another. Instead of three slight variations of the exact same game, you get a neat snapshot of a quirky series trying to figure out what it wanted to be.
1. Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja (The Chaotic Headliner)
This is the one everyone remembers. You play as the green- and blue-haired cavemen on a mission to rescue their tribe from rival Neanderthals and a steady parade of cranky reptiles. Note that this is the SNES version rather than the coin-op arcade original, which means slightly chunkier sprites and a bit more breathing room in the level layouts, though it keeps all the frantic run-and-gun energy intact.
Weapons like boomerangs, fireballs, and giant rolling stone wheels keep the combat punchy, and the boss fights are still memorably weird—culminating in a battle against a towering fossilized skeleton after fighting your way through a dino’s digestive tract. It’s short, loud, and unapologetically silly.
2. Congo’s Caper (The Unexpected MVP)
If you missed this spin-off back in 1993, you’re in for a treat. You play as Congo, a half-human, half-monkey kid trying to save his girlfriend, and honestly, this might be the best-playing game in the whole bundle.
Spread across 35 brisk stages, Congo’s Caper ditches the heavy, arcade-style stiffness of the first game for much tighter, bouncier platforming. Collecting rubies lets Congo transform into a stronger form (and eventually a super-powered version with better attacks), and the level variety—spanning forests, oceans, and bizarre fantasy caves—keeps the momentum moving. The only catch? It’s strictly single-player.
3. Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics (The Weird Experimental Sequel)
By the time Lost in the Tropics rolled around, the developers clearly wanted to swing bigger. Alongside the usual club-swinging and platforming, the sequel introduces a Tiki Village hub you can customize, light RPG elements, a world map, and even a goofy courtship/marriage mechanic if you buy enough gifts for the villagers.
The pacing is noticeably slower than Caveman Ninja, and a few of its mechanics feel clunky by today’s standards. Still, hunting down the Rainbow Stones to recover a stolen royal crown gives it a sense of adventure the other two don’t have, and it brings back two-player co-op.
Modern Quality-of-Life Saves the Day
Let’s be honest: 16-bit platformers from 1991–1994 were notorious for cheap hits, blind jumps, and enemies spawning right at the edge of the screen. Playing these raw can test your patience fast.
Thankfully, Red Art Games packed in all the modern conveniences you’d hope for:
- Rewind & Save States: Missed a jump over a lava pit? Hold the rewind button and take two seconds back. Need to log off mid-stage? Drop a save state anywhere. It completely removes the old-school frustration without ruining the fun.
- Visuals & Audio: You get multiple aspect ratios, custom screen borders, a solid CRT filter that softens those sharp 4K pixels nicely, and an in-game music player for jamming out to those upbeat 16-bit chiptunes.
- Boss Rush & Virtual Unboxing: Completionists get a brand-new Boss Rush mode that pits you against bosses from all three games back-to-back for the fastest clear time. There’s also a neat “Virtual Unboxing” gallery where you can inspect high-res scans of the original boxes, cartridges, and instruction manuals.
Couch Co-Op Still Rules (Even Without Online)
If you have a second controller and someone sitting next to you on the couch, Caveman Ninja and Lost in the Tropics become ten times funnier. Both players share the screen while managing separate health bars, which inevitably leads to petty arguments over who gets the giant slab of health-restoring meat dropped by a defeated pterodactyl—or accidentally knocking each other into hazards during a chaotic boss fight.
The one real bummer on the feature list is the lack of online multiplayer. Everything here is strictly local couch co-op, so if your old gaming buddy lives three states away, you’re out of luck unless you’re sharing a living room.
Final Verdict
At $19.99, Joe & Mac Retro Collection hits a sweet spot. It doesn’t try to reinvent these games, nor does it pretend their early-’90s quirks don’t exist. Instead, it wraps three genuinely distinct, colorful 16-bit platformers in a thoughtful presentation with rewind features, a fun Boss Rush mode, and cool archival extras.
If you have a soft spot for ’90s platformers—or just want a breezy, laugh-out-loud couch co-op game to burn through over a weekend on Xbox—grab your club and jump in.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.