ToeJam & Earl
Encyclopedia
ToeJam & Earl is an action
video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions
and published by Sega
for the Mega Drive video game console. Released in 1991, it centers on the titular ToeJam and Earl—alien
rapper
s 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. ToeJam & Earls design was heavily influenced by the computer role-playing game Rogue
, and took from it such features as the random generation of levels and items. It references and parodies 1990s urban culture and is set to a funk soundtrack.
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 Mega Drive and Xbox
, respectively. The sequels' commercial and critical success was mixed. The game again received positive reviews in 2006 when re-released for the Wii
's Virtual Console
.
, comic satire
, and a "daringly misanthropic commentary on Earthly life". The game's protagonists, ToeJam and Earl, have been described as a "three-legged red alien" and "fat orange alien", respectively. ToeJam wears a large gold medallion and a backwards baseball cap, while Earl is marked by high-top
s and oversized sunglasses; both outfits are "over-the-top appropriations" of 1990s
urban culture
. Their speech features California slang
. The game is set to a soundtrack which has been described both as jazz-funk
, and as hip hop
. For the game's unique sound, composer John Baker was inspired by Herbie Hancock
and The Headhunters
.
In the game's opening sequence, ToeJam explains that Earl's erratic piloting abilities have resulted in a crash-landing on Earth. He says that they must find the pieces of their spacecraft
's wreckage to return to their home planet, Funkotron. The player guides the characters as they avoid Earth's antagonistic inhabitants and search for the debris. Should the player succeed, the final sequence depicts ToeJam and Earl escaping the planet in their reconstructed spacecraft. Under the player's control, the characters proceed across a purple landscape that represents Funkotron, and are greeted by their friends and family.
game world. Its gameplay mechanics were inspired by Rogue
, which has led to its description as a Roguelike
or dungeon-crawl game. The game contains both single-player and two-player cooperative modes. The latter displays a single screen when both characters are near each other, but splits it apart when they are not. Playing the game with two players reveals dialogue and jokes between the characters not heard in the single player game.
The game is set on Earth, which is represented by randomly generated islands that float in space, each one a layer above the last. They are connected by elevators. Some islands contain pieces of spacecraft wreckage, of which the player must collect 10 to win the game. The player character
drops to the island below if he falls from an island's edge, which necessitates that the player again locate an elevator. Each island is populated by antagonistic "Earthlings", such as phantom ice-cream trucks, aggressive packs of "nerd
s", giant hamsters, Bogeymen, man-eating mailboxes, and police chickens. Certain Earthlings aid the player. The game has been described as "largely non-violent", as the protagonists can only attack enemies with thrown tomatoes—one of many temporary, randomly generated power-up
s.
Power-ups are contained in wrapped presents, 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. Identification of presents' contents is a central gameplay mechanic. Each power-up has a unique effect: while one might increase the player character
s' running speed, another distracts enemies. Certain presents contain harmful power-ups, such the loss of a "life", or the "randomizer", which hides the identity of all presents. In the game's cooperative mode, if one player character opens a present in the vicinity of the other, its contents affect both characters. As players open more presents, the chances of accidentally opening the randomizer are increased, which prevents the game from becoming easier as more presents are identified.
, including Starflight
(1986). After the completion of Starflight 2
, Johnson conceived ToeJam & Earl—first the characters, then the plot—while on a beach in Hawaii. The idea was a combination of Rogues gameplay concepts and a lighter version of Starflight's science-fiction themes. Johnson met programmer Mark Voorsanger through a mutual friend, while walking on Mount Tam in 1989. He related the concept of ToeJam & Earl to Voorsanger, and the two resolved to make the game together. They formed Johnson Voorsanger Productions, and serious work on the game began soon after. 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. Sega marketing manager Hugh Bowen was immediately interested in the concept; Sega wanted innovative games and new mascots to compete with Nintendo
.
