ToeJam & Earl

aka: TJ&E
Moby ID: 7247
Genesis Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/23 4:22 PM )

Description official descriptions

Toejam and Earl are two hip aliens from the planet Funkotron. One day, they are cruisin' their galaxy in the sweet spaceship ride. Unfortunately, Earl wasn't paying enough attention to where he was driving, and ran the ship into an asteroid. The ship crash landed onto the most bizarre planet in the galaxy: Earth.

Toejam and Earl must travel from level to level on Earth and collect the 10 scattered pieces of the ship. But the various Earthlings, such as Nerd Herds, Giant Hamsters, Phantom Ice Cream Trucks and the Bogeyman will make that difficult.

The power up items that TJ and E can pick up come in the form of wrapped presents. You never really know what a power up is until you open it. What's more, randomized levels and item locations make it a different game every time.

The game features a dynamic screen splitting - screen joining 2-player mode. Players start the game close to each other. If one gets away from the other, the screen vertically splits to allow each player to move freely. When players are close again, the screens join together to become one single screen.

Spellings

  • トージャム&アール - Japanese spelling
  • 홀이와 뚱이 - Korean spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Genesis version)

11 People (9 developers, 2 thanks)

Game Design
Game Program
Additional Programming
Music Direction
Music Composition
Artwork
Sound FX
Invaluable Aid
Producer
Awesome Support
Character Design (uncredited)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 21 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 66 ratings with 8 reviews)

TJ&E? its for (expletive deleted) on, silly

The Good
it is very easy to get to grasps with. the story is easy to get to grips with. the landscapes are easy to know what they are, e.g grass.

The Bad
THE NAME. i don't know were they got it from but who would want to be known as "toe jam"??? It reminds me to much of a (expletive deleted), or a dirty (expletive deleted) session with a smelly, homeless (expletive deleted). And when your actually in the game, all you seemingly do is go wondering around doing exactly (expletive delted).

The Bottom Line
A BORING GAME. a waste of money. a waste of time. a waste of money. To sum up that last line, A WASTE!

Genesis · by paul cairey (319) · 2002

Earth is probably the last place you'd want to be stranded.

The Good
This year I’ve decided to start my own holiday tradition. Now, every year near Christmas, I’m going to force a friend or family member to play through ToeJam & Earl on the Sega Genesis with me. You may wonder what ToeJam & Earl has to do with Christmas. Well, ToeJam & Earl has EVERYTHING to do with Christmas. I’m not just talking about the enemy in the game that happens to be Santa Claus wearing a jet-pack, either. I’m talking about the presents!

You play as the titular space aliens, ToeJam & Earl, as they wander a strange, randomly-generated representation of Earth seeking the ten pieces of their trashed spaceship. Various Earthlings also wander the landscapes, and most of them are deadly. To survive, you must pick up presents that may contain weapons to dispatch the Earthlings, or other devices that can be used to escape. Sometimes you’ll find items that can work against you, such as one that outright kills you instantly. That may not sound very exciting, but that’s where the random nature of the game comes into play.

Each of the presents come in different shapes, sizes, and patterns of wrapping paper. Each individual item is designated to the particular style of present. For example, if you find tomatoes in a square, purple present, then you know that every present of that style holds tomatoes. However, this changes from game to game, so the tomatoes won’t always be in the square, purple present. To further complicate things, some presents hold a randomizer, which re-shuffles the items so you don’t know what’s in them. It works extremely well, too. You need to ration your presents and be cautious about which ones you open.

My favourite thing about ToeJam & Earl is definitely the co-op. In fact, it’s one of my favourite co-op games of all time. Unlike many two-player games of the time, both players play simultaneously and aren’t required to stick together. This is possible through the magic of split-screen, which wasn’t too widely used in video games at the time. It’s a very important feature, since there’s a lot of ground to cover. It’s almost necessary for the players to split up, since there are twenty-four levels and some of them are quite large.

