Shaun Munro reviews ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove…
There are few video games more emblematic of the 1990s than Mega Drive cult classic ToeJam & Earl, an early entry into the roguelike genre which dropped players into the sneakers of two alien rappers after they crash-land on Earth.
This Kickstarter-funded “sequel”, effectively a re-imagining of the original game, makes little effort to update the series’ formula for a modern audience, but at the behest of franchise creator Greg Johnson, Back in the Groove nevertheless delivers the basically functional, breezily nostalgic goods.
ToeJam and Earl are tasked with scouring Earth and recovering ten scattered pieces of their spaceship, which will allow them to return to their home planet of Funkotron. In what passes for a campaign, you’ll navigate roughly two-dozen levels seeking out the ship parts, which will see you cross paths with a glut of NPCs both helpful and (mostly) not.
Your average level will run like such. Firstly, exit the elevator and scan the surrounding area for power-ups, or as they’re called here, “presents.” The contents of these presents are unknown until you open them, short of hitting up the Wise Carrot – think Albert Einstein dressed as a carrot – in order to learn what’s inside. Though presents often grant aids such as spring-boots, super-speed, teleportation and Tomato Rain (exactly what it sounds like), it occasionally disadvantages the player or even flat-out kills them on the spot.
While hoovering up as many presents as possible, you’ll need to avoid the hordes of cartoonish foes, from old men with lawnmowers to grotesque alien monsters, runaway ice cream vans and women with prams. Once you stumble across a missing ship piece, you can make your way to the elevator and head up to the next level.
But of course, that’s easier said than done, as not only will the NPCs aggressively stalk and attack the player, but if you’re too close to the edge of a level, they can even nudge you off, sending you back down to the previous one. And here’s a tip; don’t simply walk in the first elevator you see on a given level, because there’s a solid chance it’s a decoy which also sends you back down.
These roadblocks to progress can prove mildly frustrating because they reek more of random busy-work than a clever attempt to impede the player’s progress. Many of the enemies are also merely an irritation rather than an entertaining obstacle to tackle with your cunning. The hula dancer who whistles in your direction and keeps you stationary for a few seconds, for instance, starts out a mild boggle, but after a few hours of play, she raises the blood pressure on sight.
There are other aspects where the game just feels poorly engineered, such as the imprecision with which you can interact with NPCs; you might think you’ve triggered a conversation with the Wise Carrot, but along comes a Lawnmower Man and quite unfairly liberates you of a precious life while you’re standing there.
All things considered, completing a single successful run of the game shouldn’t take more than around an hour – likely after a failed attempt or two – so the experience as a whole is so fleeting it’s tough to get too up-in-arms about anything. And though there’s not a huge incentive to replay the main Fixed World more than once, the game does offer up a more compelling Random World, which gives players a different(ish) experience every time, even if the core loop remains basically the same. On top of that, players can also unlock a far more challenging Hardcore Random World.
And it absolutely wouldn’t be ToeJam & Earl without a multiplayer offering, which allows up to four-player co-op across local and online modes (though limited to two players locally on consoles). Given that the core experience is relatively rote, it’s naturally much more fun when tackled with a pal or three.
While Back in the Groove certainly looks recognisably like its forebear, it has to be said that the chosen art style is pretty garish, even ugly. With its flat textures and canned animations, the game resembles an up-market Flash title more than any fan should ever want it to, when most likely would’ve preferred an aesthetic hewing closer to the blocky charm of the original’s 16-bit sprites.
Even accepting the project’s mere $500K budget, it is really quite unattractive to behold beyond the inherent fondness fans will have for this world and its characters. Thankfully it fares much better sound-wise, purely on the strength of Cody Wright’s fantastically funky bass soundtrack.
It’s a shame that this game isn’t a more ambitious attempt to give its beloved heroes a full-fat resurrection, or at least update the original with more modern gameplay systems and some knowing nods towards the passage of time. ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove shamelessly coasts on nostalgia and has little time for finessed gameplay or appealing visuals, but it nevertheless knows what its audience craves most.
Pros:
+ A nostalgic, faithful “re-imagining” for fans.
+ Core gameplay is simple but addictive.
+ Multiplayer elevates the experience.
+ Great music.
Cons:
– Offputting Flash-style visuals.
– Janky interaction at times.
– A fairly unambitious quasi-remake.
Rating: 6/10
Reviewed on PC (also available for PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch).
Shaun Munro – Follow me on Twitter for more video game rambling.
