Joe & Mac Retro Collection (Switch 2) review: the '90s caveman roundup inherits its flaws as well as its fun

I always preferred Bonk!'s oddball platforming and Toki's tighter, almost shooter-like design to the Joe & Mac series, but in the early ’90s, if you owned a console, you needed Data East's caveman ninja. The cavemen were daft, the dinosaurs were enormous, and the colours leapt from my old CRT. I was happy to revisit these games on Switch 2 (I'm playing the Switch edition), but I wasn’t expecting the two sequels to leave the biggest impression.

The Joe & Mac Retro Collection brings together three Data East SNES games: Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja, Congo’s Caper, and Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics (known as Joe & Mac 3 in Japan). They’re all variations on the same prehistoric platforming idea, but each takes it in a slightly different direction. The original is an arcade conversion, Congo’s Caper is a proper console platformer of the era, and the third game adds a small map, some exploration and the option to build a camp and woo cave girls. Well, you didn’t get that in Toki.

Three caveman games, three different takes

The original Joe & Mac is the simplest of the bunch. You run, jump and fling weapons at dinosaurs and other prehistoric nasties, moving through colourful stages until you reach the next boss. It’s straightforward arcade stuff, and the loose animation makes it easy to forgive the old-school frustrations like sudden deaths, enemies respawning just off-screen, and forced weapon pick-ups that make life harder (does anyone really like the stone wheel throwables?).

The dinosaur designs are still adorable. Their eyes bulge when they’re hit, and their little bodies wobble, and even getting battered by one is funny to watch. The bosses, though, rarely offer much of a challenge, and the action doesn’t have the staying power of the games that follow.

Congo’s Caper is where things get more interesting. Its core design has more in common with Sonic the Hedgehog and Kid Chameleon than the arcade original, with greater emphasis on platforming, exploration, and finding things tucked away off the main route. Hidden rooms and collectables give you a reason to poke around, and the climbable vines that grow up the screen are a lovely bit of old-school design. Take the easy route, or hang around while the vines grow and see how far up you can get?

Then there’s Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics (erm, 3?), which returns to the original's action-platform template but takes it a step further. There’s a map, you choose which levels to tackle, and between bouts of dinosaur-bashing you can build a camp and woo cave girls by spending collected stone coins on flowers. It’s a much bigger game than the original, with a bolder art direction and more to do than just reach the end of a stage.

I can’t escape the feeling that this one owes something to Toki. The bigger pixel designs and seed-spitting combat remind me of that game’s mix of shooting and traversal. The ground shifts beneath your ape’s weight, ice makes him slide, and the levels offer more than just platforms and enemies to clear. It borrows from a good source, and the extra ideas work.

Having all three together lets you watch the series work through those ideas. The first game nails the basic formula; Congo’s Caper makes platforming the main thing in a very 90s console-specific way – more complex levels, secrets, power upgrades, collectables – and Lost in the Tropics brings the two together with some exploration and more ways to dispatch dinosaurs. Most people will remember the original, but the sequels have more legs, more ideas and, in 2026, more playability.

Bosses, bonkers animation and rewind

The art is what keeps me coming back, and honestly, it's what I loved about these games back in the '90s. These games are bright, chunky, and full of character, with exaggerated 16-bit animation that makes everything feel slightly over-the-top and vibrant. The bosses show it off best in their exaggerated, head-heavy designs and attack methods: a T-Rex spits its caveman lunch, and a diplodocus spurts water jets.

The new Boss Rush mode lets you take on the bosses from all three games in succession. The later games offer more variety, and it’s a good excuse to enjoy the designs without replaying entire levels. I particularly like how Lost in the Tropics teases its bosses before you fight them. The triceratops that smashes through an ice wall piece by piece is wonderfully dramatic. The effect is simple, but the build-up makes the reveal land.

Red Art Games has included the modern conveniences you’d hope for. Rewind rescues you when an old platformer catches you out, and save states mean you don’t have to replay the same sections to get back to where you were. It also offers an optional CRT filter and a selection of custom frames, which smooth out the old pixels like the TVs would.

More than a ROM collection

There’s some real preservation work here. You get the Western releases alongside the Japanese editions, including the uncensored Japanese version of Caveman Ninja, which will interest anyone curious about how these games were presented in different markets.

The virtual unboxing lets you look over the original SNES boxes, cartridges and manuals, and an art gallery gathers concept designs and character sketches. You don’t get the feel of a real manual, as the physical editions will, due for release in 2027, but you can flick through the originals.

I’d have liked more on the people who made these games, perhaps interviews or oral histories. Digital Eclipse has shown how much richer a retro collection can be when it pairs development stories with the artwork and packaging, as I found in the recent Toy Toy Story: Retro Roundup! + Toy Story 3 Complete Edition. Here, I wanted to know more about the artists behind those bulging dinosaur eyes and how the games changed from one entry to the next, but I only had the sketches to look at.

Should you buy Joe & Mac Retro Collection on Switch 2?

This collection is better than I expected. Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja is still a charming slice of early-’90s arcade platforming, though it shows its age. Congo’s Caper is more inventive and rewards exploration but feels like a very of its time platformer, while Lost in the Tropics takes the series somewhere bigger and more involved.

The lack of developer interviews is a missed opportunity, and these are still old platformers with all the quirks that entails. But rewind, save states, and Boss Rush give them new life, and the virtual packaging and art gallery show that someone cares about preserving them properly.

If you remember playing Joe & Mac in the ’90s, you'll find plenty here. If you don’t, the two sequels might surprise you, and that's why I’d recommend it.