One of the more memorable aspects of ToeJam & Earl is its nonsensical sense of humour. Its humour revolves around how an alien might view Earth. Everything is somewhat familiar, but skewed and twisted. Earth is represented by twenty-four levels stacked on top of each other and connected by elevators. There are no buildings, but there are roads. The enemies are also based off of common Earth things, like mailboxes, ice cream trucks, and hula dancers. Normally I’m not a fan of this sort of absurd humour, but in this context, it almost seems to make sense.

The Bad
A certain amount of patience is required to play ToeJam & Earl through to the end. The game is excruciatingly slow. Although there are temporary speed-up items, both ToeJam and Earl move a notch slower than a stroll. Adding to the tedium, there isn’t a lot of variety in the game. More difficult enemies and more diverse terrain are added in later levels, but they do little to add variety. To make things worse, there’s no password or save system, so it has to be completed in one sitting. This doesn’t bother me personally, but half the people I’ve played with have quit before the end of the game, while the other half I had to convince to keep going.

That’s a big problem, because I wouldn’t suggest playing ToeJam & Earl alone. A big draw for me is working together with another person. It actually feels like a cooperative experience, and not just a single-player game that allows you to tow around a friend. If you attempt this game on your own, the tedium will likely start to grate a little harder. It’s sort of like waiting in line for a roller coaster. It may still be a fun and memorable experience, but unless you have someone to keep you company, you might not have the patience for it.

It also doesn’t help that ToeJam & Earl is pretty merciless. I wouldn’t exactly call it hard, but definitely unforgiving. You’re given a very small number of lives, and extra lives are fairly scarce. You’re awarded lives each time you level up and they can also be found within presents. However, they’re very easy to lose. After taking a hit from an enemy, the window of opportunity to get away from it is very small. Sometimes an enemy will hit you over and over again, giving you no chance to escape. Sometimes they’ll even continue to attack even after you’ve died and respawned. It can be very frustrating when you lose multiple lives to the exact same enemy.

Further complicating this is the sheer number of enemies, some of which move faster than you. Early levels present you with weak enemies, most of which don’t actually harm you. Every so often you’ll come across stronger enemies like the dentist, or the invisible bogey-man. The further you move through the game, the more plentiful the strong enemies are. What really gets annoying, though, is the enemies that exist merely to hinder you. Whenever you get within even a remote proximity (sometimes you won’t even see it) of a hula dancer you’ll start to hula dance uncontrollably. Funny, yes, but when you have two swarms of bees and a phantom ice cream truck bearing down on you, all you can do is scream in frustration. On the other hand, these instances do lend themselves to moments of excitement.

Finally, Toejam & Earl aren’t as funny as they could be. Some of the dialogue is completely groan worthy. Every time you enter an elevator, you’re treated to a short cutscene containing a conversation between the two characters. Most of them go something like, “Earl, you’re on my foot!” to which Earl replies, “Am not!” Get it? Because he was on his foot! Ha ha ha harrr! Yeah, I’m not sure how hard it is to write good elevator dialogue but I’m pretty sure anyone over the age of eight could do better.

The Bottom Line
I remember when I was a kid and I saw an advertisement for ToeJam & Earl, I knew I had to play it. Sadly, I didn’t have a Genesis. My cousin owned one, but we could never find it for rent in my hometown. It wasn’t until three years ago that I finally got my chance to play it, and it was everything I’d hoped for. This year, I’ve decided to make it an annual tradition to play it with a friend during the holidays. I love ToeJam & Earl that much. However, one thing has become apparent to me after so many times playing through it: It’s not for everyone. If you don’t have a lot of patience for slow-paced games, then ToeJam &Earl will drive you nuts. It’s slow, plodding pace and tendency to drag on for longer than its welcome can be trying. If, however, you’re a patient sort of gamer and you have a patient friend handy, then ToeJam & Earl is an OUTSTANDING game that I think the two of you should play.

Genesis · by Adzuken (836) · 2009

Like, Totally Funky Man

The Good
ToeJam & Earl is one of many video game games that were released, often by Sega, for the Sega Genesis in the early - mid 1990s.

Yo! Yo, Yo! Check this out! Two totally hip and funky, in a early 1990s way, space aliens crash, and end up stranded on planet earth. Like, totally funky to the max, man!

