Toejam and earl
Developer: Johnson Voorsanger Productions
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: 31/03/1991 (Japan)
Format: MegaDrive/PSN/XBOXLIVE Arcade
Nostalgia can be a cruel mistress when it wants to be, especially in entertainment. You’ll see or hear of a name that springs fond memories you have of it, but half the time when you do revisit it they’re not so great, in some cases you wonder why you loved it in the first place. This is most true with video games, as you don’t just remember the game but also the times of the younger you playing it. Sometimes when you take that game and play it in this modern age of Uncharted, Metal Gears, and Battlefields you wonder why you bothered, as its simple gameplay and characters really show in the harsh, modern cold light.
Thankfully this doesn’t happen to Toejam and Earl/Toejam and Earl 2: Back in Funkatron, part of the Sega Vintage Collection. There was a TJ&E 3, released on the original Xbox, but for some reason (probably a legal Rights/licensing issue) is not included here.
The first thing I always remember about the games was its terrific music, all early Nineties beat-box and funky (the good kind, not the smelly kind) deep beats. When you start up the game you're launched into the Sega Vintage intro, all cheesy Awards/Game Show tinny Casio Keyboard (other crap electric keyboards are available) you fear the worst. This fear grows stronger when it goes into the actual TJ&E screens and you hear they treated the music in the same way. But instead of Awards or Games Show you think you’re going to watch some cheap Fresh Prince of Bel Air or In Living Colour rip-off show. When you block the wretched music from your mind from each game menu screens you got the interesting options. You have the choice to play the European version or the North American one (and, oddly, a separate German Back in Funkatron version), but the differences are miniscule (bar it being in German for the third PiF option). There also Trials for each game, essentially a few Challenges, like find all the Spaceship Pieces on Rocket Skates in the first game or Trap every Human in Jars for the second game. You can record moments in the game to watch them later. They’re just fun little extras, the main meat and fun is with the games themselves.
The first game has turned out to be an absolute Classic, and held up to be a more interesting title (that’s not to say PiF is not interest, more on this later). It is also a classic example on how hard games were back in the day, but let’s start with the great and good. The story is an interesting take (a Nineties take) on life on Earth. You play as one of two ‘hip and groovy’ aliens (either Toejam or Earl – ‘big’ Earl) who have crash-landed on Earth so have to find the pieces, put back together again, and get back home to Funkatron. This games take on Earth is fantastic, as it’s in 25 layers of land, some of it you have to uncover, viewed in the locked camera third-person viewpoint, it’s a game of discovery and adventure. Littered on these levels are comedic takes on human life and dangers, like shrieking-mad dentists, moles, swarms of bees, Flying Cupids, herd of nerds, little red Devils, Bogeymen, fat guys in vests mowing the grass, flock of wandering Geese carrying a Mortar that fire Tomatoes (!?!). You’ll laugh at the craziness of it all, but after Level 16 you will loathe, hate, and call them all the bad words under the sun, as the game will pile more and more enemies at you. As this a game of the old school, enemy AI was pretty basic (as this was the days of the 16-Bit Era, like the Sega MegaDrive, which these games were made for) so the way to make it hard was to throw as many kinds of enemies at you, and limit you powers to cope with them. Your powers come in the form of Presents, littered around by seemingly a masked Santa on a jet-pack. With these presents you can run, feed on, get extra lives/money, escape through doors, distract, jump, fly, or fire tomatoes (yes it seems to be the weapon of this version of Earth). Some also hinder you as well, as giving you bad food (sapping your energy), send you to sleep, killing you, or even worse randomising the presents. So after a couple of hours or so gradually getting to know the good presents from the bad you have you risk opening the one you didn’t have recognised by the wise man in a Carrot suit (oh yes, you read that right), and boom you have to start all over again. The land also can fight against you as some of the levels are like desserts, which slow you down and sink in, so you stay at the edges to keep on the grass and move faster and not slowly sink. So I ... I mean you, could be trapped on the edge dancing because you’re near a Hula Girl (another, and unfortunate target for verbal abuse at times, enemy) getting hit by arrows from Cupid (which changes your directional controls), get your presents stolen by a mole then killed, or pushed off the level by a swarm. I did start this hu-uge paragraph by concentrating on the great and good aspects of the game and I end this paragraph by its worst point, it’s unfairness at times, but that what this game does to you, but you find you like/love this game still, and that shall be in the happy next paragraph.
