New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja Review (GL_DONT_CARE)
Gameplay just isn't there (loose, floppy controls, slow motion, sluggish behavior, dull weapon balancing compared to arcade and SNES versions, the addition of super adventure island food bars is not a fun option, missing control shadows/helpful guides)
Missing QOL (menu does not allow non-fullscreen, control mapping is done externally which can be fine but provide a control test, no audio controls, lack of gameplay adjustment (disable food/easy mode), seems meant for a switch or system with home/menu dedicated systems, missing help guides for new players in game)
Graphics are pleasant, but animations lack character (spine), the backgrounds and environments are nice but there is nothing to do, secret stages seem to be missing(maybe?), interaction and liveliness of animations is gone (due to spine/cutout animation problems). I feel most of this could be overlooked if a DLC pack was planned and gameplay was fixed, but the whole experience just feels cheap currently.
Not worth the price. 5-10$USD tier at best given the gameplay issues. Needs way more polish (will update review when this occurs)
Things I would do to remedy the shortcomings; Definitely more feedback/responsiveness (optional particles on contact/reward to make the game feel like you are winning and you can make it a authentic vs exciting graphics mode in the menu, help guide like 'get this' or 'charge attack this' arrows over pickups/targets to give players a sense of polish), much tighter controls (no sliding/intertia left/right, you just go left or right), dedicated somersault button vs normal jump, adjustment of weapons to balance their size/utility (fire is ridiculously bad in this version, none of the weapons are fun to use), add the missing menu options for PC users , selectable save game option (so you can have multiple saves, assuming you added secret levels and more paths to take and meaningful run scores), add a option to disable the food requirement (thats a horrible thing to do to a game, now nobody can dink around and look at your fun artwork or experiment with how enemies and dinosaurs interact), Very much add a bit more animation between levels so its not so confusing as to what the heck is going on between levels, like at least show us some joe and mac arguing comically then taking a path to follow the gals or something.