ToeJam & Earl

If you were to try and think of a game to better describe the early nineties than ToeJam & Earl, you would be thinking for quite a while. ToeJam & Earl is the sleeper hit of the Sega Genesis, and other than the blue hedgehog, they are two mascots that represent a company. Anyone who owned a Genesis back in the day is familiar with these two, and like them or not, you can't deny the creativity behind the game.

ToeJam & Earl are two alien rappers from the planet Funkotron, out on a cruise through the stars. Earl (the big guy) decides he wants a turn in the driver's seat. ToeJam obliges and grips tightly as Earl flies into an asteroid field, weaving in and out of the giant rocks. Just as the duo is about to leave the field, an asteroid slams into their ship, sending them crashing down to a nearby planet, Earth. On impact the ship breaks into ten pieces, which scatter themselves all over the planet. ToeJam & Earl must find and repair their ship so they can return to Funkotron, as long as the earthlings don't get them first.

ToeJam & Earl is unique in that it randomly generates levels, and items. So no two play-throughs are alike. You first start out on a small isle, surrounded by water. Immediately you will notice presents lying about the ground. Inside of these presents are items that you can use to help you along the way. Items include everything from food, money, wings, a slingshot, spring shoes, a raft, and numerous other things that either help you or hurt you; yes that's right, presents in your inventory can hurt or even kill you, but like all presents should be, they are wrapped up tightly, with no way of knowing what's inside.

As stated before the whole object of the game is to find the ten pieces of your ship and reassemble it, so you would assume there to be ten levels, wrong. There are actually 26 levels in the game; each being tied together by an elevator that is hidden somewhere within the level. If you take the elevator up from the first level, you will find a land mass floating in space. Find the next elevator to move up higher to another land mass, and so on; and since the levels are generated randomly, you have no way of knowing what levels will be in what order. If you step off the edge of one level, you will continue to fall until you hit land on a previous level, which may be one level down, or ten.

Every so often, when an elevator stops at a new level a hint box will tell you a ship piece is at this location, in which case you will have to find it before moving on to the elevator. But don't think that finding ship pieces and elevators is just as simple as walking around, there are plenty of enemies that are just as random as the rest of the game. You got your demons with pitchforks, crazy mothers pushing their children around in shopping carts, dancing hula girls, crazed men mowing, bogey men, nazi chickens, and so many more. You're not completely alone though, there are allies on your insane adventure (though not many). Most notably is a man in a carrot suit that, for a price, reveals the contents of your presents, and Santa Claus, who if you sneak up on him, will drop said presents as he speeds off on his jet pack.

One of ToeJam & Earl's best qualities is it's music. Seems like I've been picking games with funky music a lot lately, like the last three reviews. Yes, the music is a mix of funk and jazz, with just a touch of hip-hop. It's said that the game's composer, John Baker, took his inspiration from Herbie Hancock, and the Headhunters. Listen to the song "Rocket" sometime, and you can totally picture ToeJam & Earl jammin'. The only problem with the game's unique sound is there aren't many tracks in the game, with each level comes the hope of something fresh for your ears to feast upon, but what you get is one of the five (and that may be stretching it) same old tunes. Yeah, the music that's there is extremely good, especially with the Genesis's limited sound capabilities, but it leaves you wanting more.

Graphically this is one of the most impressive game's in the Genesis library, and a nice break from the traditional sidescroller. Each level is bright and colorful, and rests in a starry backdrop, which may be a turn off to have the same background for the whole game, but as the levels get bigger, you will see less and less of the cosmos, so it's balanced very well. Walking around in a semi three dimensional plain, similar to the game "Rogue", looking for ship pieces and elevators gives ToeJam & Earl a slower pace than most games, so you're either going to find it soothing and fun, or boring and repetitive.

The unique perspective really catches the eye

To date there have been two sequels to ToeJam & Earl, ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron for the Genesis, and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth on the Xbox. Panic on Funkotron received great reviews both commercially and critically, though fans of the original were disappointed to find the developers deviated from the original semi 3d perspective to a sidescrolling platforming game. Mission to Earth was a launch title for the Xbox which received mix reviews, and suffered from poor sales, and people wondered if a game filled with stereotypical nineties idioms could stand in the new millennium. In 2006 ToeJam & Earl was added to the Wii's virtual console and was once again highly praised, or thought to be boring (some people get it, some don't). Talks of a re-release on Xbox Live and Playstation Network have circulated for the past couple years, but remain unconfirmed, as is talk of an entirely new game on the DS. Greg Johnson, creator of ToeJam & Earl, has stated that he has failed to generate interest among publishers for a new game, but says he'll keep trying. If only a certain company would make a new console, hmmm... I'm gonna keep asking, Sega, so give me a Dreamcast 2 already!

Overview:

Story: 3/5

Graphics: 4/5

Gameplay: 3/5

Music: 3/5

Originality: 5/5

Difficulty: Medium

Learning Curve: Low

Length: Average

Total Score 3.6 Worth Buying

Next Classic Hint: Don't be fooled by his cute appearance, this little guy packs a punch, weather it's his drunken, money grabbing ways, or big, long, bushy... tail, you can't help but love him. So grab a beer (or milk) and hide the duct tape, it's time to have some fun!