The game's small development team was composed of Johnson's previous colleagues, and its music was composed by John Baker. 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 considered ToeJam & Earl "a two player game with a one player option." While Sega believed that hardware issues would prevent the feature from working, Voorsanger successfully implemented it. In a 1992 interview with Sega Visions
, Johnson stated that the characters ToeJam and Earl evolved as reflections of his and Voorsanger's personalities. Voorsanger disagreed, and called the characters "two different aspects of Greg's personality". Steve Purcell
has stated that he contributed character designs to the game.
described as "almost unanimous critical acclaim". However, Sega deemed it a commercial failure due to low initial sales. The game built a cult following through word of mouth
, and it was further aided by the Mega Drive's Christmas 1991 sales spike, caused by the release of Sonic the Hedgehog. ToeJam & Earl was later considered a "cult" success.
Mean Machines
found the game addictive and original, but found fault with its slow-paced combat. One of the reviewers said, "Not everyone will like it—it's not normal enough for mass appeal—but I think it's destined to become a massive cult classic". GamePro
called the game's originality "incredible", and praised its graphics, music and humor. Entertainment Weekly
praised the "absolutely hilarious" sound effects and music. Jeff Csatari of Boys' Life
called it "another hot game" for the Mega Drive, 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 Mega Drive 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".
ToeJam & Earl was re-released on the Nintendo Wii
's Virtual Console
in 2006. Official Nintendo Magazine scored the game 85%, and praised its humor, originality and two-player mode. However, the reviewer believed that the game's enjoyability had diminished with time. 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. Jeremy Parish of 1UP
found the game's two-player co-operative mode more enjoyable than its single-player, and described the graphics and sound as "oddly primitive". Parish considered it "one of the best games to hit VC to date". Eurogamer
's reviewer negatively received the game, and believed its gameplay to be unsatisfying and overly slow. IGN
called the game's visuals a "mixed bag" and derided the slow pace, but praised its unpredictability and believed that its sound design was "one thing you absolutely can't fault".
. In early 1992, the developers began work on a sequel to ToeJam & Earl, and spent three months expanding on the original game's concept by adding indoor areas and more terrain types. Sega was not impressed by the sequel, and believed it to be unmarketable. The team redesigned it as a platform game
, as Sega was inclined to publish games in this genre. The game, entitled ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
, was highly anticipated, and was a commercial and critical success when it released in 1993. However, fans of the original game were disappointed by the change in design to a perceived generic style. Due to poor North American sales of the Sega Saturn
, Sega's next generation video game console, the ToeJam & Earl franchise was neglected. A ToeJam & Earl game planned for the Dreamcast was cancelled, 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", "strange", and "thoroughly odd". Critics have difficulty in determining a genre for the game; it has been called a platform game and Roguelike, as well as action and action-adventure
. While ToeJam & Earls success did not match that of the Mega Drive's other popular titles, it has been considered a "classic", and a "cult" game. Prior to ToeJam & Earl IIIs conception, research by its developers found that the original ToeJam & Earl was preferred over its sequel. In an IGN
survey, 65% of respondents cited it as their favorite of the three games. The game was set to be re-released on Xbox Live Arcade
after winning a poll arranged by Sega, but this is uncertain because Greg Johnson owns the rights to the characters rather than Sega. 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.
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions
ToeJam & Earl Productions
ToeJam & Earl Productions, Inc. was an American video game developer. Founders Mark Voorsanger and Greg Johnson started the company in 1989.- History :...
and published by Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
for the Mega Drive video game console. Released in 1991, it centers on the titular ToeJam and Earl—alien
Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
In popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...
rapper
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
s who have crash-landed on Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. As they attempt to escape the planet, players assume the role of either character and collect pieces of their wrecked spacecraft. ToeJam & Earls design was heavily influenced by the computer role-playing game Rogue
Rogue (computer game)
Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
, and took from it such features as the random generation of levels and items. It references and parodies 1990s urban culture and is set to a funk soundtrack.
The game was positively received by critics, who praised its originality, soundtrack, humor and two-player cooperative mode. It attained sleeper hit
Sleeper hit
A sleeper hit, a.k.a. surprise hit , refers to a film, book, single, album, TV show, or video game that gains unexpected success or recognition...
