A History of Toejam and Earl, the Kickstarter and review of Back in the Groove.
ToeJam and Earl — A History.
The ToeJam and Earl series originally started life in 1991 on the SEGA Mega Drive by Johnson Voorsanger Productions, The brainchild’s behind the game were Mark Voorsanger and Greg Johnson. ToeJam and Earl was an action rogue like game, the goal of the game is you play as either ToeJam or Earl a pair of alien rappers who have crashed landed on earth. With the goal of finding your missing spaceship parts while trying to avoid earthlings such as the mad dentist, cupid, little devils, evil mail boxes etc. But there are friendly earthlings who can help you, such as the Wiseman who could identify items which are wrapped up as presents for a small fee.
It was unique as in you could play a fixed world game where items and levels were set in a certain way or a random world where worlds and random which made for a different challenge each play through. Also, there was a two player coop where if you moved to different parts of the screen would actually split to give players their own view of the action.
A spin off game called Ready, Aim, Tomatoes! Is part of a six game cartridge that was bundled with the SEGA Menacer Light-gun peripheral, where you played ToeJam and you had to shoot enemies as the game screen scrolls, with each level getting faster, enemies could also fire back at you. The game also included power ups and a lock on feature to aid the player.
Creators Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger originally began designing a sequel built on the concepts of the original, but Game 2 was changed to a more generic platforming game due to a lack of support for their vision and publisher demands of SEGA.
Game 2 was now called ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron and was released on the SEGA Mega Drive in 1993. It served as a direct sequel to the original game, taking place after ToeJam and Earl returned to their home planet the duo discover a number of antagonistic Earthlings have stowed away on the Rapmaster Rocket and are wreaking havoc on Funkotron. The player must hunt down these Earthlings capturing them jars before sending them back to Earth.
The game was a critical hit and another SEGA exclusive title, where it was praised for his graphics and music. Fan reaction at the time was mixed because it was such a huge departure from the original game.
During this time JVP studios renamed themselves ToeJam and Earl Productions and in 1997 created an educational game called Orly's Draw a Story The game won the 1998 Interactive Achievement Award for Computer Innovation. The game was repackaged in 2001 by The Learning Company for use in schools.
ToeJam and Earl would get a third game which was released in 2002-2003, production of this game shifted hardware platforms during production including the Nintendo 64 with the eventual demise of the SEGA Dreamcast saw ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth released at a title for Microsoft’s Xbox home console.
Mission to Earth was a return to the original style of gameplay while including elements from the second game the original protagonists were joined by a new character called Latisha, the basic plot is the characters journey to Earth, in order to retrieve twelve Sacred Albums of Funk and return them to Lamont the Funkopotamus, after they were stolen. Levels take place on terrains that represent Earth's ecosystems with a hub acting like a level select. There was a new central antagonist called the Anti-funk who wouldn’t stop until everything funky would be destroyed.
Visual Concepts was also involved with the development which saw the original plans of the developers of the game being a remake of the original game being turned into something to try to capture a new audience after Visual Concepts thought the idea of a remake would be too old-fashioned, which was ironic at the time because Visual Concepts had already made a puzzle platforming game called Floigan Brothers.
Promotional copies of the game portrayed the Anti-Funk as a disembodied head reminiscent of a Ku Klux Klan mask an anti-racism statement, but due to SEGA interfering with production and vetoing the idea it was changed to a skull design for the final release.
Reviews at the time we’re pretty mixed but with poor sales numbers…. It would be a long time before we’d see the return of ToeJam and Earl.
Especially when ToeJam and Earl Productions disbanded the same year. Mark Voorsanger went on to produce other Electronic Arts games before leaving the game's industry completely. Greg Johnson started his own video game development studio called HumanNature Studios in 2006, with their first game Doki Doki Universe being developed as a first party title for Sony. This was after several years working for different companies on different projects such as Star-flight, Star Control II, Choo Choo Soul which was an entertainment and children's show and Kung Fu Panda.
