ToeJam & Earl is a 1991 action video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega for the Genesis console. It centers on ToeJam and Earl—alien rappers who have crash-landed on Earth—as they attempt to escape the planet, players assume the role of either character and collect pieces of their wrecked spacecraft. It references and parodies 1980s and early-'90s urban culture and is set to a funk soundtrack. ToeJam & Earls design was heavily influenced by the role-playing video game Rogue (1980) and derived various features from the game, such as the random generation of levels and items. As such, ToeJam & Earl is often considered to be an early example of a roguelike game.

The game was positively received by critics, who praised its originality, soundtrack, humor and two-player cooperative mode. It attained sleeper hit status despite low initial sales, and its protagonists were used as mascots by Sega. ToeJam & Earl was followed by two sequels: ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth, released for the Genesis and Xbox, respectively. The sequels' commercial and critical performance were mixed. A fourth title, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove, was released on March 1, 2019 without Sega's involvement, using funds from Kickstarter. The game was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console on December 8, 2006 and re-released again on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on November 6, 2012 as part of the Sega Vintage Collection. The game was also re-released on the Nintendo Classics service on December 16, 2021.

Synopsis

ToeJam & Earl has been called a surreal, comic satire ToeJam wears a large gold medallion and a backwards baseball cap, while Earl is marked by high-tops and oversized sunglasses; both outfits are "over-the-top appropriations" of 1990s urban culture. The player guides the characters as they avoid Earth's antagonistic inhabitants and search for the debris.

Gameplay

thumb|alt=Two aliens, one red and one orange stand in fields surrounded by chasms. A red demon and an elevator are near the red alien. The two aliens are separated by a purple line that runs horizontally through the image.|ToeJam (above) and Earl (below) explore floating islands which represent Earth, while avoiding "Earthlings" such as the devil seen on the top screen.

ToeJam & Earl takes place from a 3/4 perspective in a 2D game world. Its gameplay mechanics were inspired by Rogue, which has led it to be compared to genres like Roguelikes or dungeon-crawlers. Each island is populated by antagonistic "Earthlings", such as phantom ice-cream trucks, aggressive packs of "nerds", giant hamsters, Bogeymen, man-eating mailboxes, and chickens armed with mortars that shoot tomatoes. Certain Earthlings aid the player. which are categorized by appearance. The contents of a present are unknown to the player until it is opened; afterwards, all presents of that appearance are identified. A certain type of NPC wearing a carrot costume will also identify presents for a fee. Presents with question marks can hold any item at random, so their contents cannot be identified on sight alone. Identification of presents' contents is a central gameplay mechanic. Each power-up has a unique effect: while one might increase the player characters' running speed, another distracts enemies. The idea was a combination of Rogues gameplay concepts and a lighter version of Starflight's science-fiction themes. Their status as commercial game designers allowed them to meet with Sega of America, and they used cards covered in landscape drawings to demonstrate their idea of randomly generated levels. The team's goal was to make a humorous game that was "original, easy to understand and offered an immediate response to the player's actions". The designers wanted to include a two-player mode so that they could play together, and they considered ToeJam & Earl "a two player game with a one player option."

Reception

ToeJam & Earl received positive reviews, However, Sega deemed it a commercial failure due to low initial sales. The game built a cult following through word of mouth, Entertainment Weekly picked the game as the ninth-greatest game available in 1991, saying: "Simply hilarious, from the Warner Bros. cartoon-inspired sound effects to the rap songs players can improvise while using the control pad".

Mean Machines found the game addictive and original, but found fault with its slow-paced combat. MegaTech praised the graphics, and the 2-player option, and said the game was "great fun—pure and simple".

Mega said that it was "An OK game, but one which becomes completely essential when played with someone else. Got any friends? Buy this. Haven't got any friends? Buy this and make some". The game also appeared at number 26 on its list of the best games of all time. Entertainment Weekly praised the "absolutely hilarious" sound effects and music. Jeff Csatari of Boys' Life called it "another hot game" for the Sega Genesis, alongside Sonic the Hedgehog. Ed Martinez of Game Informer commended the game's soundtrack and unique concept, but found it to be too easy.

A review published in both the Chicago Tribune and Rome News-Tribune likened ToeJam and Earl to "an outer-space, rap version of Abbott and Costello". The reviewers called it "the funniest game we've seen in a long time" and praised its soundtrack, graphics and action.

The Toronto Star acclaimed the game's "hilariously designed split-screen two-player mode", and said, "If you've got a Sega-Genesis system, you simply must check out [this] awesome rap 'n' roll game". Sega Visions praised the game's "no-repetitive action" and said, "This is the zaniest game that ever rocked Sega's Genesis system." Several months after the game's release, Mega ranked it the 13th-best Sega Genesis game in its All-Time Top 100 feature. The magazine praised the game's "superbly manic and zany action" and deemed it both "original and insane". The Channel 4 video game programme GamesMaster gave the game a 70% rating.

ToeJam & Earl was re-released on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console in 2006. GameSpot felt that the game's 1990s idioms were dated, but that the gameplay—particularly the two-player mode—was still enjoyable by modern standards. Eurogamers reviewer negatively received the game and believed its gameplay to be unsatisfying and overly slow.

Legacy

ToeJam and Earl became one of Sega's second-tier mascots, alongside Sonic, and one of the Sega Genesis's key exclusive franchises. The characters appeared in a spin-off light gun game, Ready, Aim, Tomatoes, developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions as one of six mini-games for the Menacer 6-game cartridge. A ToeJam & Earl game planned for the Dreamcast was cancelled (a beta of the game was preserved and, on Christmas Day 2013, released on the internet by enthusiasts), but a third installment, ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth, was released for the Xbox in 2002. The release returned to the concepts of the original game, but generated mixed reviews and poor sales.

ToeJam & Earl has been called "weird", In an IGN survey, 65% of respondents cited it as their favorite of the three games.

ToeJam & Earl was re-released on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console in 2006. but this became uncertain because Johnson owns the rights to the characters rather than Sega. The game, along with its sequel, was announced as part of Sega Vintage Collection series for release on November 7, 2012, to be released individually on PlayStation Network and as a collection on Xbox Live Arcade. A remake of the game has been announced for release exclusively for the Intellivision Amico. The notion of a ToeJam & Earl game for the Nintendo DS failed to generate interest from publishers, but Johnson has reiterated the possibility of such a game in the future. Greg Johnson later gave ToeJam and Earl a comeback with a new game called ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove, which was made through Kickstarter fundraising by his own independent company HumaNature Studios. Greg Johnson said he was able to make a new ToeJam & Earl game without needing a publisher, since the popularity of downloadable independent games, but Adult Swim Games came to publish the game as well as for retail copies. ToeJam & Earl would later influence the American animated series Regular Show, which J. G. Quintel has played as a kid, and later described it as "the perfect platform" for Regular Show protagonists Mordecai and Rigby.

Film adaptation

On December 5, 2022, it was announced that a ToeJam & Earl movie is in development from Amazon MGM Studios with Stephen Curry producing through his production company Unanimous Media along with producing partner Erick Peyton, as well as Dmitri M. Johnson, Michael Lawrence Goldberg and Timothy I. Stevenson of Story Kitchen. The game's creators Voorsanger and Johnson are set to executive produce, with Amos Vernon and Nunzio Randazzo writing the script.

References

  • ToeJam & Earl Productions: Developer's official website
  • ToeJam & Earl's Virtual Console site