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
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron is a platform video game, developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega in 1993 for the Mega Drive. The game is the sequel to cult video game ToeJam & Earl, released in 1991. The game concerns two alien protagonists, ToeJam and Earl, both of...
and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth is an action video game released for the Xbox on October 22, 2002. Developed by ToeJam & Earl Productions and Visual Concepts, and published by Sega and Microsoft, it is the third installment in the ToeJam & Earl series...
, released for the Mega Drive and Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, respectively. The sequels' commercial and critical success was mixed. The game again received positive reviews in 2006 when re-released for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
.
Synopsis
ToeJam & Earl has been called a surrealSurreal humour
Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
, comic satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, and a "daringly misanthropic commentary on Earthly life". The game's protagonists, ToeJam and Earl, have been described as a "three-legged red alien" and "fat orange alien", respectively. ToeJam wears a large gold medallion and a backwards baseball cap, while Earl is marked by high-top
High-top
The high-top is a shoe that extends significantly over the wearer's ankle. It is commonly an athletic shoe, particularly for basketball. It is sometimes confused with the slightly shorter mid-top. Examples of basketball shoes that are high-tops are Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars; Nike Air Forces...
s and oversized sunglasses; both outfits are "over-the-top appropriations" of 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
urban culture
Urban culture
Urban culture is the culture of towns and cities. In the United States, Urban culture may also sometimes be used as a euphemistic reference to contemporary African American culture.- African American culture :...
. Their speech features California slang
California slang
California slang is slang used in California English, or which originates in California. The slang heard in California originates from three different regions: Northern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Southern California...
. The game is set to a soundtrack which has been described both as jazz-funk
Jazz-funk
Jazz-funk is a sub-genre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat , electrified sounds, and often, the presence of the first electronic analog synthesizers...
, and as hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
. For the game's unique sound, composer John Baker was inspired by Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
and The Headhunters
The Headhunters
The Headhunters are an American jazz-funk fusion band, best known for their albums they recorded as a backing band of jazz keyboard player Herbie Hancock during the 1970s. Hancock's debut album with the group, Head Hunters, is one of the best-selling jazz/fusion records of all time.-History:Herbie...
.
In the game's opening sequence, ToeJam explains that Earl's erratic piloting abilities have resulted in a crash-landing on Earth. He says that they must find the pieces of their spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
's wreckage to return to their home planet, Funkotron. The player guides the characters as they avoid Earth's antagonistic inhabitants and search for the debris. Should the player succeed, the final sequence depicts ToeJam and Earl escaping the planet in their reconstructed spacecraft. Under the player's control, the characters proceed across a purple landscape that represents Funkotron, and are greeted by their friends and family.
Gameplay
ToeJam & Earl takes place from a top-down perspective in a 2D2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
game world. Its gameplay mechanics were inspired by Rogue
Rogue (computer game)
Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
, which has led to its description as a Roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
or dungeon-crawl game. The game contains both single-player and two-player cooperative modes. The latter displays a single screen when both characters are near each other, but splits it apart when they are not. Playing the game with two players reveals dialogue and jokes between the characters not heard in the single player game.
The game is set on Earth, which is represented by randomly generated islands that float in space, each one a layer above the last. They are connected by elevators. Some islands contain pieces of spacecraft wreckage, of which the player must collect 10 to win the game. The player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
drops to the island below if he falls from an island's edge, which necessitates that the player again locate an elevator. Each island is populated by antagonistic "Earthlings", such as phantom ice-cream trucks, aggressive packs of "nerd
Nerd
Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
s", giant hamsters, Bogeymen, man-eating mailboxes, and police chickens. Certain Earthlings aid the player. The game has been described as "largely non-violent", as the protagonists can only attack enemies with thrown tomatoes—one of many temporary, randomly generated power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
s.
