Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures is a decent attempt to recapture a golden-age platformer’s magic. Still, for various reasons, it feels more like a silver age platformer than anything else.
Singleplayer.
Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures has an abundance of excellent (and often difficult) puzzles that will surely please fans of the puzzle platformer genre and bring immense frustration to everyone else.
What makes these puzzles truly remarkable is that a considerable number of them feature distinctive mechanics. This characteristic was notably absent in other prominent games like Biomutant, where most puzzles shared almost identical mechanics and solutions.
It’s said you cannot judge a book by its cover, and that is true; however, you also cannot judge a game by its protagonist, and while Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures looks like a children’s game (and it is perfectly safe for children), it is surprisingly difficult, with many players having a surprising amount of difficulty completing later levels.
Unfortunately, some of this difficulty is unintentional. Like most AA games, Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures suffer from many bugs and minor performance issues, sometimes making completing seemingly rudimentary puzzles far more difficult than the developers intended.
If I could give one piece of advice to the developers, it would be to make the game more casual-friendly by increasing checkpoints and incorporating a puzzle bypass mechanic to make it more accessible to those who may suffer from physical limitations that make some timing and precision-based puzzles impossible.
People who were gamers in the 1990s got to experience first-hand the birth of the 3D platformer. While many would say that 2D platformers are mechanically and visually superior to their 3D counterparts, I feel that both 2D and 3D titles have much to offer the genre and have both enjoyed (and sometimes endured) periods of success and failure.
With titles such as Crash Bandicoot (1994), Spyro the Dragon (1998), and Banjo Tooie (2000) sharing the stage with iconic titles such as Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong 64, platformer fans in the 90s and early 2000s were eating well, until suddenly they were not, and a flood of less impressive and occasionally downright 3D platformers and occasionally poorly received sequels to established franchises left Nintendo almost the sole custodian of the genre, with Sega having been forced out of the console race after the Dreamcast failed to sell enough units and Sonic the hedgehog took his first steps towards a dark path which resulted in a decade of poorly received games that left many in the fanbase feeling that their faith in the blue streak was misplaced.
With many smaller developers opting to develop 2D platformers (and many are excellent) and AAA developers hesitant to invest in a genre that Nintendo has dominated for almost 20 years, very few quality 3D platformers have been released that were not either remasters of golden era titles, or poorly received attempts to revive long-dead franchises, such as Crash Bandicoot 4, which while being an excellent title, was deemed by many in the community as lacking the charm that made the original trilogy so beloved.
Upon first playing Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures, my initial reaction (and one that has remained with me as I have continued playing) was that while the developers made a very decent title, it still ended up feeling like one of the dozens of mediocre AA titles that tried to fill the void left behind by the disappearance of many of the big 3D platformer franchises during the mid-2000s.
Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures is a perfectly functional, visually pleasing game with a good amount of content. Still, like most silver-age platformers (other than Nintendo’s offerings), it feels devoid of passion and charm. These two things helped sell the genre to the masses and made characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario household names.
While this does not mean I recommend against playing Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures, I find it difficult to recommend it to anyone but the most diehard fans of the genre or those who have, for one reason or another, never played a golden era platformer or one of the many excellent remasters of the same.
Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures stands out as one of the most visually stunning AA titles of the 9th console generation. Although Joe’s appearance may not be the most attractive or realistic among video game protagonists, the game’s aim was never to convey realism. Instead, his almost toy-like features contribute to his charm. Notably, the game’s stunning graphics deserve recognition, and the developers deserve commendation for this achievement.
Unfortunately, while Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventuress’ visuals are top-notch, its animations are not, and the way that Joe and the various enemies he encounters move about the level feels “not quite right”.
This feeling of “not being quite right” is very noticeable when trying to land a difficult jump due to Joe’s floaty controls and imperfect animations, that at times can get Joe into a lot of trouble, such as an invisible hitbox or misaligned animation frame causing Joe to meet an unseemly end, despite the player having performed the required manoeuvre correctly.
Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures offers good value for money at just $29.99, with 24 levels spread across four worlds filled with puzzles and platforming encounters; players would be hard-pressed to find a more content-heavy new game at a similar price point.
That being said, the excellent Spyro Remastered Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy retail for just $39.99 and are infinitely better games with an astronomical amount of content, which makes me wish the Frozen Pixel retailed Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures for $19.99 or less, making it more appealing to gamers who have no particular desire to play as Joe Wander, but who feel that it offers comparable value for money compared to the excellent Spyro and Crash Remasters.
While I understand that Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures is a title that is more about puzzles than combat, I must admit to being disappointed by its lacklustre combat mechanics, which I feel were executed so poorly that the game would be much more enjoyable if combat encounters were removed entirely.
Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures is a action video game developed and published by Frozen Pixel, it was released on 3 Feb 2023 and retails for $29.99.
Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures is available on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
On average Joe Wander And The Enigmatic Adventures takes between 9 and 15 hours to complete.
Estimated completion times are derived from various sources and may vary based on the skill level of each player.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Joe Wander And The Enigmatic Adventures is rated PEGI 7+ and contains:
Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures is a visually stunning game that offers exceptionally good value for money; however, it lacks the charm of a true golden or silver-era platformer, and while fans of the puzzle platformer genre will enjoy it, I would prefer to play a more authentic golden age tribute such as Kaku: the Ancient Seal or one of the Spyro or Crash Bandicoot remasters, than invest the 12–15 hours required to complete Joe Wander and the Enigmatic Adventures.