The only way that ToeJam and Earl can hope of getting back to their funky home planet, is by collecting all the missing pieces of their hip-hoping space ship.

Thus your adventure begins (one or two players) through a series of randomly generated (or standard) levels looking for a particular piece of your space ship.

Each surreal level has the wackiest assortment of enemies that stand in your way of getting a ship piece and or finding the elevator door to the next level.

You got crazy dentists (with one of the scariest laughs you will ever hear on the Genesis), annoying mothers pushing that are their kids in shopping carts, boogie monsters and that is just for starters.

The surreal, almost abstract, look of planet earth, and its eccentric inhabitants, along with the ability to explore the levels and even go back to your earlier levels is a level of sheer genius, creativity, wit and video game interactivity that was revolutionary for its day.

ToeJam and Earl can locate food to restore their energy bars (but don't eat too much), money (to buy items or get a bit of advice) and, yes, mysterious presents. As you progress in the game, your ''coolness' rating becomes better, which gives your a bigger energy bar and extra lives.

Yes, you read it correctly. You can collect Christmas (or holiday) presents of various shapes, sizes and or colors. Opening a present may give you temporary weapon (i.e. tomatoes), it may give you a new means of transportation (i.e. wings or rocket skates) or it may summon an enemy or cause instant death.

Initially, you are not entirely sure what a particular present offers you (you can pay someone to tell you) and its entirely possible that a small green present might give you wings, only to give you instant death or some other calamity the next time that you play the game.

In the two-player mode a split screen is used, when ToeJam and Earl are not together. This gives each player an increased level of interactivity and gives each player the chance to decide how much competition or help they want to give the other player.

Most of time the level map is not terribly helpful, until you explored most of the level and these are oftentimes HUGE (for a cartridge game) levels.

Terrain can very from golf coarse-inspired green grass, to desert and the design may remind you of an old cartoon, say one that stared Marvin the Martian.

Other nice popular culture nods can be seen with the sharks (who hum the "Jaws" theme song whenever they get close to you) and the old St. Nick himself who will drop a few presents, if you can sneak up on him, before flying away using a jetpack-like device.

Needless to say this was one video game that was made even more fun to play if you had the Game Genie device for the Sega Genesis.

The Bad
ToeJam & Earl can actually be a pretty tough game, especially in the later levels. If you do not have enough presents, and know what each one does, then you will certain later levels to be painfully difficult to complete.

Yes, this encourage exploration and you are (thankfully) free to revisit an earlier level (by falling down), but I am not entirely sure that certain levels can be successfully completed without a steady supply of certain presents.

ToeJam and Earl does not have a password feature and while it possible to earn extra lives (especially by upgrading your coolness meter), this is a long game that you need to complete in one setting.

The Bottom Line
ToeJam & Earl is a revolutionary game for its funky humor, popular culture wit and the extent that the player or players is free to explore the surreal and eccentric third rock from the sun.

Genesis · by ETJB (428) · 2013

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Trivia

Awards

  • EGM
    • 1992 Buyer's Guide - Best Sound Effects

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
Released 1993 on Genesis, 2007 on Wii, 2018 on Macintosh...
Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl
Released 2012 on Xbox 360, 2013 on PlayStation 3
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove!
Released 2019 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh...
Rock'n Riders
Released 1999 on PlayStation
XDR: X-Dazedly-Ray
Released 1990 on Genesis
EVE Burst Error R
Released 2016 on PS Vita, Windows, 2018 on Nintendo Switch
R-Type Delta
Released 1998 on PlayStation, 2009 on PlayStation 3, PSP
R-Type I
Released 1988 on TurboGrafx-16, 2006 on Wii, 2014 on Wii U

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 7247
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by quizzley7.

Wii added by Corn Popper. Nintendo Switch added by Rik Hideto. Windows, PlayStation 3 added by Sciere. Macintosh, Linux added by Foxhack.

Additional contributors: paul cairey, Alaka, j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】, Rik Hideto.

Game added September 20, 2002. Last modified January 27, 2024.