the resigned gamer, everything I hate about the thing I love the most

Destructoid goes digging, finds some shit

Posted by Doomeru Woebashi at 9:31 AM on Tuesday, July 10, 2007

doomeru woebashi's soggy cardboard-covered exhaust grate, the resigned gamerOn Destructoid this morning: Games Time Forgot



joe & mac, caveman ninja, the resigned gamer

"Joe & Mac is a little bit Contra, a little bit Mario, and a little bit Street Fighter. It also holds a special place in my heart...if you enjoyed 300 -- you'll probably dig Joe & Mac."
A game time forgot? More like a game time forcibly removed from its memory with a jackhammer. I know it's cool to be all retro and show your SNES cred by dredging up old games you played only because you'd already won all the good ones and the rental store didn't have Tongue of the Fatman in, but this is one hell of a stretch. Has Destructoid actually played this game lately?

I always loved the five second delay between pushing the jump button and actually seeing something happen, while Mac wore his dumb caveman smile as if to gloat that he'd fooled me into letting him into my home. The game was broken, we knew it, and we played it anyway. Can we just leave it back there, or are we gonna be expected to buy it on Wii when all the good games like Universal Soldier and Boogerman have come out.

And one more thing:
"We going obscure on this bitch"
That is total bullshit. Everyone I knew when I was young played this game, and everyone hated it. Come on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dunno. I just think that even were this an important issue, rather than being a simple case of differing opinions, it might be wise to read the entirety of their piece before going off like a stereotypical forum-dwelling no-lifer.

I'm pretty sure that the author of the piece acknowledged that the gameplay isn't the tightest example of the genre, nor does the game do all that much to differentiate itself from the pack when all things are considered, but that it was a solid enough game that sported a fun multi-player mode.
He also points out that the game was popular in it's time, and was thoroughly played upon it's release.

So yeah, feel free to harp on inconsequential shit as is your wont, but try and be sure to read the piece that you're bitching about before calling someone out. You just look really fucking lame when you fail to do that.

Just thought that you ought to know.

Unknown said...

Hi there anonymous,

I certainly hope you come back and check my reply to your comment. Right off the bat, thanks for checking out the post and telling us how you feel! You've got no idea what a lonely dustbowl it has been in our corner of the intarnets.

Reading Destructoid's reminiscences on Joe & Mac dredged up a lot of memories for me, mostly of playing Out of This World on PC and reconciling it with the mediocrity of platformers that flooded the SNES at the time. The aim of our blog, perhaps not that well-defined, is to work through those old experiences and admit that most of what we played wasn't that amazing, that we played them more out of a need to just play something. We are trying to apply that to current popular games being released right now in our reviews.

When a website laments an old game that has fallen by the wayside, even while describing the game's shortcomings, I'm still bothered because it attaches a nostalgic quality to a game that may not deserve it. We all want our classic games back, but I'd much rather get another Syndicate (not Syndicate Wars, mind you) than a subpar platformer.

Joe & Mac was painful mechanically. It was indeed unique to play through levels with a friend in a game that wasn't a port of a quarter muncher, and had a miniscule story to tell, but I still can't justify recommending it to an audience if they want to take a trip to the past or, even worse, never owned a SNES and are now playing catch up.

Also, I don't consider any article on Destructoid.com to be inconsequential. I enjoy the site and their enthusiasm for gaming and reportage.

Sir Cucumber said...

Joe & Mac story = no one steals our cave babes...AND LIVES!