The early 90’s were a really weird time for hip-hop culture. Before the days of mumble and gangster rap, we had the flashy styles of Flava Flav, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air himself Will Smith, and Vanilla Ice before the meth took hold of him. There were several games that capitalized on this, but few had the long standing success of ToeJam and Earl. While they never achieved Mario or Sonic levels of popularity, they have been fan favorites that were revived or re-released a few times over the past couple decades. ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is the newest attempt to revive the funky fresh alien duo.
I am old as dirt and then some, so I have played my fair share of remakes and without a doubt, I can say this is the most faithful remake/remaster/sequel in the history of gaming. Right from the get go, I felt like I was eight years old again, sitting on the floor in front of my parents’ gigantic wood panel TV early on a Saturday morning. The difference is the visuals look like they are ripped from your favorite Nicktoon series from the 90’s, with all of the personality and flair that made the original so damn interesting. The smooth, hand drawn animations gripped onto my sense of nostalgia and wouldn’t let go, and I didn’t put up much of a fight. The levels are not overly vast in terms of landscapes, but the inhabitants more than make up for this. Each level is full of things you can interact with as well as hazards that will deplete your life bar in increasingly unique and hilarious ways. I found myself seeking out each new enemy type, knowing damn well they’d hurt me just to see how their attacks played out or how my character reacted.
For the uninitiated, ToeJam & Earl was a rougelike before I knew the genre even had a name. Originally released on the Sega Genesis, the game was light on story and tasked the player with helping our duo find the missing pieces to their spaceship so they could return home. The remake/sequel follows suit, placing you (or a friend/complete stranger) into the shoes of Toejam, Earl, or a few tertiary characters brought over from the follow ups. Each character has their own pros and cons, such as speed or how much damage they take, but overall are nothing more than avatars for you to level up. You’ll be tasked with making your way across each level, searching the landscapes for your missing pieces, finding gifts/power ups, evading enemies, and meeting friendly humans who just want to… dance. Yes, there is a quite a bit of optional dancing in the form of a rhythm based mini game. The fun doesn’t stop there, as you can also be transported into a, old-school looking 2D platformer at warp speed, allowing you to collect gifts in rapid succession or fail miserably. Once you’ve had your fill of each level, you can simply seek out an elevator and move on the next floor.
The game comes in 3 flavas: tutorial (Kind of self-explanatory), fixed (the “normal” game), and the unlockable randomized mode (a proper rougelike). While this may put off some rougelike fans, there is quite a bit of randomness that goes on screen as the fixed mode simply applies the layout of the level as well as where the space ship pieces are hidden. Everything else, from the enemies to the gifts you’ll pick up are different each and every time you play it. What are the gifts? Well, all of them offer XP bumps, some of them will give you a hint as to what they do by their name, and others will be hidden. They could cause a downpour of tomatoes or maybe give your player rocket shoes that make you fly about the level uncontrollably. Some offer more useful traits such as allowing you to reveal the name of a hidden present, or unlock your entire map. These add a nice risk vs reward element every time you opt to open a gift box, in part because of the often hilarious and zany outcomes, but primarily due to the fact our alien protagonists don’t offer much in terms of attacks. You’ll need to use stealth, objects hidden in the world, and offensive gift traits to make it from point A to point B.
While I enjoyed most of my time with ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove, the way the local cooperative mode is handled knocks the experience down quite a few pegs. If you and your partner are within a close proximity of each other, the screen houses both of you without issue and is an enjoyable experience. In the event one of you stray too far from the other, the screen splits in ways that is jarring and is just as random as most of the events found within. This becomes even more problematic the further you progress into the game world- since the majority of the levels are just floating platforms and you can fall off of them, landing on a past level. The same can occur if one player finds themselves going into the wrong elevator, allowing them to backtrack to past levels, and in my wife’s case, not where she wanted to be. While I appreciate that the title doesn’t require both players to sit through a loading screen should a level transition happen (you do have to wait in the elevator to progress forward), the screen causes the game to stutter a bit for the player who is still on track. Don’t get me wrong, co-op is still enjoyable, but my preference would be a solo adventure simply based on this.
Even if ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove doesn’t check all of the right boxes in the co-op department, it is a beautiful, comedic experience that is a funky fresh rarity in today’s world of battle royale games. And let’s face it, Macauly Culkin being an executive producer is hardly a deterrent.
9 out of 10
Pros
- Effortlessly Blends Nostalgia with New Elements
- All the Randomness
- Tons of Items/Enemies/NPCs
Cons
- Local Split Screen Misses the Mark
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove was developed by HumaNature Studios and published by Adult Swim Games. It launched on NS, PC, PS4, and X1 on March 1st, 2019, for $19.99. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove , check out the official site.
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