Now This Is Music In My Ears!. – Yo! Joe! –

Yo! Joe! is one of those games that just takes one with a storm from the very first minute. The thing that made me love it from the get-go was the music, as early as in the opening screen quality music oozes out of the speakers.

One thing many might not know is that Yo! Joe! actually has a proper intro sequence, if you wait for a longer period in the main menu then a really long and cool intro starts and of course that opening screen music is still thumping in the background to make the intro even more enjoyable.

Yo! Joe! was sadly one of those games that drowned in the myriad of other games so it sold bad due to it was released at the wrong time and marked very little for a new IP.

The box design certainly did the game no favours either, boring box colours and design with a strange name to boot was probably not the best decision from the publisher BlueByte/Hudson Soft either.

I recall i got the game the same day that i got Turrican 3 and luckily i fired Yo! Joe! up first, That week went quick, really quick!. The game got me so hooked that i managed to miss my first school day after summer break, i am not lying here but it was by accident, i thought i was to start on a Thursday but it was actually a Wednesday, oops!.

The developer focused a lot on gameplay for sure, the game is very friendly and sometimes very easy, but it is so fun to play and the engine behind it all works fluidly so there ain’t any technical issues either in here.

The platform and beat em up style works good and there are quite a few jumps in order to complete a level but the graphics never get old and they are certainly never messy either so you won’t get lost or die because of the graphics and design.

The game turns into a sideways shooter after like 30 or so minutes with awesome music and gameplay (if you manage to get that far), yet again graphics works great. Yet again another tune kicks in and naturally it as great as the former ones.

The shoot em up stage reminds me a lot of another game, both gameplay and music, yes it is a normal sidescroller shooter but i mean the general style and gameplay.

The game keeps rocking through until the very end, there are enough levels and music to keep one happy, the variation is way good too. Level design and music change with every level yet the gameplay remains top notch.

I have no idea how many times i have completed this game. I went as far as making a cd of the WHDload version so that i could play it on my CD32.  These days i watch the long play on Youtube, it is fascinating how a 22-year-old game can be such a blast after all this time and best of all is that this is just one of many, many other games.  Yo! Joe! is most definitely an endless classic.

I suggest that all of you retro fans out there check out this gem of a game, give it a go, check the video below too. This is one of those games that just shows how good the Amiga was on music and this kind of games in its glory days.

Thanks for reading.

Yo! Joe! Screenshots and information at Hall Of Light.