ToeJam and Earl — Back in the Groove!...
Crowdfunding had become popular, with several retro franchises gaining a new lease of life from having sequels funded or spiritual successors in all sorts of different genres. For example: Wasteland 2, Bubsy, Shaq Fu, Shenmue 3, Leisure-suit Larry, Shadowrun, Yookah-Laylee, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and more infamously Mighty Number 9.
There was speculation whether we would see a new game in the ToeJam and Earl Franchise. Greg Johnson, was able to secure the intellectual property rights to ToeJam and Earl even though SEGA retains ownership of the assets etc. from the original games. It was then back in February 2015 a Kickstarter was announced for a New ToeJam and Earl game… ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove!
With a goal of raising $400,000 to get the game in production, it seemed like it could’ve thrived or failed. But there were many backers out there who wanted a new title in the franchise. It raised its target goal and then some in stretch goals.
The Review.
Back in the Groove! Is a return to roots with the rogue-like gameplay and stacked worlds, but it also combines elements from its sequels like enemies, hyper-funk bonus zones and funk-fu as an item. But backers did have a lot of input in the design process specifically with the type of art style as some mock-ups were put forward as suggestions.
Gameplay wise it plays like the classic games you have to open a selection menu to use or drop presents threes a button to use presents or sneaking. But also you can interact more with the environment, such as searching bushes to see if they yield hidden items such as food, money or presents, you might be unlucky enough to get hit by a bowling ball of unearth an earthling.
The enemies in the game are Earthlings, there are a variety of enemy types, such as the internet troll, the classics such as the devil, the bogeyman the mad dentist to name a few, but also there are friendly earthlings who can help you, such as the Wiseman in the carrot suit who can identify presents for a fee or the wizard who can heal you for money.
The story of the game is classic ToeJam and Earl, they are flying in a Rapmaster Rocket, but after Earl hits the wrong button they crash on earth and have to find the pieces of their ship. That are randomly scattered on different levels. Speaking of levels you can see the previous level underneath the current one.
There are also a variety of different gameplay mechanics, such as level progression through promotions when you earn XP from using presents and searching levels, which randomly increases different stats and skills. Also, when you find a ship piece it will give you a bonus, from either money, XP a present or a broken present. Power hats which give you different ability randomly also come into play after you’ve completed a few playthroughs. Also there is an aspect of a rythmn game as part of the minigames aswell which can be pretty engrossing.
You can play on a fixed world setting where the levels are a set design or you could try a randomly generated world game where the lay outs are different each time.
Or if you feel really brave you can try the hard game mode where, you see more enemy types sooner. There are some frustrations I noticed where in some cases enemy placement seemed to have just put allot earthlings in a small area where, you can easily die if you aren't careful, that's more to do with the random nature of the game where everything is different.
Multiplayer is the games bread and butter, where you can play local coop games but also you can play online with up to four people. The local games are limited to 2 players whereas the PC version is able to have 4 people offline. But it's a lot of fun especially if you “accidentally” give the other player a bad present…. Or push them off the side of the level.
The music in this game is great, as they have a few envisioned tracks from Cody Wright but also a lot of new funky stuff, even the sound effects for the character are charming and really makes the game stand out.
But there was one bug I found during my review for the PC version, where if you reset the in game achievements it would reset the achievements on the steam client. But by the time this review has been uploaded it has been fixed. The sad news is that Gregory Savoy Brown who was the voice of Earl, sadly passed away during production of the game which is a shame and a massive loss.
Also, compared to the original game, it is shorter to play through which also helps to be more pick up and on the go which a major selling point if you own a switch. I really enjoyed playing this game and really recommend it to old fans or people who want to try something different, there is a lot of re-playability with trying to unlock items.
Formats: PS4, XBONE, PC, SWITCH. PC Version Reviewed.
Release Date: March 1st
Publisher/Developers: HumaNature Studios.
Written by TigerMacZ and William Trelane
I really recommend the game as its great fun, to fans of the series or newcomers alike.
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