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: 31/03/1991 (Japan)
Format: MegaDrive/PSN/XBOXLIVE Arcade
Nostalgia can be a cruel mistress when it wants to be, especially in entertainment. You’ll see or hear of a name that springs fond memories you have of it, but half the time when you do revisit it they’re not so great, in some cases you wonder why you loved it in the first place. This is most true with video games, as you don’t just remember the game but also the times of the younger you playing it. Sometimes when you take that game and play it in this modern age of Uncharted, Metal Gears, and Battlefields you wonder why you bothered, as its simple gameplay and characters really show in the harsh, modern cold light.
Thankfully this doesn’t happen to Toejam and Earl/Toejam and Earl 2: Back in Funkatron, part of the Sega Vintage Collection. There was a TJ&E 3, released on the original Xbox, but for some reason (probably a legal Rights/licensing issue) is not included here.
The first thing I always remember about the games was its terrific music, all early Nineties beat-box and funky (the good kind, not the smelly kind) deep beats. When you start up the game you're launched into the Sega Vintage intro, all cheesy Awards/Game Show tinny Casio Keyboard (other crap electric keyboards are available) you fear the worst. This fear grows stronger when it goes into the actual TJ&E screens and you hear they treated the music in the same way. But instead of Awards or Games Show you think you’re going to watch some cheap Fresh Prince of Bel Air or In Living Colour rip-off show. When you block the wretched music from your mind from each game menu screens you got the interesting options. You have the choice to play the European version or the North American one (and, oddly, a separate German Back in Funkatron version), but the differences are miniscule (bar it being in German for the third PiF option). There also Trials for each game, essentially a few Challenges, like find all the Spaceship Pieces on Rocket Skates in the first game or Trap every Human in Jars for the second game. You can record moments in the game to watch them later. They’re just fun little extras, the main meat and fun is with the games themselves.
The first game has turned out to be an absolute Classic, and held up to be a more interesting title (that’s not to say PiF is not interest, more on this later). It is also a classic example on how hard games were back in the day, but let’s start with the great and good. The story is an interesting take (a Nineties take) on life on Earth. You play as one of two ‘hip and groovy’ aliens (either Toejam or Earl – ‘big’ Earl) who have crash-landed on Earth so have to find the pieces, put back together again, and get back home to Funkatron. This games take on Earth is fantastic, as it’s in 25 layers of land, some of it you have to uncover, viewed in the locked camera third-person viewpoint, it’s a game of discovery and adventure. Littered on these levels are comedic takes on human life and dangers, like shrieking-mad dentists, moles, swarms of bees, Flying Cupids, herd of nerds, little red Devils, Bogeymen, fat guys in vests mowing the grass, flock of wandering Geese carrying a Mortar that fire Tomatoes (!?!). You’ll laugh at the craziness of it all, but after Level 16 you will loathe, hate, and call them all the bad words under the sun, as the game will pile more and more enemies at you. As this a game of the old school, enemy AI was pretty basic (as this was the days of the 16-Bit Era, like the Sega MegaDrive, which these games were made for) so the way to make it hard was to throw as many kinds of enemies at you, and limit you powers to cope with them. Your powers come in the form of Presents, littered around by seemingly a masked Santa on a jet-pack. With these presents you can run, feed on, get extra lives/money, escape through doors, distract, jump, fly, or fire tomatoes (yes it seems to be the weapon of this version of Earth). Some also hinder you as well, as giving you bad food (sapping your energy), send you to sleep, killing you, or even worse randomising the presents. So after a couple of hours or so gradually getting to know the good presents from the bad you have you risk opening the one you didn’t have recognised by the wise man in a Carrot suit (oh yes, you read that right), and boom you have to start all over again. The land also can fight against you as some of the levels are like desserts, which slow you down and sink in, so you stay at the edges to keep on the grass and move faster and not slowly sink. So I ... I mean you, could be trapped on the edge dancing because you’re near a Hula Girl (another, and unfortunate target for verbal abuse at times, enemy) getting hit by arrows from Cupid (which changes your directional controls), get your presents stolen by a mole then killed, or pushed off the level by a swarm. I did start this hu-uge paragraph by concentrating on the great and good aspects of the game and I end this paragraph by its worst point, it’s unfairness at times, but that what this game does to you, but you find you like/love this game still, and that shall be in the happy next paragraph.
