Old School Games: Toejam & Earl

Toejam and Earl is a strange adventure game for the genesis. It was one of the major exclusives and sort of a big deal. I never got to play it in those days. It wasn't until the new mellenium when I got access to every game ever (read: a job read: money) that I got a copy of the game. I can't quite follow what's going on. I'll try to explain. Or let you just watch the commercial.

Two funky aliens space ship is destroyed and they have to put it back together.


Easy enough premise. The hard part to explain is what exactly these guys are. One is a hip hop three leg having red guy, the other is a slug man. A fat one. I don't know either. The enemies you meet are just as off and I don't quite know where to go or what to do. But I always like playing it!



I always go up a few levels and try to find my ship, get lost, and give up. I hate that that's all I know from parts one and two of their adventure. I want to know more. I want to play this thing and figure it out. I want to do more than just wander a few levels up. I'm going to have to use gamefaqs. And even that I've tried before and it still doesn't quite help.

So I'm going to do just that. You wander around picking things up, searching for pieces, go up an elevator, fall off the edge of the world, try again, die, reload, try again. And suddenly things are all different located. Random generation of items and objects seem to be why I can't recall how or where to go. However, I seem to have fun playing every time I boot this up. I don't think I've ever gotten all ten pieces of the ship, but I don't care. I just like seeing what I can do. Bouncing around, running, finding presents that hurt me, playing two players. It's all a fun game. Like just wandering around and meeting a carrot man. Carrot men are always interesting.



The humor of the game is probably why. It's geniunely funny to be two weird aliens walking around lost looking for things to see and do. Speed boosts that speed you up to walk off the ledges and fall are hilarious. Especially in two player mode. For some reason when I play games with people, the other person never played a game before in their life. At least that's how they always act when presented with a controller. And I love putting games like Contra Hard Corps in front of them to see their reactions, but more so, I like putting games like this and Mister Misquito in their hands. To see just how they react to it.



The sequel, was also pretty wild. I played it once a few years ago and I have a copy here. I'm anxious to try it out after replaying this again. It isn't the same way as the first game was, its a 2D platformer not an isometric game like the first. I'm on the look out for a copy of Toejam & Earl 3. I've yet to find one, but I'm sure ebay will have a few. I can't say anything of the game itself, but I want to play it.

BOX


EUROPEAN



JAPANESE


I'll ask you guys, did you ever play Toe Jam & Earl?

BONUS:

I think this is official information on it:

Check it out... We're ToeJam and Earl. And we ran into a small problem. More specifically, a large planet (I shoulda never let Earl drive...). Help us hunt down the pieces to our rocket ship and we'll let you jam out some tunes on our megawatt rapmaster. Deal? WHOAH!! We're bumpin' into some of the weirdest creatures in the universe: Earthlings. Boogie down with bewitching hula girls. Block a nerd herd. Or hurl tomatoes at a crazed dentist with a drill. Split up and scope things out. Or hang together to share your stuff. Pick up presents you can use - like wings, rocket skates and inner tubes. Or ones you'll wish you hadn't opened - like bees, tomato rain and school books. So grab a friend - or join the jamminest party you'll ever play!

BONUS BONUS

In my research, I found some video from GameTAP about the game. Some information and a bit more about it are here. This video feels like it was trying to emulate the old video game videos from the 90s. I'm laughing at its production value.

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LOOK WHO CAME:

randombullseye   

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