Power-ups are contained in wrapped presents, 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. Identification of presents' contents is a central gameplay mechanic. Each power-up has a unique effect: while one might increase the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
s' running speed, another distracts enemies. Certain presents contain harmful power-ups, such the loss of a "life", or the "randomizer", which hides the identity of all presents. In the game's cooperative mode, if one player character opens a present in the vicinity of the other, its contents affect both characters. As players open more presents, the chances of accidentally opening the randomizer are increased, which prevents the game from becoming easier as more presents are identified.
Development
ToeJam & Earl creator Greg Johnson became a fan of Rogue as a university student. After he left university, he worked on games for Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
, including Starflight
Starflight
Starflight is a computer game published by Electronic Arts and developed by Binary Systems in 1986. Originally developed for DOS and Tandy, it was later released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh and Commodore 64...
(1986). After the completion of Starflight 2
Starflight 2
Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula is the 1989 sequel to the successful Starflight science fiction computer game. It was developed by Binary Systems, and published by Electronic Arts, for DOS....
, Johnson conceived ToeJam & Earl—first the characters, then the plot—while on a beach in Hawaii. The idea was a combination of Rogues gameplay concepts and a lighter version of Starflight's science-fiction themes. Johnson met programmer Mark Voorsanger through a mutual friend, while walking on Mount Tam in 1989. He related the concept of ToeJam & Earl to Voorsanger, and the two resolved to make the game together. They formed Johnson Voorsanger Productions, and serious work on the game began soon after. 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. Sega marketing manager Hugh Bowen was immediately interested in the concept; Sega wanted innovative games and new mascots to compete with Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
.
The game's small development team was composed of Johnson's previous colleagues, and its music was composed by John Baker. 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 considered ToeJam & Earl "a two player game with a one player option." While Sega believed that hardware issues would prevent the feature from working, Voorsanger successfully implemented it. In a 1992 interview with Sega Visions
Sega Visions
Sega Visions was a video game magazine focusing on games made for Sega video game machines such as Sega Master System, Game Gear, Genesis, and Sega CD. It was created by Sega and was initially published by The Communique Group. In 1992, Infotainment World took over publishing for the rest of its...
, Johnson stated that the characters ToeJam and Earl evolved as reflections of his and Voorsanger's personalities. Voorsanger disagreed, and called the characters "two different aspects of Greg's personality". Steve Purcell
Steve Purcell
Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007...
has stated that he contributed character designs to the game.
Reception
ToeJam & Earl received positive reviews, which Bill Paris of UGOUGO
UGO Entertainment, Inc. is a website providing coverage of online media in entertainment targeting males age 18–34. The company is currently based in New York, New York, United States. On July 24, 2007 it was announced that Hearst Corporation would acquire UGO Entertainment...
described as "almost unanimous critical acclaim". However, Sega deemed it a commercial failure due to low initial sales. The game built a cult following through word of mouth
Word of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
, and it was further aided by the Mega Drive's Christmas 1991 sales spike, caused by the release of Sonic the Hedgehog. ToeJam & Earl was later considered a "cult" success.
Mean Machines
Mean Machines
Mean Machines was a market-leading multi-format gaming magazine released between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom. Its style was popular with gamers of the time for its irreverent humor, anarchic editorial tone and style, and its sometimes outrageously outspoken reviews.- Origins :In the late...
found the game addictive and original, but found fault with its slow-paced combat. One of the reviewers said, "Not everyone will like it—it's not normal enough for mass appeal—but I think it's destined to become a massive cult classic". GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
called the game's originality "incredible", and praised its graphics, music and humor. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
praised the "absolutely hilarious" sound effects and music. Jeff Csatari of Boys' Life
Boys' Life
Boys' Life is the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America . Its targeted readership is young American males between the ages of 6 and 18.Boys' Life is published in two demographic editions...
called it "another hot game" for the Mega Drive, alongside Sonic the Hedgehog. Ed Martinez of Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
commended the game's soundtrack and unique concept, but found it to be too easy. A review published in both the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
and Rome News-Tribune
Rome News-Tribune
Rome News-Tribune is the local daily newspaper of Rome, Georgia. Begun originally as a weekly newspaper, the paper has survived several merges with other newspapers. Aside from several months during the Civil War, the paper has been published continuously since 1843. It is owned by the News...
likened ToeJam and Earl to "an outer-space, rap version of Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
". 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
Sega Visions
Sega Visions was a video game magazine focusing on games made for Sega video game machines such as Sega Master System, Game Gear, Genesis, and Sega CD. It was created by Sega and was initially published by The Communique Group. In 1992, Infotainment World took over publishing for the rest of its...
