Yo! Joe!

STORY / GAMEPLAY
One night, Joe and Nat were painting their walls when a group of thugs surrounded them. They both beat the bad guys up but the fight was stopped by the police. They ran away and found refuge inside a delivery van full with heaps of comics. The two guys started reading them and lost track of time. By the time they realized where they were, the truck had taken them far from the city, near a mysteriously looking castle. They both decided to enter the castle and investigate. In Yo Joe! you control Joe through the game's six different levels (castles, labyrinths, pyramids and so forth) collecting jewels and other bonuses until you reach the end of the game. You initially start empty handed but able to kick and punch the foes coming towards you (hitting from spiders to skeletons), but along the way Joe will find handy weapons such as the chainsaw that does a lot of damage, pipes, shuriken and fire bombs. An occasional extra life can be found around and there's not much else of any importance. The gameplay is rather repetitive and there are no end of level codes to use, so if you die, it's back to square one! After each level, there's a bonus shoot 'em up stage in which Joe can earn extra lives.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The game's graphics are good with absolutely smooth scrolling, lots of colors radiating and with nicely detailed and animated, cartoonish sprites. The sound is great and includes some nice upbeat tunes on each level that add a lot to the game, along with a few nice, sampled sound effects.