ToeJam & Earl is an early 1990s dungeon crawler for the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive. The game features two alien rappers, who have crash-landed on Earth and parodies 1980s urban culture. The game’s design was heavily influenced by the role-playing video game Rogue, and took from it such features as the random generation of levels and items. Played from a 2D-top-down perspective the game contains both single-player and two-player cooperative modes. The latter displays a single screen when both characters are near each other, but splits it apart when they are not. Playing the game with two players reveals dialogue and jokes between the characters not heard in the single player game.
Two funk-loving aliens named ToeJam and Earl crash-land on a weird planet called Earth after colliding with a meteorite. Soon they realise that they’re dealing with a hostile planet, whose crazy inhabitants will do everything possible to put the harmless aliens six feets under. Aided by a few friendly Earthlings and random item-boxes spread around the planet, ToeJam and Earl start their adventure through 25 levels in order to find 10 pieces of their spaceship so they can get back to their home-planet Funkotron.
| Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
| CPU | Unavailable | Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 |
| RAM | Unavailable | 4 GB |
| OS | Windows® XP or higher | Windows® XP or higher |
| Graphics Card | 32MB or greater graphics card | NVIDIA GeForce 510 |
| Direct X | DirectX® 9.0 or greater | DirectX® 9c or greater |
| HDD Space | 50MB free disc space | 50MB free disc space |
| Game Analysis | To play ToeJam & Earl you will need a minimum CPU equivalent to an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400. The cheapest graphics card you can play it on is an NVIDIA GeForce 6200. But, according to the developers the recommended graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce 510. You will need at least 50 MB of free disk space to install ToeJam & Earl. ToeJam & Earl system requirements state that you will need at least 4 GB of RAM. ToeJam & Earl will run on PC system with Windows® XP or higher and upwards. | |
Alongside with Toejam & Earl's creative and hilarious storyline, I still find the game's two-player cooperative mode with interchangeable split screen/single-screen graphics quite impressive and groundbreaking for its time. The controls are very intuitive and easy to understand. The soundtrack may not be everybody's taste, but it suits the game's atmosphere.
The only negative point is, that after a dozen of levels the game doesn't offer any real surprises anymore and gets a bit repetitive.
Toejam & Earl is definitely not a children’s game. There are simply too many satiric references on modern society and (primarily) late 1980s pop-culture which you simply can’t understand before reaching a certain level of education. Your deadliest enemies in this game for instance are swarms of killer bees, wacky dentists, invisible bogey-men, tomato-bombing chicken, nerds and – last but not least – ice-cream vans which in a late stage of the game keep tormenting you by appearing out of nowhere. Your usual weapons are items like running trainers, sling shots and spring shoes, or more absurd items like decoy balloons or a boom-box to distract the Earthlings. These items are scattered around every map in presents, whose content has to be revealed throughout the game, as not all the items are a blessing.
Conclusion: Although most times I myself have played this game as a single-player, it is helpful to keep in mind that Toejam & Earl actually is designed to be a “two-player game with a single-player option”. It is in fact a surprisingly challenging game and (especially for children) difficult to master. Due to its slow pace it can get quite frustrating and even boring when played alone. The best way to exploit the game’s full potential is to invite your best friend or asking a dear sibling to spend some time with you, while taking them on an early 90s adventure which is best described as ludicrous. So, spend some time in company and have fun!