FUNKY.
I have no nostalgia for ToeJam & Earl despite growing up playing SEGA consoles. I only ever played their games via emulation in the many SEGA Genesis collections, and I always preferred the generic platformer sequel over the slow, weird original game. ToeJam & Earl was slow, made little sense to me, and felt clunky to control. I never understood the fascination with the original game.
Until now.
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is the first game to feel like a proper sequel to the original game. The sequel on the Genesis, Panic on Funkotron, was a very colorful platformer more akin to other games found on the Genesis that I liked, but fans of the original did not. Mission to Earth, the third game and the first and only title in full 3D, was slated for Dreamcast but eventually released on Xbox. It was more like the original game, but some video game series just don’t feel right in three dimensional space. For anyone who played and enjoyed the original, that’s all I need to say to explain what this game is.
PLATFORMS: PC, SWITCH, PS4, XB1
MSRP: $19.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $19.99
For anyone not familiar with ToeJam & Earl, I’m unsure how to explain it. It is a ¾ view roguelike where the main goal is to collect ship parts to complete the ship and win the game, but they are scattered around, and not every level has one. ToeJam & Earl collect presents that produce different effects to help (or hinder) their abilities, while dodging certain earthlings who plan to do them harm. Each level ends by entering an elevator and going to the next floor up, however falling off the stage will lead to ToeJam or Earl dropping back onto the previous level.
Not much has changed with Back in the Groove. Now there is a handy tutorial mode to teach the basics, which I fully recommend as it removes some of the confusing aspects of the original game. To unlock the random world gameplay mode I had to climb ten levels in fixed mode. Now multiplayer is up to four people (online or locally) with a total of nine characters to play as. What is neat is that each character starts with different presents as well as skills and stats. ToeJam is faster while Earl can eat any type of food. The developers even included the classic ToeJam and Earl designs as playable characters. There is a search feature that makes hidden objects shake, making searching less tedious. I also really enjoyed the experience system that would level me up and give random bonuses like more present storage or better luck.
The graphics and music are both charming. The game starts with a cartoon sequence explaining the very basic plot with some comedic voice acting, and the look and humor doesn’t disappear in the game either. The animation of the characters feel like paper cut outs in a diorama, as the terrain is a 3D model. Screenshots don’t do this look any justice, as it looked much better playing the game. While I will say I did enjoy the original chiptune soundtrack of the original game, the new funk soundtrack is much preferred (that may just be the fact I enjoy funk music outside of video games though). There is one oddity however and that is that the PC version has a very unique feature to see the level below through holes in the current level full with enemies walking around. It’s extremely neat, but it is absent on the console releases.
This game helped me understand why people love the original ToeJam & Earl so much. Back in the Groove basically renders the original obsolete. I would recommend it to any fan of the original and to anyone who wants a unique and less action packed game to play, even more so if you have friends to play with. It will be exciting to see what’s next for the funk duo and their friends.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
