ToeJam & Earl

ToeJam & Earl is a 1991 action video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega for the Genesis console.

It centers on ToeJam and Earl—alien rappers who have crash-landed on Earth—as they attempt to escape the planet, players assume the role of either character and collect pieces of their wrecked spacecraft.

[4] The game was positively received by critics, who praised its originality, soundtrack, humor and two-player cooperative mode.

A fourth title, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove, was released on March 1, 2019 without Sega's involvement, using funds from Kickstarter.

ToeJam & Earl has been called a surreal, comic satire[5] and a "daringly misanthropic commentary on Earthly life".

[7] ToeJam wears a large gold medallion and a backwards baseball cap, while Earl is marked by high-tops and oversized sunglasses; both outfits are "over-the-top appropriations" of 1990s urban culture.

[5] In the game's opening sequence, ToeJam explains that Earl's erratic piloting abilities have resulted in a crash-landing on planet Earth.

[5] Should the player succeed, the final sequence depicts ToeJam and Earl escaping the planet in their reconstructed spacecraft.

[8] Each island is populated by antagonistic "Earthlings", such as phantom ice-cream trucks, aggressive packs of "nerds", giant hamsters, Bogeymen, man-eating mailboxes, and chickens armed with mortars that shoot tomatoes.

[5] The game has been described as "largely non-violent",[15] as the protagonists can only attack enemies with thrown tomatoes—one of many temporary, randomly generated power-ups.

[16] Their status as commercial game designers allowed them to meet with Sega of America, and they used cards covered in landscape drawings to demonstrate their idea of randomly generated levels.

[18] The team's goal was to make a humorous game that was "original, easy to understand and offered an immediate response to the player's actions".

[16] In a 1992 interview with Sega Visions, Johnson stated that the characters ToeJam and Earl evolved as reflections of his and Voorsanger's personalities.

[19] ToeJam & Earl received positive reviews,[16] which Bill Paris of UGO described as "almost unanimous critical acclaim".

The game built a cult following through word of mouth,[16] and it was further aided by the Sega Genesis's Christmas 1991 sales spike, caused by the release of Sonic the Hedgehog.

[16] In the words of historian Ken Horowitz "In all, the game sold 350,000 copies for Sega, a remarkable feat for such an unconventional title on a fledgling console.

[28] Jeff Csatari of Boys' Life called it "another hot game" for the Sega Genesis, alongside Sonic the Hedgehog.

[30] A review published in both the Chicago Tribune and Rome News-Tribune likened ToeJam and Earl to "an outer-space, rap version of Abbott and Costello".

[12] Jeremy Parish of 1UP found the game's two-player co-operative mode more enjoyable than its single-player and described the graphics and sound as "oddly primitive".

[7] IGN called the game's visuals a "mixed bag" and derided the slow pace, but praised its unpredictability and believed that its sound design was "one thing you absolutely can't fault".

[38] The characters appeared in a spin-off light gun game, Ready, Aim, Tomatoes, developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions as one of six mini-games for the Menacer 6-game cartridge.

[5] In early 1992, the developers began work on a sequel to ToeJam & Earl and spent three months expanding on the original game's concept by adding indoor areas and more terrain types.

[5][16] The game, titled ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, was highly anticipated, and it was a commercial and critical success when it released in 1993.

[12][36] While ToeJam & Earl's success did not match that of the Sega Genesis's other popular titles, it has been considered a "classic",[6][12] and a "cult" game.

Two aliens, one red and one orange stand in fields surrounded by chasms. A red demon and an elevator are near the red alien. The two aliens are separated by a purple line that runs horizontally through the image.
ToeJam (above) and Earl (below) explore floating islands which represent Earth, while avoiding "Earthlings" such as the devil seen on the top screen.