Joe & Mac Returns

Joe & Mac Returns is Data East's 1994 sequel to Caveman Ninja, and it is a different game rather than an update: the camera moves to a top-down view, the platforming is gone, and the whole game becomes a game about throwing things at things.

The structure follows the series premise - two cavemen rescuing captured villagers from dinosaurs and rival tribes - but the execution is closer to a top-down brawler with a throwing system than to the original's platformer. Joe and Mac hurl rocks, bones and bombs across a screen of enemies, and the level design is built around crowd placement rather than jumps. It is a shorter, tighter game than Caveman Ninja, and the two-player co-op is still the main way to experience it. Data East released it on their arcade hardware in 1994 and it was never ported to consoles, which makes it the least-seen entry in the series - and the one that most clearly shows the studio's arcade instincts.

• ▸A top-down view replacing the original's side-scrolling platforming
• ▸A throwing system built around crowd placement
• ▸The same caveman premise - rescue the captured villagers
• ▸Never ported to consoles, making it the series' hidden entry