Retro Review: Toejam and Earl

Over the years, numerous Sega mascots have been created. Some, like Sonic the Hedgehog, have endured and continue to star in a variety of games. Others have not seen action in years. Case in point, Toejam and Earl, a pair of aliens from the planet Funkotron, who starred in several games between 1991 and 2002. Their first game, simply called Toejam and Earl, just so happens to be a game from my childhood. It has plenty of ingenious features, but it also has some aspects that bring it down somewhat. Nevertheless, it is a fun game, especially if you have plenty of patience.

Toejam and Earl are piloting their spaceship one day, when Earl decides to take control of the ship for a while. Unfortunately, his piloting skills result in the aliens crash landing on the planet Earth. In this strange (to them, anyway) world, they must locate the missing pieces of the spaceship so that they can fly back home. However, the planet is crawling with Earthlings out to make their lives miserable. The idea of having aliens crash land on Earth is delightfully quirky, though the plot itself is not very deep. Then again, games do not need a complex story to be any good.

As Toejam or Earl (or both if you are playing with a friend), you must explore 25 levels in search of the ten missing spaceship parts. There are ten levels that each contain one part, while the other fifteen only contain the elevator which, when located, will carry you up to the next stage. In an interesting move, the player has the option to make every level fixed or randomize them so that elevators, spaceship parts, etc. are in different spots every time. The latter mode is more fun, and makes it so that no two play throughs are exactly alike. Also, you are told when you arrive on a level that a spaceship part can be found there, so you will not have to search every level for a spaceship part that is not actually there.

Every level is filled with Earthlings, most of which will hurt the aliens if they get too close. Some, like devils, cause minimal damage, while others, such as boogie men, a mad doctor, and a fast-moving van, will cause a great deal of pain. In later levels, these enemies become harder to avoid, which makes collecting the spaceship parts quite challenging. Not all Earthlings will hurt you, though. There are hula dancers which will make the aliens dance if they get too close to them, which leaves them open to attack from various enemies. If Toejam and Earl are struck by Cupid's arrow, their controls will be temporarily mixed up. Some Earthlings will help our heroes in exchange for the dollars that they can pick up. A wizard can replenish their health, a Valkyrie will sing so loud that nearby enemies will be vanquished, and a man in a carrot suit can identify any presents that have been collected.

These presents are mostly collected by picking them up off the ground, though some can be purchased from mailboxes (provided that they do not come to life and give chase to our heroes) or swiped from Santa Claus if the player approaches him carefully. Each present has an item inside. Some items can be used for a short time, such as wings that make you fly, running shoes, and rocket skates that make it harder to control the aliens. Others can restore health or, in rare cases, give you an extra life. Some presents can do far more harm than good. One can summon a thundercloud that appears over your character's head, which periodically will strike him with lightning and drain his health. Worse still is the Total Bummer present, which completely drains your alien's life energy.

The problem with these presents is that when you collect one, its identity will remain a mystery until you open it or the man in a carrot suit identifies it for you. Once a present of a specific color has been opened up, its name will be next to it when you collect a similar looking present so that you will know what it is before you open it up. However, opening up one kind of present will reset the presents' identities so that once again, you will not know what is inside them until you open them. Presents can be dropped, which is ideal if you pick up a present that has a dangerous effect or if you run out of inventory space. Even so, not knowing what is inside a present makes the game a bit unfairly difficult, especially if you open a Total Bummer present on your very last life, or on any other life, for that matter.

In fact, some other aspects of the game make the game quite a challenge, sometimes unnecessarily so. The aliens tend to move quite slowly in contrast to the rather swift-moving Earthlings, which is especially bad if they are low on health and delicious health-replenishing food is scarce. They move a bit faster if they travel on the roads found in some levels, but the enemies might still move faster compared to them. If the player falls off of the current level, they end up on the previous stage and must backtrack to the elevator, which could be far away or require the player to explore areas that they did not cover before. Presents can be stolen or used up, and at times when they are needed to reach an elevator or a spaceship part, it can be quite annoying. Aside from opening presents, the only other way to earn lives is to gain points by exploring parts of the stages and gaining promotions. However, only a select few promotions give you additional lives, and since it takes more points to reach each promotion, the chances to earn lives are few and far between.

All of this would not be quite so bad if the player was allowed to continue the game after losing his or her last life. However, there are no continues, no passwords, no save feature, not even a level select code in the game. Once you lose all of your lives, you must restart the entire game. What really makes this frustrating is that the game is a bit long for one to complete in a single session, though the Wii Virtual Console version remedies the situation with its handy suspend feature that allows you to continue right where you left off when you come back to the game later. Still, the game could have been a bit more forgiving, even by giving the player a limited amount of continues, especially when it is so difficult. I have completed the game a few times, but doing so is quite a challenge.

Still, there is much to love about Toejam and Earl. As mentioned, the random mode gives you a different experience every time you play it. The enemies, tough as they can be, are delightfully quirky. Where else can you find an army of chickens that fires tomatoes? The references to life in the 1990s, while dated, are cool, and experimenting with the presents is neat, if risky. The graphics offer plenty of wacky animations, even if the landscapes are largely lacking in features save for the occasional water or quicksand. Accompanying the adventure is a rather funky soundtrack, including the awesome theme song, that will stick in your head. As a whole, the game is not bad for a debut adventure. If only the challenge level was a bit more forgiving...

I have a love-hate relationship with Toejam and Earl. It is a wonderfully wacky adventure, but it is quite hard and frustrating at times. It is why I prefer the sequel Panic on Funkotron, which I hope to review at some point. Even so, the first game has plenty of memorable moments and has rightfully been declared to be a Sega Genesis classic. It would be neat if Sega gave the two aliens a comeback, but given the poor sales of their Xbox game, it may not happen for a while, if it ever happens at all. Give the game a try, whether you buy the cartridge or download it from the Wii Shop Channel. Just be sure you have plenty of patience, because you will need it to deal with the somewhat slow pace and frustrating moments.