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
Mega (magazine)
MEGA, subtitled '100% pure Mega Drive' was a monthly magazine, published in the United Kingdom, aimed at users of the Sega Mega Drive and its additions, the Mega CD and 32X. During its time, as one of the main Mega Drive publications, Mega covered the golden age of the Sega Mega Drive; from 1992 to...
ranked it the 13th best Mega Drive 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".
ToeJam & Earl was re-released on the Nintendo Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
in 2006. Official Nintendo Magazine scored the game 85%, and praised its humor, originality and two-player mode. However, the reviewer believed that the game's enjoyability had diminished with time. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
felt that the game's 1990s idioms were dated, but that the gameplay—particularly the two-player mode—was still enjoyable by modern standards. Jeremy Parish of 1UP
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
found the game's two-player co-operative mode more enjoyable than its single-player, and described the graphics and sound as "oddly primitive". Parish considered it "one of the best games to hit VC to date". Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
's reviewer negatively received the game, and believed its gameplay to be unsatisfying and overly slow. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
called the game's visuals a "mixed bag" and derided the slow pace, but praised its unpredictability and believed that its sound design was "one thing you absolutely can't fault".
Legacy
ToeJam and Earl became "one of Sega's second tier mascots, alongside Sonic", and one of the Mega Drive'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 cartridgeMenacer 6-game cartridge
The Menacer 6-game cartridge was the title Sega bundled with the Menacer for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. As the name suggests, the cartridge contains six games that require the Menacer to play...
. In early 1992, the developers began work on a sequel to ToeJam & Earl, and spent three months expanding on the original game's concept by adding indoor areas and more terrain types. Sega was not impressed by the sequel, and believed it to be unmarketable. The team redesigned it as a platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
, as Sega was inclined to publish games in this genre. The game, entitled ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron is a platform video game, developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega in 1993 for the Mega Drive. The game is the sequel to cult video game ToeJam & Earl, released in 1991. The game concerns two alien protagonists, ToeJam and Earl, both of...
, was highly anticipated, and was a commercial and critical success when it released in 1993. However, fans of the original game were disappointed by the change in design to a perceived generic style. Due to poor North American sales of the Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
, Sega's next generation video game console, the ToeJam & Earl franchise was neglected. A ToeJam & Earl game planned for the Dreamcast was cancelled, but a third installment, ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth is an action video game released for the Xbox on October 22, 2002. Developed by ToeJam & Earl Productions and Visual Concepts, and published by Sega and Microsoft, it is the third installment in the ToeJam & Earl series...
, 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", "strange", and "thoroughly odd". Critics have difficulty in determining a genre for the game; it has been called a platform game and Roguelike, as well as action and action-adventure
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
. While ToeJam & Earls success did not match that of the Mega Drive's other popular titles, it has been considered a "classic", and a "cult" game. Prior to ToeJam & Earl IIIs conception, research by its developers found that the original ToeJam & Earl was preferred over its sequel. In an IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
survey, 65% of respondents cited it as their favorite of the three games. The game was set to be re-released on Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
after winning a poll arranged by Sega, but this is uncertain because Greg Johnson owns the rights to the characters rather than Sega. The notion of a ToeJam & Earl game for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
failed to generate interest from publishers, but Johnson has reiterated the possibility of such a game in the future.
External links
- ToeJam & Earl Productions: Developer's official website
- ToeJam & Earl's Virtual Console site