ToeJam & Earl

The Good
Well I love the main theme music and I like the idea of having these two aliens that are way too cool for earth. The ending, the return to Funkotron, is very good too and an original idea, being able to guide the player through the ending scene.

I didn't play in the split-screen, two player mode, but it seemed like a good idea. I think the best thing about it would be that you can split the responsibilities in half and complete the game quicker.

Oh and I love the boogiemen...."Boogie boogie boogie!".

The Bad
Well it's slow, boring and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I realize now that the developers were fans of Rogue. I quite like Rogue and enjoy the odd game of it, but it seems a weird combination...."cool" funk and hip-hop culture and "nerdy" RPG dungeon crawling. I have to ask, how good can a series of levels generated by the computer be? Not that the fixed world is anything special, but I have to question the idea of random worlds. The backgrounds are so damn repetitive, mostly green, black and yellow. Were it not for the "save state" feature of the emulator, I probably would've quit every time I fell off an island, rather than endure the drudgery of getting back to where I fell.

So the colourful presents were supposed to be like the scrolls and potions from Rogue, but more "cool and funky" I suppose. I sometimes enjoyed making use of the aids e.g the icarus wings, sneakers, floater, spring shoes. Actually I enjoyed the sneakers best(super hiptops), because they got me through the slow, boring levels quicker.

The Bottom Line
Well I can only assume that the people who liked this and were disappointed by the platformer sequel, liked Rogue and rogue-likes. I assume they like replaying with a randomly generated world.

For people who like funk and hip-hop, well unfortunately I think the theme music is the most funky thing about the game. Of course, it's great music, but overall I don't know if this game has enough elements of funk and hip-hop and even then some might consider the funk and hip-hop to be a little pretentious and tacked on.

Anyone who doesn't much care for rogue-likes or funk and hip-hop, I can't see that this game would offer you anything.