An intruder in Toejam and Earls' Splitscreen photo. The little red Imp.
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'Bouncing high on the success of the first game Toejam and Earl take a break from hunting Humans on Funkatron.
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Early on I mentioned the fantastic music and it truly is, which makes the tinny, higher pitched remixes in the SEGA Vintage screens all the more painful to hear. In the first game your feet tap, occasionally banging your head, and vocalising to the ‘mmmm’s in one of the tracks as you investigate the levels. It also has one of the best co-op two players games ever made, even nowadays. One of you play a quicker, Red slim, three-legged Flavour Flav homage Toejam (yes named, in the age of Sick, Bad and Ill meant cool, after the gunge that can occur between your toes. The second player plays as the Strutmeister, the laid back big guy (‘big’) Earl. Together you can split the levels looking for the ship pieces and exits, plus all the money, food, and presents you can find, seen in split screen, then in one when you’re together. Now you can play this through the PSN, there’s more opportunities to explore with other people and learn new bad language when the game plays unfair.
It’s now regarded (rightfully so) as a better game, but I remember it received some average reviews, no doubt due to it’s fluctuating difficulty, like in the 70s. Due to this TJ&E: Panic on Funkatron changed to an platform game, where you can still play in two player. After escaping Earth in the first game Toejam and Earl are back in Funkatron, but are not alone as some damn, dirty humans stowed
away and now running amok. Causing unrest with your fellow Funkatrons you are given magic jars that can trapped them (like the Ghost trap in Ghostbusters), and vacuum machines that hoover up a group of them. These Humans are different though, as there precocious pony-tailed brats, camera using tourists, and guys washing themselves in large boxes. There are bonus games like beat-box Simon Says and Trampolining (using the spongy ground in Funkatron) Competitions, but your main task is trap the Humans. It’s great fun, especially due to the ace sound effects, throwing your jars makes it sound like your throwing booming bombs at the humans. You can also jump over them, dropping them like bombs, or place them at a place and chase the Humans there. The music is just as great, its better looking, they really went to town designing Funkatron. It genuinely a really, really fun game, and back when it was released it roundly rated in the 90s in the magazines and tv shows. Yet when you think of Toejam & Earl you think of the first game, and that is the sign of a true Classic, that despite its irritating side there’s more to love of it.
Toejam and Earl – 8/10
Toejam and Earl: Back to Funkatron – 7/10
Simon James 8/10
It’s now regarded (rightfully so) as a better game, but I remember it received some average reviews, no doubt due to it’s fluctuating difficulty, like in the 70s. Due to this TJ&E: Panic on Funkatron changed to an platform game, where you can still play in two player. After escaping Earth in the first game Toejam and Earl are back in Funkatron, but are not alone as some damn, dirty humans stowed
away and now running amok. Causing unrest with your fellow Funkatrons you are given magic jars that can trapped them (like the Ghost trap in Ghostbusters), and vacuum machines that hoover up a group of them. These Humans are different though, as there precocious pony-tailed brats, camera using tourists, and guys washing themselves in large boxes. There are bonus games like beat-box Simon Says and Trampolining (using the spongy ground in Funkatron) Competitions, but your main task is trap the Humans. It’s great fun, especially due to the ace sound effects, throwing your jars makes it sound like your throwing booming bombs at the humans. You can also jump over them, dropping them like bombs, or place them at a place and chase the Humans there. The music is just as great, its better looking, they really went to town designing Funkatron. It genuinely a really, really fun game, and back when it was released it roundly rated in the 90s in the magazines and tv shows. Yet when you think of Toejam & Earl you think of the first game, and that is the sign of a true Classic, that despite its irritating side there’s more to love of it.
Toejam and Earl – 8/10
Toejam and Earl: Back to Funkatron – 7/10
Simon James 8/10
