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---

author: admin

generator: pandoc

title: 'ToeJam & Earl'

viewport: 'width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes'

---

admin

2012-01-22T14:28:27+00:00

![alt = Two cartoon-style characters dance; one holds a hot dog and the

other, in a speech bubble above his head, says \"JAMMIN\'!\". Text below

them reads, \"ToeJam &

Earl\".](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c7/ToeJam_%26_Earl.png/220px-ToeJam_%26_Earl.png){.aligncenter

width="176" height="250"}

This is a game about a couple of aliens who are trying to reassemble

their spaceship so that they can return to their home planet, Funkotron.

As you're likely to read elsewhere, the game mechanics owe a large part

of their heritage to *Rogue*, a game for the personal computer from

1980, but, for important reasons, TJ&E escaped following those those

roots too closely, and did not become anything like *Diablo*, or--and

this might be stretching the limits of the dungeon-crawling

genre--*Baldur's Gate*.

It has been complained that TJ&E is 'just a game about walking around';

this is supremely ignorant. The player, whether playing with another (as

'intended') or by themselves, *will* do a lot of walking around, but

this does not limit the game. What drives TJ&E  is the idea that you're

exploring something, getting deeper and deeper into the world with which

you're interacting &c. *This* is what makes this a really, really good

game.

All the levels you play through are randomly generated, and all of the

items littered throughout the game have to be *used* in order to

function discovered: everything gets rotated, mixed around, when you

start again. The items themselves are genuinely helpful to game-play,

and are authentically imaginative. In fact the very freedom the player

has to roam around and explore the level, checking the map, figuring

things out, is what *makes* this game. Most commentary on TJ&E reserves

all the praise for its music--and the music is brilliant, Herbie

Hancock-esque funk that loops perfectly--but the sandbox dimension to

the game is what keeps me coming back.

I can go on about the levels' terrain, the various enemies, the game's

difficulty curve, but you need to go and play this game.

ToeJam & Earl is available on the Sega Mega Drive (both the console and

cartridge can be bought fairly cheaply online), and the Wii Virtual

Console, for 800 Wii Points.

![File:ToeJam & Earl split

screen.png](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/ToeJam_%26_Earl_split_screen.png){.aligncenter

width="324" height="243"}